Abstract:
Analysts and policymakers will benefit from information on climate-smart agriculture and
adaptation impacts and challenges to the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices, to
the extent that climate change continue to conflict with people's livelihoods. The purpose of
this study was to assess the effects of climate-smart agricultural practices on the food and
nutrition security of rural households. All of the necessary information for the study was
gathered from primary and secondary data sources in accordance with the identified
objectives. Primary data were gathered from 461 sample respondents. For data analysis,
descriptive statistics and econometric models were used. The logit, ordered logit, multinomial
models were used for data anlaysis. Multinomial endogenous switching and Inverse
probability weighting method of generalized propensity score method were applied to analyze
the impact of improved practices on rural household food and nutrition security.
Estimated results show that the probability of adopting climate smart agricultural practices is
significantly influenced by gender, education level, extension contact, livestock holding,
cooperatives, market information, soil fertility status, slopes of farm land, training on land
management, climate change information, access to training, perception of land degradation,
climate change perception and weather road distance.The logistic regression model result
stated that food security status is significantly influenced by age, education, social status, soil
fertility, training, land management training, livestock holding, and climate change
information. The ordered logit results indicated that the household level nutritional status is
significantly influenced by age, cooperative, education, market information, soil fertility,
livestock holding, and all weather road distance.
Impact evaluation result indicated that adopting low levels of climate smart agricultural
practices increases farm households’ food and nutrition security statuses by 28% and 4.3%.
Adopting the medium indicators of climate smart practices increases food and nutrition
security status by 43% and 20% respectively. Whereas adopting high and higher extents of
climate smart agricultural practices increases food and nutrition security statuses by 56% and
19% and 61% and 41% over that of very low adopter households respectively. Furthermore,
the GPS impact evaluation results indicated that at 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1 treatment level in
the numbers of adopted climate-smart practices the farm household food security status
increases by 47, 72% and 86% respectively and significant at 1% probability level. Likewise,
at treatment level of 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1 in the number of adopted climate smart practices,
