Abstract:
The impacts of climate variability are adversely affecting crop productivity of farmer’s household
of Ethiopia in general and study area in particular. The variability in amount and time of rainfall
and rising temperatures affecting the livelihood farmers in the study area. The intended goal of this
study was to assess climate variability, its impact on maize (Zea mays L.) yield and farmers’
adaptation strategies in Kersa district. Primary data, used to assess the farmers’ perception of
climate variability and adaptation strategies, were collected from 291 household heads using focus
group discussion, key informant interview and house hold questionnaire. Secondary data (Climate
and maize data from 1991-2020) used to assess the climate impacts on maize yield were collected
from the National Meteorology Agency of Ethiopia (NMA) and agriculture and natural resource
development office of the district respectively. The collected data were analyzed and interpreted by
using XLSTAT, Pearson correlation and linear regression, Microsoft Office Excel 2019 and SPSS
software version 26 and other descriptive statistics were used to analyze this data. Meteorological
analyses of climate variability results significant increase in annual and belg season minimum
and maximum temperature. While the kiremt maximum temperature did not statistically
significant. The total annual rainfall in Kersa District from 1991-2020 was ranged
between 230.3mm and 1700.7mm. The mean average, SD and CV of annual rainfall was
516.6 mm 361.5 mm and 70% respectively. Furthermore, the results of Pearson Correlation
Coefficients indicated that the max temperature during the belg (r=-0.216) and kiremt (r=-
0.150) season shows weak negative relationship with maize yield. While the annual
rainfall (r=0.136) belg rainfall (0.203) and kiremt rainfall (r= 0.185) shows weak positive
relationship with maize yield. farmers have been undertaking different adaptation practices in
the study area including: crop diversification, Fertilizer application, altering planting date,
changing crop varieties, soil and water conservation practices, irrigation farming and planting
tree. I recommended that the district agricultural sector with different research institute should
have developed that heat resistant maize crop that can withstand the pressures of the climatic
variations especially high temperatures
