**3.2 Farming systems and crops grown in the study area**

Several farming systems exist in the study villages where 61.3% of respondents are practicing crop farming while agro-pastoralism is practiced by 37.7% of respondents and agroforestry is practiced by 0.9% of respondents. Both cash crops and food crops including cereal and pulses (**Table 2**) are grown in the study area including cereals, root crops, pulses and oilseed crops. Cereals grown include maize and millet/sorghum while sunflower and groundnuts are the grown oil seeds and nuts. On the side of pulses include chickpea, beans, cowpeas and lentils.


#### **Table 1.**

*Socio-economic characteristics of respondents.*

*Pulses Farming; An Adaptive Strategy to Climate Change in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100739*


**Table 2.**

*Farming systems and crops are grown in the study area.*

Maize is grown as the main source of food for farmers and the community around while sunflowers, chickpeas and lentils are grown as cash crops for commercial purposes.

In the four study villages (i.e., Itigi, Ipande, Damweru and Kitopeni), farmers have changed the type of crops particularly cereals they have been growing in the previous 10 years to grow cereal crops while some of them have adopted the farming of pulses in their respective farmland by reducing the farmland they have been using to grow cereal crops or they have expanded their farms (**Table 3**). Also, root crops particularly cassava, farmers have been declining their production due to their destruction imposed by wild animals particularly pigs and elephants which are suspected to be from the nearby game reserve.

#### **3.3 Influence of climate change on the change of crops grown in the study area**

The study identified impact of climate change has been a great driver to farmers in abandoning the growth of cereal crops and adoption of the growth of pulses particularly chickpea and lentils in which chickpea has gained more potentiality among the farmers due to its adaptive nature to drought. 100% of respondents agreed to have experienced impacts of climate change in their areas including change of rainfall reasons, increased drought and increased temperature as well as reduced raining season. 90.6% of respondents claimed the rainfall season to have changed while the remaining percentage (9.4%) were not aware of this shifting season in which the awareness on the changing of climate season was influenced by the age of respondents (X<sup>2</sup> = 24.358, df = 4, p = 0.000) whereby all the respondents claimed to have low awareness of the shifting rainfall season were aged between 18 and 30 years old. Formerly the rainfall season was starting in midst of November ending in the early of May but currently, the rainy season begins at the end of December ending at the end of March and in a few years early April.


#### **Table 3.** *Changed and adopted crops in the study villages.*

The period of drought has extended as formerly it was from the late of May to early November while currently it starts from early of April to the midst of December. Also, the occurrence of insect pests was mostly noticed in which was more distractive to crops during the sunny days and when raining no insects were noticed. The trend of insect pest is increasing from year to year and the cereals particularly maize yield loss are more occurring due to these insects mostly armyworms and earwigs in which from 2015 to 2018 cereals production was rapidly declining due to farm crops attach caused by such pest insects. Increasing of temperature is currently experienced during the day and longer than the intensity experienced formerly. Few existing seasonal streams and dams are observed to dry earlier contrary to the formers decades in which they used to last to at least few days after the end of the rainfall season.

The impacts of climate change have significant contribution in the change and adoption of crops grown in the study area (see **Table 2**). 65.1% of respondents claimed to have changed/adopted the farming of pulses due to climate change impacts. Change of rainfall pattern has caused a loss of cereal crop yields for about 45.3% while increased drought is accounted for the loss of 47.2% of cereal crop yields. Shifting of rainfall season has a significant relationship with the declining of cereal crop production, F (1, 99) = 27.710, p = 0.001. Also, the drought caused a significant decline in the cereal production F (1, 99) = 21.721, p = 0.041. The interaction of shifting rainfall season and increased drought has significantly caused a loss of cereal crop yields, F (1, 99) = 198.770, p = 0.000.

The pulses that are mostly cultivated in the study area due to climate change are chickpea and lentils. Chickpea is grown by 100% of respondents. Statistically, the increase of drought has a significant relationship with the adoption of pulses farming in the study villages X2 = 106.000, df = 3, p = 0.000 and the shifting of rainfall season was found significantly to have caused the adoption of pulses farming in the study X2 = 9.138, df = 2, p = 0.01.

### **3.4 Impact of pulses farming in farmers' livelihood under climate change**

Pulses in the study areas have become the main sources of income among community members in the study areas. Farmers have been selling chickpea and lentils to attain other basic needs. Income generated through chickpea has been used to buy enough food adequate to meet the demands of the household annually. Currently, most of the farmers are living in more improved houses (housed built with bricks) compared to formerly used huts. The income is as well used to send children to schools and in attaining their basic needs such as clothes and getting medical services in case of. Though few, some of the farmers are using income, generated through pulses farming to buy motorcycles, tractors for farming and cows for pulling plough.

#### **3.5 Challenges to pulses production in the study areas**

Although pulses seem to be alternative crops for semi-arid agriculture under climate change threats, still there are some challenges particularly in the study areas are posing difficulties to attain improvements in pulse crops production. Inaccessibility of improved seeds and lack of awareness of existing improved chickpea and lentil seeds among farmers has been a huge setback in which none of the farmers were found aware of the existence of improved varieties of seeds particularly of chickpea and lentils; therefore, all farmers in the villages are still using traditional seeds and seeds infected by bruchids.

#### *Pulses Farming; An Adaptive Strategy to Climate Change in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100739*

Existing pests in the study area affecting chickpea including Rhizoctonia bataticola (dry root rot), Helicoverpa armigera (Gram pod borer) and collosobruchus chinensis (Bruchids) in which 95% of respondents identified such pests to cause a significant loss of their crop yields. These insect pests seem less responsive to numerous insecticides and pesticides used by farmers in these semi-arid areas. Poor storage facilities favour the harvest and seeds attach by bruchids (Collosobruchus chinensis) which lead to the great loss of harvests in the study villages. 93.6% of respondents claimed seeds loss due to bruchids attaches to their local storage facilities. Furthermore, seeds affected by bruchids are always observed to have been easily attached by other insects and diseases due to soil pathogens particularly when rotated with cereals consecutively in the same farming season.

The crops particularly chickpea and lentils are not included as among crops given first in national policy therefore farmers are not getting agricultural subsidies making difficulties in meeting financial demands for growing chickpea and lentils crops. Among others, minimal agricultural extension services, use of poor farming tools mostly hand hoes for cultivation due to lack of mechanization and a low level of agricultural awareness among farmers still pulls down the efforts of farmers in increasing pulses yields in their farmlands.

Poor farmers' perception of the fertility level of the soil where pulses are grown affects much pulses production. Pulses particularly chickpea is normally grown in vertisols (dark clay soil) in the all study villages which has a low level of phosphorous in which farmers perceive that the vertisols is always fertile as having a dark color making none of the farmers apply fertilizer in their farms but contrary to the demand of the crop which does well when the soil has a high level of phosphorous. Therefore, despite the ability of the pulses in nitrogen fixation, a low level of other soil nutrients among phosphorus and calcium limits the production of pulses in the study areas.
