Abstract:
Drought is the most complex and least realized of all the natural hazards affecting more people
than any other hazards. This research was conducted in Adami Tulu Jido Kombolcha Woreda
with the objectives of characterizing meteorological drought and identification of its adaptation
strategies practiced by smallholder farmers. To achieve these objectives, primary and secondary
sources of data were employed. Both monthly Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitations
with Station data version 2 (CHIRPSv2) and Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model
(GLEAMv3.5) datasets from (1990-2020) were used. On the other hand, the survey interviews of
(321) randomly selected respondents from three Kebeles was employed to analyze the
smallholder farmers perception on drought related impacts and the adaptation strategies
practiced at household level. The SPEI was used to characterize meteorological drought in terms
of drought frequency, severity, and spatial extent for the rainy seasons of (Belg and Kiremt) and
also at annual timescale. The result showed that spatio-temporally, mild and moderate drought
was the dominant drought category in all considered timescales. It was found that almost 50 %
of the total study years (1990–2020) were struck by drought events in the both rainy seasons and
annual timescales but with varying severity. As a result, on average at least (mild to severe)
drought events occurred once in two years during the study period (1990-2020). When mild and
above drought categories are considered, the southern and northern parts are most frequently
hit to droughts during the Belg season, while the central and south eastern parts of the woreda
frequently hit during the Kiremt season. In the case of annual timescale, the north eastern and
south western parts of Woreda experienced high drought events. Farmers are perceived various
drought impacts and, storing crop residues for livestock fodder (70.5%), planting early matured
crop varieties (60.5%), and adjusting the cropping calendar (48.4%) are the three most widely
practiced drought adaptation strategies by smallholder farmers. Generally, this study is realized
that meteorological drought is a regular incidence and their negative effects are highly localized
in the study area. Hence, the findings of this study form a good basis for the next step of research
that will look at the projection of droughts over the study area based on Regional Climate
Models.
