CLIMATE CHANGE, ADAPTATION STRATEGIES AND THEIR DETERMINANTS IN RURAL LOKA ABAYA WOREDA, SIDAMA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Many studies have shown that climate change has adverse impacts on human welfare, agriculture, natural resources and development activities in Ethiopia in general and sidama Region in particular (Deressa et al., 2011; Kassie et al.,2013; Hamesso, 2013; Seyum, 2014). The objectives of study were: 1) to explore effects of climate change and variability on agricultural based livelihood systems, 2) to analyse trends of climate variability in terms of temperature and annual rainfall in the study área, 3) to assess the existing responses and adaptation measures being practiced to climate change and variability, and 4) to identify determinants of climate change adaptation strategies. Three stage sampling technique was employed to select 188 study sample respondents. Both primary and secondary data was collected. Primary data were collected from the household survey; Key informant intervew and Focus group discation. Secondary data were reviewed from offices and published sources. Both descriptive and econometric model were used to analyze data collected SPSS version 20 and STATA 14.2 version software were used for data entry and analysis. Based on the study result 95.2% agreed the state of climate is changing, 90.4% reported decreasing rainfall, 93.9% indicate the increasing temperature. On the other hand, the households replied that extreme heat, drought, and increasing change in wind intensity, respectively. Moreover, time series data revealed that both mean rainfall and temperature were decreasing and increasing, respectively. The climate change impacts experienced by respondents in resulted reduced productivity/yield, increases pests/insects/diseases, use of traditional crop varieties decreased (, cropping pattern has changed , traditional irrigation sources like pond has reduced, and reduced cultivated land . Sample households agreed that climate change increased scarcity of forages, grass species composition, decreased productivity (mainly milk and its products), decreased livestock number, and shortage of drinking water availability. Moreover, results revealed, out of the total studied households(74.58%) agreed that climate change reduced income, while 69.17% believed it affected business items (increased price of food), and 26.34% reported climate change increased dependency on relief programs. The identified main adaptation strategies in response used by sample respondents were, crop diversification, improved crop varieties, reducing livestock number, tree plantation, crop rotation and intercropping, soil and conservations practices and non-farm incomes. According to marginal effects of MNL result the significantly determining factors for a choice of adaptation strategies were age, family size, education status of household, farm size, livestock ownership, extension service, access to credit service, climate change information and non-farm income of household. The study recommends that farmers, local government, and research institutitutions ought to work on collectivelly about the socio economic and institutional factors challenging farmers in the study area to encourage use of available opportunities to adapt and enhance their long term resilience to climate change.