Smallholder Farmers’ Perception and Responses to Climate Change and Variability in West Shewa, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Agriculture, on which all the human being depends for their food is under serious threat from the impact of climate change. Primary aim of this study was to assess the smallholder farmers’ perception to climate change and variability, and to investigate the measure they employed in the response to their perceived change and to analyse factors that influence their ability to adapt in Adea Berga district of west shewa zone, Oromiya regional state of Ethiopia. Study was conducted by including 241 smallholders from four local kebeles’1. A two steps process of Heckman model was used to analyse adaptation to climate change, which initially requires farmer’s perception to climate change and then responding to perceived changes through adapting one of appropriate strategies among various options in their hand. The analysis result of selection model shows that age (0.000), access to extension service (0=0.022), access to climate information (0=0.005), soil fertility (0.016) and agro-ecology (0.046) were significantly affected the perception of smallholder farmers to climate change and variability. Similarly, farmers’ adaptation strategies to the response of perceived change in climate was affected significantly by sex (p=0.037), age (0.010), access to extension service (0.011), access to climate information (0.019), wealth status (0.008), involvement in nonfarm income (0.038), soil fertility (0.001), access to credit service (0.000), increase in temperature (0.025), no change in temperature (0.002), decrease in temperature (0.003), change in timing of rainfall (0.000) and experience in the occurrence of hazards (0.014). Policy implications of this study are call for providing unreserved intervention of the policy makers including the local planner to due attention on reducing the factors that significantly influenced the adaptation decision of farmers and building on the adaptive capacity of the smallholder farmers in Adea Berga district.