THE ROLE OF AGROFORESTRY PRACTICES IN MINIMIZING HOUSEHOLDS VULNERABILITY TO CLIMATE VARIABILITY IN WEST BADEWACHO DISTRICT, HADIYYA ZONE

Abstract

Ethiopia’s low level of economic development with its heavy dependence on rain- fed agriculture, which is the sector most vulnerable to climate variability make the country susceptible to the adverse effects of climate change. To counter this, several measures have been suggested in attempts to reduce the vulnerability of farmers households who are the worst affected by changes in climate. One such intervention is agroforestry practices (AFP), which is probably one of the most viable and sustainable option. To address this general question a study was conducted with objective to analyze the role of agroforestry practices in minimizing households’ vulnerability to climate variability in West Badewacho District. Descriptive survey design method was employed in order to conduct this study. Household questionnaire survey (N=290), focus group discussion, key informant interview and field observation were used to collect data. SPSS computer program software was used to analyze socio-economic data. Meteorological analyses of climate variability results, which demonstrated a statistically significant increase in temperature and decrease in rainfall in the study area. Also, the results of Correlation Coefficients indicated that duration of rainy season rainfall, max. Temperature and min. temperature had shown that statistically significant variability (r = 0.20, 0.11 and 0.27) respectively in the study area. Households five AFPs were observed such as home garden (61%), tree on soil conservation and reclamation (20.5%), woodlot (24.3%); live fence (3.7%) and boundary plantation (4.9%) were used as resilience mechanism in West Badewacho. Agroforestry practitioner had significantly higher agroforestry income (0.0016) and assets such as crop yield per hectare (p=0.0018) and livestock (p=0.0004) and also showed higher fuel-wood sustainability (p=0.00251) than non-practitioner. Therefore, non-practitioner farmers have been undertaking different resilience practices in the study area including: planting multipurpose trees, soil and water conservation, mixed cropping, changing crop varieties and hybrid animal production. I recommended that the Agricultural Research Institute of Ethiopia develop that fast growing trees, fruit trees, animal fodder and diseases resistant crops that can withstand the pressures of the climatic variations especially high in temperatures and low rainfall especially for those of non-practitioner