Abstract
Climate change is a threat to the environment as the whole and to agriculture in particular. It aggravates drought, pests, diseases, and other related environmental shocks and food security. This study was conducted on adaptation strategy of smallholder farmers to climate change vulnerability in Assosa district Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, western Ethiopia.
The main objective of the study was to investigate the adaptation strategies of smallholder farmers to reduce climate change vulnerability towards sustainable livelihood in the study area. The study was used both probability and non - probability sampling technique procedures and target population comprised 3880 small farmer households from Assosaworeda12 sample kebeles. Sample size of 340 small farmer households that 9 % of the total HH was determined using Kothari formula and 20 key informants selected using Purposive sampling technique for interview. The study utilized questionnaires, interview and 32 FGD was used as an instrument for data collection. Secondary data was obtained from published documents such as journals, reviews, magazines and reports to supplement the primary data. The data was analyzed by use of both qualitative and quantitative method through SPSS software version 22. To achieve the objectives of the study both descriptive and econometrics analysis was conducted. The finding showed that age and distance from extension services are negatively significant affect climate change adaptation strategy, with p-value 0.070 and 0.001 and odd ratio 0.949 and 0.899 respectively, and gender, education level, awareness creation, existences of early adopter neighbors and access to credit were positively and significant affect with p-value 0.001, 0.018, 0.026, 0.001and 0.030 and odd ratio 3.336, 1.334, 2.887, 5.814 and 3.027 respectively, for climate change adoption strategy. Therefore, policy should focus on awareness creation on climate change through different sources, strengthen adult education service, opening up other options and strengthen extension services to build up adaptive capacity against climate change anxieties.
Keywords: Adaptation strategies, climate change vulnerability, logit regression.
