Climate variability is a particularly sensitive issue for many smallholder farmers around the world. Smallholder farmers in the Global South who depend on rain-fed agriculture have insufficient technological and institutional support [1]. As a result, climate disasters such as prolonged drought, unpredictable rainfall, and flooding have reduced yields and increased food insecurity in this region [2]. Limited access to technology, financial services, and institutional support constrains their ability to respond effectively to climate challenges [3]. In sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture is driven mainly by smallholder farmers [4]. Recurrent droughts, erratic rainfall, and rising temperatures have reduced yields, increased production uncertainty, and exacerbated food insecurity among rural households in this region [5][6].

In Kenya, smallholder farmers account for 75% to 90% of total national food production [3][7]. Smallholder farmers’ ability to cope with climate variations is strongly influenced by a number of complex socioeconomic factors. For many farmers, lack of money limits their ability to invest in costly and effective technologies such as irrigation systems, better seeds, and diversification of livelihoods [8]. In Migori County, particularly Kuria East Sub-County, rain-fed agriculture remains the main economic activity [9]. Farmers grow mainly maize, beans, sweet potatoes, and cassava. These crops are directly dependent on two rainy seasons: the long rainy season (March-May, MAM) and the short rainy season (October-December, OND). However, the region continues to experience increasing variability in rainfall and a gradual increase in average temperature [10][11]. These changes often disrupt the agricultural calendar, increase water stress for crops, and expose smallholders to repeated losses.

According to [12], factors such as access to credit and institutional support networks based on groups and farmers are crucial to farmers’ adaptability. Women-headed households are more likely to adopt alternative farming practices than wealthy male-headed households who choose to save [13]. Training in climate-friendly agriculture promotes the use of environmentally friendly management practices [14]. Previous studies have shown mixed results regarding the role of formal education in building adaptive capacity [15][16], suggesting that access to knowledge rather than schooling alone may have a greater influence. Nevertheless, adaptation remains difficult due to poverty and poor governance in most rural areas of Kenya [17].

The theory of adaptive capacity is a useful analytical tool for understanding how households respond to climate stressors [18]. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines adaptive capacity as the ability of systems, institutions, and individuals to adapt to potential damage, moderate losses, or exploit new opportunities [19]. At the household level, adaptive capacity is determined by access to human, financial, social, and institutional resources that enable farmers to adopt appropriate adaptation and resilience strategies. Empirical studies increasingly show that socioeconomic characteristics such as education, access to information, credit, advisory services, and collective action play key roles in farmers’ ability to respond effectively to climate variations [8][12].

Despite the growing body of academic work on agricultural adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa, most studies are based on national or regional analyses that obscure the local heterogeneity of socioeconomic constraints [15]. Adaptation to climate variability remains limited at the grassroots level. In particular, there is a lack of empirical data showing how selected socioeconomic factors influence the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers in Kuria East Sub-County, Migori County, Kenya. Local data are essential for designing targeted interventions that go beyond general policy prescriptions [20].

This study fills this gap by examining how formal education, farm characteristics, climate education, and access to credit facilities affect farmers’ adaptive capacity in Kuria Sub-County, Migori County, Kenya. By identifying the relative importance of these factors at the local level, the study provides empirical evidence for climate adaptation literature and useful information for strengthening community-level climate resilience strategies.

The study informs the effective implementation of Kenya’s Climate Change Act (2016) [20] and the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP). This includes integrating climate action across all sectors, strengthening community resilience, and supporting climate adaptation measures at the county level. It provides richer insights into the concrete realization of Kenya’s Vision 2030 and the Agricultural Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy (ASTGS 2019-2029), both of which aim to achieve sustainable agricultural development, food security, climate-friendly practices, and climate adaptation for smallholder farmers. The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 describes the methodology, and Section 3 presents the results of the study. Section 4 discusses the findings; Section 5 concludes the paper by highlighting policy implications.

The results show that access to climate education and credit was significantly associated with greater adaptive capacity. The level of formal education, farming experience, and farm size were not significantly correlated. These findings indicate that farmers’ ability to respond effectively to climate variations depends less on static demographic characteristics than on access to knowledge, financial capital, and institutional support.

Table 3. Results of the chi-square test (χ²) between socioeconomic variables and adaptive capacity.

Note: n = 361. The chi-square independence test was used to assess the associations between each socioeconomic factor and adaptation capacity. Significance was assessed at p < 0.05.

The positive correlation between climate education and adaptability underscores the central role that information and learning play in farmers’ adaptation behavior [18]. Farmers who had received climate education were more likely to adopt a wider range of adaptation methods, suggesting that greater knowledge of risk, technical skills, and increased self-confidence facilitate proactive decision-making. This finding is consistent with data from smallholder systems, which show that extension services and targeted climate awareness programs significantly improve the adoption of climate-friendly agricultural practices [5][12]. Similar results have been reported in Kenya, where access to extension services and climate information was a decisive factor in adaptation choices [7]. By reducing uncertainty around information, climate education appears to enable farmers to move from reactive to proactive adaptation strategies.

Access to credit also emerged as a factor strongly associated with higher adaptive capacity. Financial capital likely reduces the liquidity constraints that often prevent smallholders from investing in resource-intensive methods such as irrigation systems, soil conservation structures, and agroforestry. This finding is consistent with studies in sub-Saharan Africa showing that financial inclusion facilitates adaptation by reducing barriers to investment and spreading risk [2][16]. The strong correlation observed here reinforces the idea that adaptation is part of broader institutional and collective systems rather than solely an individual decision.

In contrast, the level of formal education was not associated with adaptability. Although education is often assumed to improve problem-solving skills, the current results suggest that general schooling does not necessarily lead to context-specific adaptation measures. Similarly, nonsignificant effects have been documented in other smallholder contexts where experiential learning and extension-based training have had greater influences than formal qualifications do [14][15]. These findings suggest that specialized, practice-oriented knowledge may be more decisive than the number of years of schooling in regard to adaptation behavior.

Similarly, neither farming experience nor farm size was significantly correlated with the level of adaptation. Although experience can contribute to the accumulation of local knowledge, it does not necessarily promote the introduction of innovative or capital-intensive methods, especially when economic or informational constraints remain. Similarly, farm size does not automatically confer adaptation advantages if institutional and financial support mechanisms are lacking. This observation challenges the assumption that resource utilization alone determines resilience and is consistent with broader empirical evidence showing that structural characteristics often play a secondary role compared with access to services and resources [4][6].

From a theoretical perspective, these findings support adaptive capacity theory, which conceptualizes adaptation as a function of access to resources, institutional support, and knowledge rather than as a purely demographic function [18]. The importance of the informational and economic factors observed here also reflects the IPCC’s findings that institutional support and a favorable environment are crucial for strengthening local resilience [19]. Adaptive capacity is therefore socially constructed and shaped by opportunities, services, and governance structures.

These findings have important policy implications. Investments in climate education targeting farmers, extension services, and locally relevant training programs can significantly improve adaptation outcomes. Parallel measures to expand access to affordable credit, savings programs, and farmer organizations can reduce the economic barriers that limit the adoption of climate-friendly technologies. Measures that integrate knowledge, financial support, institutional support, and support for developing farms are likely to be more effective than measures that focus solely on improving formal education or expanding farms. By identifying these leverage points, this study provides localized data that can inform targeted adaptation planning in rural areas of Kenya and similar smallholder systems.

It is important to note that the inferential analysis in this study is based on bivariate chi-square tests, which examine the relationship between two variables at a time. The analysis, therefore, does not isolate the independent effects of each individual socioeconomic factor on adaptive capacity. Some explanatory variables, such as access to credit and climate education, may vary or interact in ways that are not captured by bivariate tests. The results should therefore be interpreted as indications of statistically significant correlations rather than direct causal relationships. Future research may use multivariate modeling methods to better distinguish between the independent contributions of these factors.

This study examined the socioeconomic determinants of adaptive capacity among smallholder crop farmers in Kuria East Subcounty, Kenya. The results show that access to climate education and credit facilities are strongly associated with higher levels of adaptation, whereas formal education, farming experience, and farm size are not significant factors. These findings indicate that adaptive capacity depends more on access to knowledge, financial resources, and institutional support than on static demographic characteristics. To translate these findings into concrete action, local agricultural extension offices, farming cooperatives, and community organizations in Kuria East Sub-County should serve as important platforms for climate education. Crop officers can offer regular training sessions on farms, demonstrations of climate-friendly agriculture, and advisory visits to reach farmers who have limited access to formal training. Particular attention should be given to farmers who are currently excluded from existing programs, including female-headed households and resource-constrained households, through targeted fieldwork and group learning. Inclusive credit mechanisms should be put in place in the form of affordable, flexible, and accessible financial products such as low-interest loans, microcredit, or savings credits tailored to small farms and the seasonal incomes of local farmers. Smallholder farmers in this region should embrace climate-smart agricultural practices such as irrigation, drought-tolerant crop varieties, and integrated pest management systems. These measures will enable farmers to implement several adaptation strategies simultaneously, thereby strengthening community-level resilience to climate variability.

The study was approved by the Kenyatta University Ethics Committee (Ref. No. KU/APPROVAL/VOL.1/1) and the Kenyan National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (License No.: NACOSTI/P/25/4174385). Additional permissions were granted by the Migori County Governor’s Office, the County Director of Education, and the County Commissioner. All the respondents gave their informed consent to participate in the survey from which the data for this study were obtained.