THE CONTRIBUTION OF FARM PLOT LEVEL TRADITIONAL HOME GARDEN AGROFORESTRY TO INCOME GENERATION IN LIGHT OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN HAWASSA ZURIA DISTRICT OF SIDAMA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The climate of Ethiopia is characterized by high variability in annual, seasonal and spatial distributions. This study assessed the contribution of farm plot level traditional home-garden agroforestry to income generation for the local community in Hawassa Zuria district under the existing climate condition.Both simple random sampling and purposive sampling have been used to get 134 households from traditional home-garden agroforestry beneficiary and 134 households from non-home-garden agroforestry beneficiary totally 268 sample respondents were interviewed. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected by interviewing 268 smallholder male and female household heads, focus group discussions and key informants. Secondary data were collected from documents reviews, journals, published and unpublished materials. These data were presented and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as table, crosstabs, Chi-square test, independent t-test by using SPSS version 20. Information from the surrounding weather station indicated that the maximum temperature of Hawassa Zuria district for the past 30 years has increased by about 0.028OC annually, while average minimum temperature has increased by 0.063 OC. The coefficient of variation of rainfall in the study area were 15.84%, 21.19%, and 29.63% for annual, kiremit and belg rainfall respectively, which indicate that there was high inter-annual variability of rainfall between 1991-2020. In agreement, a climate change perception survey indicated that about 89.6% of households (practicing traditional home-garden agroforestry) and 81.3% (practicing non-home-garden agroforestry households heard and believed that there is climate change in the study area. The comparative analysis of income level between traditional home-garden agroforestry and non-traditional home-garden agroforestry households was 4,677.71±1985.04 and 2,627.79±1095.02 Birr, respectively.The independent t-test showed that there was a statistically significant difference in the income between traditional home-garden agroforestry and non-traditional home-garden agroforestry in the study area (p<0.05), implying traditional home-garden agroforestry is better than non-traditional agroforestry to minimize the effects of climate change related shocks at household levels. This is associated with high diversity in agroforestry that leads to increased production throughout the year, provides immediate fresh food for sale and household consumption, reduces cost of purchasing fertilizer, use of fruits to reduce frequency requests for meals and avoid hunger especially for children. traditional home-garden agroforestry beneficiary households with more income, have a higher ability to cope in case of climate shock than non-tradititional home-garden agroforestry beneficiary households. The great role of traditional home-garden agroforestry is sensitivity reduction and increasing resilience of farmers to effects of climate variability is through increasing fuel-woodstock on a farm, reducing erosion intensity, increasing income and assets such as trees, livestock, and crop production. Therefore traditional home-garden agroforestry participant households have more assets and annual income, less sensitivity and have better resilience to climate variability compared to the non-home-garden agroforestry participant households. Distribute and plant suitable multipurpose tree species including fruit tree seedlings to the farmers in order to increase income and resist the effect of climate change risk. Households who are not involved in home-garden agroforestry activities and those who lack knowledge on the benefits of home-garden agroforestry should be given special consideration in raising awareness(mini-workshop and agricultural extension methods)