Smallholder farmers’ level of understanding on the impacts of climate change on water resources in northern Ethiopia catchment

Abstract

Little efforts have been made to scientifically document smallholder farmers understanding on the nature of climate change effects on water resources in developing countries. The objective of this study was to examine farmers understanding about climate change impacts on water resources in the Dura catchment, northern Ethiopia. Total sample sizes of 79 farmers’ selected using systematic sampling method were interviewed with semi-structured questionnaire. Data were subjected to descriptive, chi-square and t-test analysis. The majority of the farmers reported that socioeconomic, farm and institutional attributes influenced significantly their understanding of climate change effects on water resources. This study showed that most farmers are well aware about the significant differences in the sensitivity of water resources to climate change effects across the different landforms. According to 58% of the farmers’, water resources in the mountainous area of the study catchment is “very sensitive” to climate change effects. In this study, significantly higher proportion of farmers also understood climate change effects on the different water resource components such as soil moisture storage, runoff, groundwater, evapotranspiration. The impact of climate change on the different sectors of water utilization as irrigated agriculture, rain-fed agriculture and water supply was also reported by 78.3, 73.2 and 59.5% of the respondents, respectively. According to 98.7% of the respondents, impacts of climate change under unsuitable condition damages severely their economic condition. Against such impact of climate change on water resources; about 86.8% of the farmers reported that they have been used re-active adaptation practices. However, many respondents (74.7%) believed that shared responsibility among the actors could enhance the successfulness of pro-active activities against climate change effects on water resources. On the basis of this study it is concluded that farmers seem to have noticed the changes and impacts of climate on water resources and this could contribute to improve the limited knowledge on climate science. Hence, smallholder farmers level of understanding on the effects of climate change on water resources should be considered by development workers and planners during decision-making processes and developing adaptation strategies that address challenges already faced and in the future.