Smallholder coffee-based farmers’ perception and their adaptation strategies of climate change and variability in South-Eastern Ethiopia

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ABSTRACT Recent studies suggest that smallholder farmers’ perceptions rather than exact meteorological data strongly influence how they adapt to the changing climate. Therefore, we explored the climate change (CC) perceptions and adaptation strategies of coffee farmers in dependence on the meteorological data (1983–2020) along an elevation gradient (1,600–2,000 masl) in the Sidama region, Ethiopia. In total, 351 coffee farmers were randomly selected for household interviews, complemented with key informants (KIs), focus group discussions (FGDs), and field observations. Severity Index (SI) was computed to measure farmers’ perception of CC, followed by a Mann–Kendall test to ascertain climate trends. Weighted Average Index (WAI) was also used to rank adaptation strategies. We detected an increasing temperature and annual rainfall trend. Nevertheless, while farmers agreed on rising temperatures, they perceived rainfall reduction, contradicting the meteorological data. The highest SI was recorded for the rising temperature, followed by the uncertainty of rainfall distribution, increasing number of hot days, late-onset, and reduced amount of rainfall. The SI results with KIs and FGDs confirmed that weather events seemed more variable than in the past two to three decades and affected coffee production. As the most important CC adaptation strategies, the respondents practise agroforestry, application of compost, terrace construction, modification of farming calendar, and crop diversification. Our results also revealed that gender, education, farming experience, family size, access to agricultural and farmer-to-farmer extensions, and credit services affected adopting adaptation strategies. This study confirms that farmers’ perception is more important in shaping the applied adaptation strategies.