Perceptions Vulnerability And Livelihood Adaptation Of Smallholder Farmers To Climate Change Evidence From Kembata Tembaro Zone Southern Ethiopia

Climate change is one of the most complex problems of our time presenting unique challengesrnfor societies. This study explores perceptions, vulnerability and livelihood adaptation ofrnsmallholder farmers to climate change in Kembata Tembaro zone, southern Ethiopia. Morernspecifically it seeks to analyze perceptions of climate change, examine vulnerability of farmers,rnand explore adaptive capacity and adaptation strategies of smallholder farmers. The studyrndeployed comparative case study research design to analyze perceptions, vulnerability andrnadaptive capacity and adaptation to climate change in five livelihood zones. Primary data wererncollected from 508 randomly selected farming households from five livelihood zones usingrnstructured questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions and observations. Both qualitativernand quantitative research methods are used for data collection and analysis. A modified form ofrnSustainable Livelihoods Framework is deployed as analytical tool to investigate vulnerabilityrncontext, livelihood assets, and desired outcomes. For analysis of perception to climate change,rnqualitative and quantitative methods were employed. For analysis of factors influencingrnperceptions to climate change, binary logistic regression model was used. The result revealedrnthat farmers‟ perception to climate change is expressed in terms of increase in temperature,rndecrease in rainfall, change in timing of rain, change in the onset and cessation of rain, andrnerratic rainfall pattern. The perception results is in tandem with secondary data trend analysis ofrntemperature and rainfall from 1984 to 2017 using Coefficient of Variation, Mann–Kendall testrnand Sen‟s slope estimator, indicating that there is an increasing trend of temperature, arndecreasing trend of rainfall and high rainfall and temperature variability in annual and seasonalrnanalysis. The binary logistic regression result indicated that perception of farmers to climaternchange is influenced by sex, farming experience, land slope and vegetation covers. For analysisrnof vulnerability to climate change, Livelihood Vulnerability Index approach was used, and thernresult indicated that coffee livelihood zone is the most vulnerable to climate change, whereas,rnginger livelihood zone is the least vulnerable to climate change. The result further revealed thatrnlocal level socio-economic and biophysical conditions affect the level of exposure, sensitivity andrnadaptive capacity of farmers in different livelihood zones. For analysis of farmers‟ adaptiverncapacity, adaptation to climate change and factors influencing farmers‟ adaptation to climaternchange, a combination of household survey, composite adaptive capacity index and binaryrnlogistic regression model are employed. The result revealed that farmers took a number ofrnmeasures to adapt to climate change within their capacity. Farming experience, access torntechnology, farm income, access to electricity and land slope are factors significantly influencingrnadaptation strategies of farmers in the study area. Efforts are needed to build the adaptiverncapacity and adaptation of farmers through technology transfer, enhancing their farm incomernand awareness creation, among others. The result leads to conclude that livelihood adaptationrnmeasures to climate change should take into account the location specific livelihood zonernsettings and production systems.

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism