Assessment of Farmers' Vulnerability to Impacts of Climate Change & Variability and their Water Related Adaptation Strategies The Case of Lode Hetosa Woreda, Arsi Zone, Ethiopia
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Date
2014-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Climate change and variability causes long term effects on human systems. However, not
all individuals and groups exposed to a certain climate change-related hazard are
equally vulnerable. Vulnerability of human systems, therefore, depends on exposure to
climate change the sensitivity and adaptive capacity of the system . .It is with this basic
notion that this paper tried to assess the vulnerability of farmers in Lode Hetosa woreda
to impacts of climate change and variability and their water related adaptation strategies
by taking flood and drought in to account. The research was done based on household
survey conducted in the study wereda on 135 selected farmers from three agI'o ecologies,
namely kolla, woinadega and dega. Beside the household survey, inputs from local and
federal government officials, experts, community leaders and development partners in the
target area were also participated as key informants, FGD and community mapping
participants. The study revealed that the three agI'o ecologies in the woreda are not
equally affected by the selected hazards-jlood and drought. Flood is found to be the most
serious hazard in degalhighland agm ecology while drought is a major threat in
kollallowland and woinadegalmidland agro ecology. The result of the study also showed
that farmers in dega agro ecology have less adaptive capacity and depend on highly
sensitive livelihood sources than their kolla and wOinadega counterpart in the study
area .. An intra-community comparison of the study showed that households headed by
women, elderly, children and illiterate household heads were foud to be more vulnerable
to climate related impacts., Besides, the farmers in the study area were also found to be
generally vulnerable as the degree of dependence on natural resource based livelihoods
is higher and the share of non farm income and livelihood diversification is gel/emily
lower in all the three agI'o ecologies. Added to these, application of planned water-related
adaptation strategies in the study area is found to be low and is influenced by the
status of farmers' vulnerability to climate change. Generally, the study suggests that the
status of farmers' vulnerability and application of water related adaptation strategies is
low and hence much effort is needed in the foture to improve the adaptive capacity of the
communities so as to reduce their vulnerability ..
Key words: Vulnembility, Adaptive Capacity, Climate change, Adaptation
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Keywords
Vulnerability, Adaptive Capacity, Climate change, Adaptation