Determenants of Farmers’ Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change and Variability: The Case of Mareka District of Dawuro Zone, South Ethiopia

Abstract

Dependence on rain-fed agriculture and having low adaptive capacity make the country highly susceptible to the adverse impact of climate change and variability. This study sought to find out the determinants of farmers’ adaptation strategies to climate change and variability in Mareka District of Dawuro zone, South Ethiopia. A total of 37 kebele of the district were stratified under three dominant agro-ecologies (as highland, midland and lowland).Three kebele (Eyesus, Gozo-shasho and Tarcha-zuriya) was selected randomly from the three agro-ecologies of the district. After households were grouped in to, three socio-economic categories (poor, medium and better-off) 69, 68 and 17 households (i.e. a total of 154 households) were randomly selected from the respective socio-economic category. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected through key informant interview, focus group discussion and household survey, respectively. Binary logit model was used to examine determinants of adaptation strategies. Accordingly, education, sex, age, productive labor force, wealth, farm experience, farm size, extension contact, soil fertility, access to climate information and credit service were the major determinant factor variables to farmers’ adaptation to climate change and variability.