Abstract
There is nothing comparable to land that provides basis for livelihood in Ethiopia. Land therefore is the main stay of the Ethiopian people. This resources were degrading and shrinking due to wanton use. This coupled with anthropogenic climate change has worsen the problems at hand. Agriculture is a fundamental human activity at risk from climate change in the coming decade. The study analyzes the trends of climate change and benefits of land management practices as a climate change adaptation mechanism in Hawassa zuriya district of SNNPRS.
The objectives were to analyze climate change trends of the area, inventory of land management practices of respondents and evaluate the benefits of land management practices as a climate change adaptation measure. A study of this nature will help both farmers and scholars as it outlines various practices that could help farmers adapt. Data were collected using semi structured questionnaire from 126 randomly selected HHs and oral interviews (KII and FGD) to capture stakeholder opinions. Mann-Kendal test was employed for climate data and descriptive tools of analysis such as frequency counts and ranking presented in tabular and graphical forms were used to analyze the collected data. The results showed that the annual rainfall varied between 670.9 and 1197.9 mm with a coefficient of variation of 15% and mean 953.5 mm. More over the study also found significant increase in minimum as well as maximum temperature and insignificant decrease in annual rainfall. Respondents practice mulching, composting, agro-forestry, irrigation and conservation/minimum tillage on their farm with direct benefits in yield increment, reduced erosion and crop failure as well as an increase in income. This implies that with enhanced temperature stress and reduced rain fall, land management practices can contribute to make farming systems of the rural poor farmers more resilient to the adverse effects of climate change. Therefore, there is a need to expand those LMP and maintain them to meet their intended goal. To accomplish this, the result suggests water harvesting, family planning, strengthening institutional capacity of early warning, education and training must be extended regularly to all farmers.
