METEOROLOGICAL DROUGHT CHARACTERIZATION AND ADAPTATION STRATEGIES BY THE SMALLHOLDER FARMERS: THE CASE STUDY OF ADAMI TULU JIDO KOMBOLCHA WOREDA, EAST SHEWA ZONE OF OROMIA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA.

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.