Abstract
Ethiopian economy is highly dependent on agriculture with lack of adequate rainfall, combined with variability in the onset and duration of rainfall. Small-scale irrigation development approach is believed in helping to address such problem at household as well as national level. The objective of the study was to assess the role of small-scale irrigation in climate change adaptation in the East Belesa district.
The study followed a multi-stage sampling procedure to select 144 households (82 irrigation user and 62 non-users) in four rural kebeles. Individual interview, group discussions, key informants and field observations data collection tools were used. The data analysis was carried out by descriptive, inferential statistics and binary logistic model. The result obtained from meteorological data of three decades and farmers’ perception on local climate change indicated an increase in temperature and variability, decreased in rainfall. Irrigation is becoming a practice for households due to climate variability/change, improving/livelihood and others as means of livelihood diversification. The annual income of irrigation users and non-users was 40,166 and 20,379 ETB respectively. It implies that irrigation has a great role in increased households’ income and safety net through increased production and diversified livelihood strategy enable to buffer against climate variability. The result from the binary logit analysis shows that education level, cultivated land size, frequency of extension contact, access to credit, livestock holding size and age have positively and significantly affected households’ participation in irrigation (other factors being constant). In contrast, market distance, farm distance and dependency ratio have negatively and significantly affected. Therefore, the study concluded that small-scale irrigation is one of the viable solutions to climate variability and change adaptation. Finally, it is recommended that GO and NGO should expand access of small scale irrigation by farm households to improve their adaptation to climate variability and change.
Keywords: adoption, climate-smart agriculture, income, diversified livelihood strategy.
