DETERMINANT OF FARMERS’ CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION STRATEGIES: THE CASE OF CHIRO WOREDA, WEST HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Adaptation to climate related hazards influenced by the experience in prolonged effects of changing climate and the determinants to choose adaptation measures by farm households. This is because the impacts of climate extremes could affect different areas and people within the same area differently. This study aims to determine how climate change is affecting subsistence farmers' decision to utilize adaptation strategies and how climate change is affecting them. A household survey conducted involving a sample of 145 randomly selected households. Field observation, KIIs, and FGDs utilized in order to collect qualitative data. Explanatory sequential mixed-method research approaches employed in order to meet the study's objectives. Furthermore, multinomial logit model (MNL) is utilized to identify the variables influencing the adaptation strategies sample household select, and farm households in the research area assessed institutional, socioeconomic, and demographic data using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings showed that adaptation strategies used by farm households in the study area include improved crop varieties, crop diversification, soil and water conservation, and livelihoods diversification. The MNL model showed that Age, Family size, Income source, Membership/participation in informal institutions, Access to credit, and Extension contact, Access to water resource were found the determinants of choice of adaptation strategies to the effects of climate change by sample farm households. These factors have both positive and negative effects on smallholder farmers' decisions on adaptation strategies in the study area. The main effects of climate change on the health of Crop and livestock was the occurrence of crop disease, impact of pests, and degradation of land, this decreased crop yields and livestock products, and loss of household assets because of recurring droughts. The required interventions developed by public and community development organizations operating in the research area and at the regional level to enhance smallholder households' capacity to adapt to the negative effect of climate change