Assessing the Effect of Climate Change on Crop Production and Adaptation Strategies in Dendi District, Ethiopia

Abstract

As climate change affects Ethiopia’s agriculture and highly disrupting people’s livelihood, it is high time to study “the effect of climate change on crop production and adaptation strategies in Dendi District”. The study was made on two Cooperatives (Bodda and Welenkomi) from which 200 respondents were selected using simple random sampling technique. Field survey and PRA methods were adopted to collect primary data. Secondary data were collected from the documents of cooperatives and offices concerned. The effect of climate change on crop production was analyzed using Generalized Linear-univariate model. Climate change adaptation strategies were analyzed qualitatively with the help of descriptive statistics. The study showed that solar intensity, disease, flood, temperature, rainfall and landslide were found to be statistically significant to have an adverse effect on crop production. The results from descriptive statistics revealed that farmers’ level of awareness of on climate change is low. 96.5% of farmers did not adapt key strategies. The support from disaster department and agricultural cooperatives are not significant. To design appropriate measures and curb the adverse effect of statistically significant climate variables, concerted effort of all stakeholders is of paramount importance. As agricultural Cooperatives are the major stakeholder, they must take measures for increasing farmers’ awareness on climate change adaptation. Strengthening vertical and horizontal linkage among stakeholders is vital. Besides, early warning systems should be in place and intensive training on climate change adaptation strategies is advocated to mitigate the adverse effect of climate change and to bring a positive change on members’ livelihood.