Do Zambian farmers manage climate risks?

Soyoka Okamura, Ken Miura and Chieko Umetsu

Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 2025, vol. 47, issue 2, 440-486

Abstract: This study investigates production responses to climate risk among farmers in Zambia by combining historical rainfall with nationally representative household data. After identifying the importance of January and February rainfall in maize production, we define these months' historical rainfall variations as the climate risk index. We then relate this index to agricultural decisions. Results indicate little crop or plot diversifications in response to weather risks. Conversely, farmers in high‐climate‐risk regions apply less fertilizer and consequently achieve lower maize yields than their counterparts in low‐risk regions. Overall, Zambian farmers manage climate risk by underinvesting risky inputs at the expense of returns.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13499

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:apecpp:v:47:y:2025:i:2:p:440-486

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().