|
|
Addis Ababa University Libraries Electronic Thesis and Dissertations: AAU-ETD! >
Institute of Developmental Research >
Thesis - Eniviroment & Development >
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/4150
|
| Title: | Analysis of Farmers’ Perception and Adaptation to |
| Authors: | Bewket, Amdu Belay |
| Advisors: | Belay Simane |
| Keywords: | Climate change , variability;
Agriculture; Perception; Adaptation |
| Copyright: | Jul-2010 |
| Date Added: | 30-Nov-2012 |
| Publisher: | AAU |
| Abstract: | Ethiopia is heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture, and its geographical location and topography in
combination with low adaptive capacity entail a high vulnerability to adverse impacts of climate change.
The extent to which these impacts are felt depends in large part on the extent of adaptation in response to
climate change. This research tried to analyze farmers’ adaptation in two dominant agro-ecological
zones, Dega and W/dega, of Choke Mountain based on farm-level data collected from 100 households for
2008/09 cropping season. The study describes farmer perceptions to changes in long-term temperature
and precipitation, various farm-level adaptation measures, barriers to adaptation, and determinants of
adaptation options. Descriptive statistics is used to investigate farmers’ perceptions, baseline adaptations,
and constraints to adaptation whereas binary logit model is used to examine the determinants of
adaptation to climate change and variability. Results confirm that the most of the interviewed farmers
perceived the changes in temperature and rainfall; the majority believed that temperature has increased
and the rainfall pattern has become unpredictable; and there was no divergence between the twin
perceptions of farmers and climatic data records. As evidence to perceived changes, more than half of the
respondents took remedial actions to counteract the impacts of climate change. The most common
adaptation options include: crop diversification, changing planting dates, implementing soil conservation
practices, water welling and irrigation, adjustment to crop and livestock management, using fertilizer and
off-farm activities. However, lack of knowledge, improper policy and lack of land use policy
implementation, labor and water shortages, and information among other factors were identified as
barriers to adaptation. Among fifteen explanatory variables involved in the analysis, the result of the
binary logit model highlighted size of productive labor, frequency of extension visits, resource endowment,
and farming experience as main factors that encourage private adaptations; and by contrast, male
headed household, credit usage, access to media information, and higher soil fertility status significantly
discouraging ones. The Government could contribute to mitigating climate change effects on agriculture
by investing in research (drought resistant and short maturing varieties), soil conservation measures,
technology(farming machineries), animal health centers, and irrigation and water harvesting
development, expanding fertilizer use, expanding market, establishing crop insurance institutes,
expanding education (farmers training center and formal education), reforming credit and land
policy(tenure, size of land holding, farm fragmentation) and enforcing the implementation of rural land
use policies, establishing local meteorology stations, monitoring and publishing climate data, and
creating job opportunities by expanding non-agriculture sectors |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/4150 |
| Appears in: | Thesis - Eniviroment & Development
|
Items in the AAUL Digital Library are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.
|
