Local farmers’ level of perceptions and awareness’s on climate change in Amaro ward, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study assessed the level of perception, awareness and information of households to climate change in Amaro ward, Ethiopia. Two villages were purposively selected from the 34 homogeneous villages that make up the Amaro ward. During the survey, one hundred households were interviewed using multistage technique. Descriptive statistics was applied to analyze the level of information and awareness of rural households on climate change. Weighted Average Score was used to analyze the perception level of respondent’s in the area. Community leaders, head of the ward agricultural office, extension experts, elders and model farmers in the ward were part of the focus group discussion. Data from the focus group discussions complemented the survey results. Descriptive statistics revealed that most (80 and 79%) of households reported that climate has been changing and the change is reflected in terms of temperature and rainfall respectively. The analysis further investigated that majority (77%) of respondents had good awareness on climate change while 68% of them sourced about climate change from community leaders. Weighted Average Score revealed that majority (69%) of the respondents perceived that climate has been changing over the last 20 years in the area. These findings indicate that there is need to enhance farmers’ access to climate data and other climate change information, awareness level of respondents shall reach to the satisfactory level to correctly interpret their perception of climate change.