DETERMINANTS ON CHOICE OF ADAPTATION STRATEGIES TO CLIMATE VARIABILITY AMONG SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN CHIRO WOREDA, WEST HARARGHE ZONE, EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Climate change has been one of the greatest challenges of global community in 21th century. Though climate change and variability affect all sectors of economy, the agriculture sector particularly the smallholder farming is more vulnerable to this condition. The objective of this study is to investigate effects of climate variability and determinants of farmers’ on choice of adaptation strategies in Chiro Wored’s of the west Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State. The study used both primary and secondary data collected through survey questionnaire, FGD and key informant interviews. A total of 286 sample households were selected from three kebeles namely Gara Nugus Number 2, Kiliso and Gora using systematic random sampling technique. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and multinomial model. The results indicated that 85% of the sample households perceived the presence of changing condition in climate variables. Despite farmers’ used different adaptation strategies to reduce the risk of climate variability, their preference on choice of specific adaptation strategies to be determined by different factors related to socio-demographic characteristics and institutional conditions. The result of multinomial logit shown that some independent variables such as age, education,, annual family income and access to weather information have significantly determined farmer’ choice of specific adaptation strategies. The study concluded that climate variability varies from place to place, and need adaptation strategies that consider local context. It is therefore, recommended that sustainable adaptation options and involvement of different institutional interventions are crucial to minimize and address the climate variability at local scale