DETERMINANTS OF SMALLHOLDER FARMERS’ CHOICE OF ADAPTATION STRATEGIES TO THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE: THE CASE OF CHIRO DISTRICT, WEST HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

A number of factors determine smallholder household’s decision to the choice of adaptation strstegies to the effects of climate change. There is a lack of empirical studies on local level assessemnet and individual farm household demographic, socio-ecnomic and institutional characteristics to identify the effects of climate change and determinants of choice of adaptation strategies practiced by smallholder farm households in specific local context, such as the study area. A formal survey was administred to collect primary quantitative and qualitatative data from 161 randomly selected smallholder farm households. In addition to FGDs, KII, field observation and secondary data review were used to collect qualitative data. This study used descriptive and explanatory research designs, while while descriptive and inferential statistics and, econometric analytical model were adopted for data analysis. This study identified total of fourteen (14) effects of climate change that exert impact on agriculture, human and livestock health, and environment. The findings showed fourteen (14) adaptation strategies that smallholder farm households practice in the study area. Four (4) categories of choice sets of adaptation strategies were used for multinomial logistic regression (MNLR) model parameters. As a result, the MNL model estimated the effect of fourteen (14) explanatory variables related to household’s demographic, socio ecnomic and institutional characteristics. From which, eight (8) predictor variables were found statistically significant to positively and negatively determine household’s decision to the choice of adaption strategies, significant at 1% and 5% probability level. Namely, family size (AL), farm experience (years), land size (ha), livestock holding (TLU), membership in informal institutions, access to credit, farm inputs used and access to extension service. Public and community developent institutions are expected to design and implement appropriate intervention(s) to enhance the adaptive capacity of smallholder households towards the negative impacts of change climate in the study area. Furthermore, strengthening institutional support services help to improve the capacity of small-scale farm households withstand effects of climate change in their locality.