CLIMATE VARIABILITY, DROUGHT AND COPING STRATEGIES BY SMALL HOLD FARMERS: THE CASE OF SORO WOREDA, HADIYA ZONE, SNNPR, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Climate variability and recurrent cycle of drought is a greatest challenge which affects the Ethiopian poor small hold farmers in general and study area in particular. The complex nature of climate variability and drought aggravates various social and economic problems due to unpredictable fluctuation of temperature and precipitation in the study area. The intended goal of this study was to assess climate variability, drought and coping strategies by small hold farmers in Soro Woreda of Hadiya Zone. A total of 284 sample respondents were selected by stratified random sampling methods. The data were collected through questionnaire, focus group discussions, key informant interview and field observation. The study used climate data from 1998 to 2017 to assess and identify climate variability and severity of recurrent cycle of drought. The collected data were analyzed and interpreted by qualitative and quantitative methods such as descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage, Bar graph and pie chart), summary of one way ANOVA and standardized precipitation index by using statistical package for social science version 20 software. The results show that climate variability and recurrent drought increases from time to time due to unpredictable variation and fluctuation of temperature and rainfall. The major identified types of drought were agricultural, metrological and hydrological and it’s characterized by slow onset, non structural and impact is spread over large geographical area. In addition to this, identified categories of the drought are near to normal, moderately dry and extremely dry in the study area. Climate variability and recurrent drought affects crop and livestock production, increases local community health problems, increase drop out of students, loss rural small hold farmer’s livelihood income, affects annual income and others social and economic activities of the rural community in the study area. To cop up with these impacts local communities used migration to other place, sale livestock production, and use on-farm and off-farm diversification and income diversification as coping strategies. Generally, this study recommended that the effective coping strategies and involvement of different institutional interventions are crucial to minimize and address climate variability and recurrent cycle of drought in the study area.