The municipality of Buhi is highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. This research study confirms that climate change already had an impact on the municipality, as evidenced by increasing mean temperature, changing precipitation patterns, and increasing frequency and growing intensity of extreme weather events. Unprotected low-lying farmland areas in the municipality of Buhi are frequently devastated by floods, which redound to massive loss of agricultural production and wrought subsequent damage to farm infrastructure and support facilities. Similarly, water-stressed areas without irrigation infrastructure are the most sensitive to drought.
The study determines the degree of vulnerability of the agricultural production systems, identifies, evaluates, and characterizes farmers adaptation strategies in response to climate change impacts, recommends suitable and location-specific farm level technology options, and develops food security policy framework that can be utilized by policy and decision makers in outlining overarching policies to reduce adaptation deficits and increase the resilience of agriculture communities.
The vulnerability assessment indicates that the occurrence of floods was seen in all stages of crop production, and considered the most hazardous climatic variable, as it received more mention and higher ratings during the survey conducted with the farmers. The absence of occasional rains during the dry season appears to be the main climatic hazard for livestock, depriving them of water and fresh shoots from grasses and shrubs.
The study shows that a wide range of adaptation measures are already being applied. Farmers have already made significant efforts to implement adaptation measures to minimize the impact of climate change.