Determinant of Farmers’ Choice of Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change in Rural Areas of Ambo District, Ethiopia

Abstract

An understanding of the factors that shape farmers’ choice of adaptation strategies is critical to developing adaptation policies. This paper investigates the determinants of the choice of adaptation strategies to climate change using data from farmers in rural areas of Ambo district, Ethiopia. We employed a multinomial logit model to identify the determinants of farmers’ choice of adaptation strategies to climate change. The results indicate that agro-ecology, age, gender, education, household size, active labor force, livestock ownership, credit access, extension service access, farm income, and farmer-to-farmer extension positively influence farmers’ choice of adaptation strategies. On the contrary, distance to the farm and farm size are negatively related to farmers’ choices of adaptation strategies. The following implications are worthy of consideration for improving farmers’ adoption of adaptation options to offset the impact of climate change: investment in the educational system, strengthening the extension service, access to credit facilities, and the provision of recommended agricultural inputs.