ADAPTING LIFESTYLES TO CHANGING RAINFALL PATTERN IN KENYA
ADAPTING LIFESTYLES TO CHANGING RAINFALL PATTERN IN KENYA
ABSTRACT
In the recent years, rain-dependent activities such as Agriculture in the tropical zone had been entirely dependent on the regular patterns and timing of the onset, amount and duration of the rains, people depended on their indigenous knowledge of these precipitation trends to predict the planting and harvesting seasons, nowadays, reliance on these native self-knowhow to plan agricultural activities and day to day chores has proven terribly mistaken; most studies has laid all the blame on climate change (global warming), a consistent erratic pattern and extremes in rainfall availability (floods and droughts) has interrupted all rain-fed activities in Kenya today. This paper attempts to diagnose the Changing Rainfall Patterns (CRP), the causes, the effects and more importantly, how to best adapt to its impacts on lifestyle of Kenyans. The main objective is to inform Kenyans on best adaptation measures to the CRP from an informed and reliable point of argument. Through a comprehensive desktop data review and analysis, the paper sought in-depth information from past reports, government documents, books, and journals which was aggregated to comprise a seamless, logical and comprehensive document on how Kenyans can adopt and embrace the situation and suit their lifestyles to the CRP. Chapter one highlights the main idea of the paper, i.e. it connects the topic of the paper to the purpose of the study while also considering the core objectives of this paper; the first chapter gives a global, regional, and a local dissection of the issue under scrutiny and then draws contemporary context of the study focus area. Chapter two is more of a literature review on the topic of the paper where works and researchers’ work on related topics and issues have been studied and referenced to give ground and base to this study, the third chapter is more of a discursive part which considers best way forward after
ABSTRACT
In the recent years, rain-dependent activities such as Agriculture in the tropical zone had been entirely dependent on the regular patterns and timing of the onset, amount and duration of the rains, people depended on their indigenous knowledge of these precipitation trends to predict the planting and harvesting seasons, nowadays, reliance on these native self-knowhow to plan agricultural activities and day to day chores has proven terribly mistaken; most studies has laid all the blame on climate change (global warming), a consistent erratic pattern and extremes in rainfall availability (floods and droughts) has interrupted all rain-fed activities in Kenya today. This paper attempts to diagnose the Changing Rainfall Patterns (CRP), the causes, the effects and more importantly, how to best adapt to its impacts on lifestyle of Kenyans. The main objective is to inform Kenyans on best adaptation measures to the CRP from an informed and reliable point of argument. Through a comprehensive desktop data review and analysis, the paper sought in-depth information from past reports, government documents, books, and journals which was aggregated to comprise a seamless, logical and comprehensive document on how Kenyans can adopt and embrace the situation and suit their lifestyles to the CRP. Chapter one highlights the main idea of the paper, i.e. it connects the topic of the paper to the purpose of the study while also considering the core objectives of this paper; the first chapter gives a global, regional, and a local dissection of the issue under scrutiny and then draws contemporary context of the study focus area. Chapter two is more of a literature review on the topic of the paper where works and researchers’ work on related topics and issues have been studied and referenced to give ground and base to this study, the third chapter is more of a discursive part which considers best way forward after
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