This paper assesses farmers’ experiences with different climatic shocks as well as their ex-ante and ex-post coping strategies for climatic risks and shocks in rural Malawi. The paper is based on a comprehensive data set collected in 2013 from 1582 farm households located in three regions of Malawi (northern, central, and eastern). The study uses a bivariate probit model to examine the role of farm characteristics—including physical, human, social, and financial capital—in the household’s decision to adapt to climatic shocks. The results revealed that farmers in the study area experienced droughts, floods, and crop pests and diseases as key climatic shocks. Additionally, some indirect climatic shocks reported by farmers include crop damages, increases in input and output prices, and reductions in farm profit. Farmers adopted more on-farm work, drought-tolerant varieties, early planting, and intercropping as key ex-ante adaptation strategies to reduce the adverse impacts of extreme climate events. Farmers adopted drought and disease-tolerant crops, diversified their crops, planted earlier, did more on-farm work, and changed their eating habits as key ex-post climatic shock coping strategies. Furthermore, social networks and capital were found to be important factors influencing farmers’ adaptation decisions. The study suggests improving access to community resources, infrastructure, and information in order to improve household capacity to cope with climatic shocks.

本文评估了农民在不同气候冲击下以及事前和事后的经历。马拉维农村气候风险和冲击的应对策略。该文件基于2013年从马拉维三个地区（北部，中部和东部）的1582个农户收集的综合数据集。该研究使用双变量概率模型来检验农场特征（包括物质，人力，社会和金融资本）在家庭适应气候冲击的决策中的作用。结果表明，研究区的农民经历了干旱，洪水和农作物病虫害等主要气候冲击。此外，农民报告的一些间接气候冲击包括农作物受损，投入和产出价格上涨以及农场利润减少。农民将更多的农场工作，耐旱品种，早种和间作作为事前关键减少极端气候事件的不利影响的适应策略。农民采用了耐旱和抗病的农作物，使农作物多样化，更早种植，从事更多的农场工作，并改变了饮食习惯，将其作为关键的事后应对气候变化的应对策略。此外，发现社会网络和资本是影响农民适应决策的重要因素。该研究建议改善社区资源，基础设施和信息的获取，以提高家庭应对气候冲击的能力。