Page - (000277) - in Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development

communities to on-farm trees for their ownpurposes until their attitudinal change towards such trees. The results also suggest that in the adaptation process farmers exhibit different stages of behavioral chances in various livelihood domains. For example, in rural communities in Burkina Faso, 84% and 58% of the story-tellers respectively expressedchangesinknowledgeofagricultural techniquesandpracticingimproved agricultural techniques. In the Doggoh community in Ghana, none of the interviewed farmers expressedchanges inknowledgeabout implementing assisted natural regeneration techniques, but 33%of interviewedwomenandmen farmers revealed changes in applying on-farm assisted natural regeneration. These differ- ences reflect the likelihood that farmers in a communitywill be indifferent stages of behavioral changes in early parts of adaptation initiatives such as the CCAFS program. Finally, some characteristics of changes were not identified in the individual storiesofchanges.This shouldnotnecessarilybe interpretedasanabsenceof such changes, because theM&Equestions only asked the farmers to report the signifi- cant changes theyhad experienced throughparticipation in theCCAFSprogram’s adaptation activities. Thus, theymay have considered some changes too insignif- icant to describe in their stories of change. Overall, the results indicate that participating farmers have initiated behavioral changes in various domains. Furthermore, the application of planned behavior theoryallowed identificationof the initiationofbehavioral changeat both individ- ual and group levels in communities participating in the intervention in all three countries.Thus, the applied techniquehas clear potential utility formonitoring the implementationoffarmingsystemsandproduction technologiesadapted toclimate change, the spatial and temporal dissemination of adaptations, and the sustained changes in people’s livelihoods and lifestyles that may be required to reduce vulnerability to its impacts. These results are consistentwithfindingsof innovative adoption studies, unsur- prisingly as changes in behavior represent adoption of new behaviors and/or innovative practices, which is one of themost frequently advocated strategies for adapting agriculture to climate change. It shouldbenoted that numerousvariables will influence results of initiatives to foster changes. Notably, Rogers (1983) reported that factors such as attitudes, values,motivations, andperceptions of risk differbetweendecision-makers(producers)whoare ‘innovators’andthosewhoare ‘laggards’ with respect to the adoption of particular innovations. In addition, according toRothman (2000), individual or group decisions regarding behavioral initiationdependonpeopleholdingfavorableexpectationsof thefutureoutcomeof thenewpatternofbehavior.However,maintenanceof thesenewbehaviorpatterns willmostlydependonfarmers’satisfactionwith theoutcometheyobtain(Rothman 2000). 14 AdaptationProcesses inAgriculture andFoodSecurity: Insights from. . . 263