DR. OUTA GEORGE O

This study conducted in western Kenya demonstrates how a gendered intersectionality lens can be used to explore how and the extent to which farming communities are coping with climate change. Results from a quantitative survey undertaken with 51 farmers and from 4 focused group discussions held with 33 farmers (19 males and 14 females) indicate that 85% of the respondents are willing to adopt climate-smart agriculture (CSA) interventions if constraining factors are resolved. This study reveals that farmers, regardless of whether they are male or female, are willing to adopt climate-smart technologies and practices. However, factors such as ethnicity, education, age, and marital status determine the levels of uptake of CSA technologies and practices. Looking at crops, for instance, we find a high uptake (62.7%) of improved high yielding varieties (HYVs) amongst farmers with primary level education, meaning literacy levels influence the adoption of practices. Analysis using age as a lens reveals that there is a high uptake among youth and adults. Interestingly, the study site comprises both the Luo and Kalenjin ethnic communities and even though they neighbor each other, we find a high rate of uptake among the Luo community due to existing social and cultural norms and practices related to farming. In conclusion, using a gendered intersectionality lens strengthens the argument for targeted interventions that focus on local needs and priorities while recognizing local contexts as informed by social, cultural, and economic factors.

Keywords
Climate-smart agriculture Uptake Gender Intersectionality Kenya

Extracted from text ... 241 BOOK REVIEWS Speaking with Vampires: Rumor and History in Colonial Africa. By Luise White. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2000. 352 pp. ISBN 05 20217 047. 'I call this transnational genre of African stories vampire stories, not because I want to insert a lively African oral genre into a European one, but because I want to use a widespread term that adequately conveys the mobility, the internationalism and the economics of these colonial bloodsuckers. No other term depicts the ease with which blood sucking beings cross boundaries, violate space, capture vulnerable men and women, and extract precious bodily fluid ..