Abstract:
Climate
change has serious consequences for food production of smallholder farmers in poor
countries
including Ethiopia. Farmers exercise various adaptation strategies to counter the
negative
impacts of climate change, but the level of participation and impact of adoption of
adaptation
practices against climate change on food security has not been the focus of scientific
studies.
Therefore, the obj ective of this study was to assess farmers’ participation in climate change
adaptation
practices and its implication for food security in Misha district of Hadiya zone, South
Ethiopia.
Data on farmers’ perception of climate change and participation in adap tation practices
employed
in the study area were collected from a total of 346 household heads through household
survey.
Additionally, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and personal observations
were
employed to supplement data gathered through survey. Descriptive and inferential statistics
were
used for data analysis. The major findings of the study indicate that 83% of the adaptors and
44%
of non adaptors of climate change adaptation practices were found to be food secure, while
17%
of adaptors and 56% non adaptors were food insecure. Perception analysis indicated that
82%
and 76.8% of the respondents strongly agree in the existence of climate change with its
attributes,
temperature and rainfall, respectively. The results indicated that increase in temperature
and
reduction in rainfall had major effect on food security in study area. The study found that
92.5%,
88%, 86% and 85% of the farmers in the study area participated in afforestation, soil water
conservation,
crop diversification and reforestation to reduce climate change impacts in the area
respectively.
The results indicate that an adaptation practices are among the viable solutions to
secure
household food needs and diversify their diet composition in the study area. Finally,
stakeholders
should collaborate to improve farmers’ awareness of climate change adaptation
practices,
while better adaptation technologies should be introduced to enhance farmers’ resilience
to
climate change and improve food security in the study area.
