Abstract:
In Ethiopia agriculture is highly vulnerable to climate variability. This is mainly due to its
mere dependence on rainfall and low level of technology adoption. Thus, the aim of this study
was to investigate farmers’ resilience to climate variability and their perception towards
adoption of climate smart agricultural practices in the study area. A multistage sampling
technique was employed to select sample households. Accordingly, 204 sample households
were selected using simple random sampling technique. Both quantitative and qualitative
data were collected from primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected
from sampled households using interview schedule, Key informant interview and Focused
group discussion. Descriptive statistics and a multivariate probit model were employed to
analyze the sample households’ socio-demographic, economic and institutional
characteristics. Resilience Capacity Index (RCI) based on absorptive, adaptive and
transformative capacities was used to measure households’ resilience to climate variability.
The model results revealed that the likelihood of decisions to adopt water harvesting,
intercropping, crop rotation, soil and water conservation and drought resistance crop
varieties were 44.3, 67.7, 43.59, 70.6 and 53.3% respectively. The model results also found
out that sex, literacy of households, livestock owned, farm distance from residence, extension
contact, access to credit, membership to social organization, market distance, weather
information and experience were significantly associated with adoption of CSA practices in
the study area. Furthermore, RCI result indicated that households living in the same area can
have different levels of resilience to climate variability, with RCI ranging from -26.7 to 28.12.
This implies household with negative RCI value have low level of resilience while households
with positive RCI values have high level of resilience. Thus, to increase the demand and
implementation of CSA practices, farmers should be motivated to join and participate in
different training and demonstration areas so that they could share farming information and
increase their knowledge.
