Abstract
The impact of climate change on a crop production system, particularly on maize producing smallholders is considered to be strong in our country in which maize is a source of food and income. Therefore, a better understanding of smallholder farmers’ perception of climate change and adaptation strategies of maize producer is essential to develop proper measures that will avert its adverse effects.
This study was thus conducted to assess long term climate change trends, farmers’ perceptions on climate change and its effect on maze production, identify the existing adaptation strategies used by farmers as well as determine factors that influence farmers’ adaptation strategies to the changing climate in Guto Gida Woreda. Thirty-four years of meteorological data were accessed from NMA and field survey was conducted on 342 maize producing smallholder farmers using multistage random sampling technique in three kebeles. Descriptive statistics such as percentage and frequency, Logit, and MNL models, were used to analyze the data. SPI, MK trend test, and CV were also used to evaluate the long term climate especially rainfall and temperature trends in the study area. The results showed that the rainfall amount is in decreasing trend at a rate of 5.77mm annually along with 23.5% of variability, despite the variability during the maize planting period (MAM) is about 36.3%. Moreover, about 75% of the wet years were recorded before 2000, while 71% of the dry years occurred after 2000, confirming that the occurrence of wet years is declining whereas drought incidence is increasing. Although the annual amount of rainfall showed a declining trend, maize productivity continued to increase in the woreda, since the rainfall during the maize growing period was relatively stable. The annual mean temperature showed an increasing trend at a rate of 0.037°C annually, The increasing trend was consistent and less variable as expressed by the CV values of 16.8%,. Descriptive statistics on the perception level of the sample households indicated that 85% of them perceive that late rainfall onset is the major indicator of climate variability followed by early offset 84%, leading to a reduction of maize growing period and yield reduction. The main adaptation practice being exercised by the farmers in response to climate change was maize crop rotation with pulses implemented by 82%, followed by using different maize varieties practiced by 77% of the respondents. The results also indicated that the determining factors for their choice of adaptation strategies are related to; sex, education, family size, farm size, membership of the local organization, access to extension services, credit, market, climate observation, and weather information. Additionally, the study identified bottlenecks of adaptation measures to climate change to be; land degradation, lack agricultural technologies, limited farmland, and market opportunities. Thus, there is a need to focus on addressing the major determinant factors and alleviating bottlenecks to promote the implementation of suitable adaptation measures and climate-smart agriculture practices among smallholder farmers.
Keywords: Climate Variability, Maize Yield, Adaptation Barriers, Smallholders, Climate Change Impact.
