Abstract:
In Ethiopia, agricultural livelihoods are susceptible to environmental degradation and climate variability. Several interventions have been
launched and implemented to promote utilization of environmentally sustainable farm practices. This thesis examined the weather variability
and prevailing seasonal trends in the study communities; described farmers’ responses to perceived climate change across some selected
demographic characteristics; described the impacts of extreme weather events on farming households’ livelihoods and farming practices;
computed indicator of the households’ vulnerability to climate change and analyze the factors influencing it; analyzed the factors influencing
adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) practices; analyzed the factors influencing adoption intensity of Climate Smart Agricultural
(CSA) practices; analyzed the factors influencing farmers’ perceptions on sustainability of Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) practices;
analyzed the institutional adaptive capacity to implement the adopted Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices; and determined the effect of
extreme weather exposure, coping and adaptation strategies on households’ welfare using per capita income and food self-sufficiency
indicators. Given the agro-ecological differences within each districts, the stratified random sampling method was employed to draw sample
community from highland and lowland representing agro-ecology. More specifically, simple random sampling producer was used to select
sample respondents from each selected community. Two districts were selected from each zone using random sampling methods. The Selected
districts were sub-divided into three sub-categories emphasizing on farming practices and agro-ecologies. Accordingly, a total of twelve PAs
(three PAs from each four Districts) were selected for structured interviews to generate primary data. Based on the sampling methods,
Primary data were collected from 210 upland and 200 lowland farming households and 140 extension field staffs using scheduled interviews
with structured questionnaires. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, binary logistic model, Ordinary Least Square (OLS)
regression and Tobit regression models. The results showed that 88.5 percent and 70 percent of the highland and lowland farmers felt high
and very high negative influences of changes in climate parameters, respectively. Moderate vulnerability to climate change was indicated by
63.5 percent of highland farmers, compared to 59 percent by lowland farmers. Among the CSA practices introduced to communities, crop
rotation was most adopted by 82 percent and 89 percent of the highland and lowland farmers, respectively, where however overall aggregated
adoption found to be about 35.6 percent for highlands and 34.8 percent for lowland community context. The perceived adoption sustainability
of crops rotation was found highest (86 percent) which followed by planting time adjustment (64 percent) under lowland community situation,
while crops rotation sustainability found 72.4 percent, followed by crops variety diversification (62.35 percent) in the context of highland
community. The livelihoods’ vulnerability of highland agro-ecology was observed 49 percent which is relatively lower as compared to highest
66.7 percent revealed by the lowland agro-ecology community which as a result only 37.5 percent and 22.9 percent of highland and lowland
community respectively identified food sufficient covering the seasonal food demand from households’ seasonal agricultural production, while
the remaining majority are food insufficient for several months during each season. Notably, the impact of climate change coping mechanism
on households’ seasonal income was rated 39.3 percent in highland community, while was found 51.7 percent for lowland community,
whereas the adaptation strategies impacts on households’ income rated 59.3 percent in the highland community, while identified 44 percent in
context of lowland community. On the other hand, Tobit regression model analysis were conducted where the results indicate that, a unit
increase in mean rainfall tends to reduce the level of livelihoods vulnerability to climate change by a factor of 0.018 in the scale of livelihoods vulnerability which is statistically significant at 10 percent significance level. In similar manner, the effect of drought frequency was found
positive to livelihoods vulnerability, in which an increase in the frequency of drought, increase the level of livelihoods vulnerability by a factor
of about 0.42 point indicating the significant impact of drought on community livelihoods vulnerability, where the effect is significant at 1
percent significance level. Consequently, all pitfall observed in survey results are majorly identified to be the result of policy limitation in the
course of adaptation options promotion and publicity. Therefore, based on the study findings, it is suggested that the policy level leaders and
functional managers ought to readdress the designed policies as well as strategies related to service provision and extension service delivery
system need to be revised in the manner that will take into consideration the small-scale farming system situation to ensure environmentally sustainable rural development
