Farmers’ Vulnerability and Response Strategies to Climate Change and Variability in Three Districts of West Gojjam Zone, Amhara region, Ethiopia

Kassa, Berhanu Eskezia (2015) Farmers’ Vulnerability and Response Strategies to Climate Change and Variability in Three Districts of West Gojjam Zone, Amhara region, Ethiopia. PhD thesis, Addis Ababa University.

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Abstract

In the Amhara region where subsistence rain-fed agriculture is the dominant sector, it needs to understand the sector’s vulnerability to climate change and variability at the community and household levels using a bottom-up approach since it helps to explore the indigenous knowledge and skill of farmers to respond, adapt and/or cope in the face of climate change and also if their status of vulnerability is attributable to their response strategy. Knowing the level of vulnerability of farmers to climate change and variability is not enough by itself but it is also important to understand their response strategies to the changing and varying climate so as to design appropriate coping and/adaptation strategies. With the general aim of assessing farmers’ vulnerability to climate change and variability and their response strategy in West Gojjam zone, this study focused on three major themes. Vulnerability is the first theme and was analysed using the participatory Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis (CVCA) methods and tools. The second one focused on the analysis of rainfall and temperature variability and trend. Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI), Coefficient of Variations and standardized anomalies were used for climate analysis. Farmers’ perception and response strategies to climate change and variability is entertained as the third theme in which factors determining response strategies to climate change and variability were analysed using the multinomial logit (MNL) model. The result from vulnerability assessment showed that, farmers in the study districts(woredas) are highly vulnerable to the climate change-induced rainfall variability/drought, land slide, flood, malaria epidemics, heat waves, hailstorms and many others. Rainfall in West Gojjam zone is characterized by moderate to high variability while temperature has increased highly with the rate of 0.88°C as in the case of Degadamot Woreda. The great majority of farmers in West Gojjam zone perceived changes both in rainfall and temperature and are responding to the changes. However nearly half were either coping (selling livestock, migrating, engaging in wage labours) or taking no measure which practically degrade their capacity to adapt in the long run. Education, climate information, income, household size and ownership of live stock and irrigable land positively contribute to farmers’ response strategies. Shortage of farm land, shortage of capital and lack of information were the major constraints to respond to climate change and variability. Policy and strategic interventions in the provision of timely meteorological information to small-scale farmers, integrated watershed management, promotion of proper and sustainable use surface water, planning and implementing additional resettlement programmes for households with acute land shortages and landlesses, awareness raising on climate change and adaptation strategies, and mainstreaming farm-level adaptation in to regional and local development strategies and plans could be possible remedies to the problem.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	climate change and variability, vulnerability, perception, response strategy, West Gojjam, farmer
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General) S Agriculture > SB Plant culture
Divisions:	Africana
Depositing User:	Selom Ghislain
Date Deposited:	18 Sep 2018 07:27
Last Modified:	18 Sep 2018 07:27
URI:	http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/5295

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