FARMERS’ RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE VARIABILITY AND THEIR PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS ADOPTION OF CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES IN KERSA DISTRICT, EAST HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

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.