EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION, FEED RESOURCES AND RELATED ADAPTATION STRATEGIES IN BORICHA DISTRICT, SIDAMA ZONE, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Effects of climate change on livestock production, feed resources and related adaptation strategies were conducted in Boricha District, Sidama Zone of Southern Ethiopia with the objective of assessing effects of climate change on livestock production, feed resources and adaptation strategies practiced by farmers in mixed farming system of Southern Ethiopia. Purposive and systematic random sampling techniques were used for selection of sample Kebeles and household, respectively, for the formal survey. Both primary and secondary data were collected and analyzed by using descriptive statistics and multinomial logit model. The study also used 36 years rainfall and temperature data to look over the trends of local climate variability and change. According to the of trend analysis, both the maximum and minimum temperature of the study areas showed an increasing and the rain fall shows decreasing trend with high variability in the last four decades. About 88.4% of farmers perceived that the climate in their local environment was changed over years. Major causes of climate change were both human activities and natural process as 67.1% of respondents perceived. Many of the farmers perceived that climate change greatly affected their livestock production over time. The result of survey shown that climate change is pressing issue now a day, its consequences on livestock feed, and water availability, diseases outbreak and livestock production and productivity were negative. Most of farmers in the study area perceived that due to the effect of climate change, livestock feed (93.8%) and, water availability (92.5%) were reduced and diseases outbreak was increased (85%). The evidence for existence of climate change in the study area were reduction in rainfall amount, increasing environmental temperature, decrease in water sources and livestock feed, outbreak of new livestock diseases and drought occurrence. Different adaptation mechanisms practiced by the farmers in the study area to adapt the impact of climate change were feed and water storage for livestock for dry period, temporal migration to Lake Hawassa, River Bilate, Loka Abaya area and to other places in searching of pasture and water, herd diversification by rearing mixed livestock i.e. small and large ruminants together, livelihood shifting, and rearing drought tolerant species of livestock. The result of multinomial logit model indicate that sex, education, family size, farm size, access to extension service and climate information were the major determinant factors that affect the choice of adaptation option of farmers in the study area. Effect of climate change on growth performance and some of reproductive performance of livestock needs further research since there is no record on growth and reproductive performance of livestock in small-scale traditional production system.