Migrants' Remittances and Climate Change Adaptation among Maize and Cassava Producers in Rural Togo

Abstract The objective of this paper is to assess the impact of migrants' remittances on climate change adaptation in rural areas of Togo. To this end, an endogenous switching probit regression (ESR-probit) model is specified and estimated. The empirical analysis is based on intra-household data from a sample of 5,806 maize and cassava producers drawn from the Harmonized Survey on Household Living Conditions (EHCVM) conducted in Togo in 2021. The results reveal that income, region, agricultural cooperatives, average temperatures, and total output positively influence the decision to adapt to climate change among maize producers, whereas for cassava producers it is average temperatures and soil fertility that positively affect the adaptation decision in rural Togo. The results also show that adapting households would have produced less in the absence of adaptation, while non-adapting households would have produced more had they decided to adapt. Moreover, maize producers benefit more from adaptation than cassava producers. It would therefore be advisable to put in place public policies that facilitate rural access to migrants' remittances to foster food security of rural households in the context of global climatic change. JEL classifications : D10, Q18, Q54