Abstract
Climate variability and change have been adversely affecting the livelihoods of smallholder farmers through their impact on crop and livestock production thereby affecting the adaptive capacity of the smallholder farmers in developing countries. In order to minimize the impact of climate change/variability, various kinds of CSA practices and technological interventions were being made globally and locally in Ethiopia.
The current study was conducted to identify CSA practices/technologies under implementation and to assess their adoption by smallholder farmers and their effectiveness in the Digital-Tijo district, of Arsi Zone of Oromia regional state. The study used multistage random sampling techniques. Primary data was collected from 150 randomly selected households using a semi-structured questionnaire. Additional qualitative data was collected through focus group discussion and key informant interviews. The quantitative data were analyzed using both descriptive statistics and econometric analysis. The result of the study revealed that improved varieties, crop-livestock diversification, small scale irrigation, multipurpose tree planting, and improved forage species were the five relatively more adopted CSA technologies in the study area. The results also revealed that adoption of improved varieties and small scale irrigation was significantly different between households in midland and highland agro-ecological zones, use of improved varieties being more preferred by those in midland agro-ecology (36% of respondents from midland against 19% of those from highland agroecology), while the use of small scale irrigation was the most preferred option for those in the highland agro-ecological zone (21% of respondents from midland against 3% of those from highland agroecology). Multinomial logit model revealed that agro-ecology, gender, family size, farm size, farming experience, education, annual income, livestock holding (TLU), access to climate information, access to extension, and credit are factors that positively and significantly influence the adoption of those CSA practices. The age of household head had an inverse relationship with the adoption and use of small-scale irrigation. The computed effectiveness of weight score estimates for income, food productivity, and consumption were 0.57, 0.21, and 0.15, respectively. In terms of adaptation indicators, farm productivity, access to information, soil conservation skills, and knowledge were estimated to have a weight score of 0.20, 0.18, 0.14, and 0.13 respectively. it is concluded that CSA practices can contribute to increase productivity and enhance the resilience of smallholder farmers. It is recommended that the level of adoption of CSA technologies particularly those that were indicated as least adopted still needs more efforts to work to make them more accessible to the farming communities.
Keywords: Adaptation, Analytic hierarchy process, improved variety, multi-purpose tree planting, improved forage species, Likert scale, Multinomial logit model
