Abstract
Purpose This paper aims to understand the perception of smallholder farmers on climate change, identify major livestock related climate change adaptation (CCA) strategies and their determinants in selected neighboring districts of Tigray and Amhara regions of Ethiopia. Design/methodology/approach A total of 416 household heads were involved in a questionnaire survey using a multistage sampling approach. To understand the socio-economic factors that influence farmers’ perception on climate change (CC) and/or variability, a binary logit model was used. Multinomial logit model was used to identify the determinants of smallholder farmers’ choices of adaptation strategies. Findings Milk reduction, weight loss, feed shortage and frequent animal disease outbreak were indicated as major impacts of CC on livestock production. About 86.2% of the farmers’ exercise CCA measures where livestock health care and management (25%), followed by livelihood diversification (21.5%) and shifting and diversification of livestock species (20.9%) were the top three adaptation measures implemented. Education, knowledge on CCA strategies, access to veterinary service and extension, market access, annual income, non-farm income, total livestock unit, sex of household head and household size were the major determinant factors to farmers’ choice of CCA. Research limitations/implications Concerned authorities working in CC related sectors should give due attention to improve smallholder farmers’ access to extension and veterinary services, market access and climate information to enhance their adaptive capacity to CC impacts. In addition, incorporating climate change awareness trainings into the existing extension packages is crucial to enhance the awareness of farmers on climate change and implement appropriate adaptation strategies. Moreover, it is very essential to provide appropriate herd management and marketing strategy based on the production system to avoid the significant price reduction during drought periods. Practical implications Concerned authorities working in CC related sectors should give due attention to improve smallholder farmers’ access to extension and veterinary services, market access and climate information to enhance their adaptive capacity to CC impacts. In addition, incorporating climate change awareness trainings into the existing extension packages is crucial to implement appropriate adaptation strategies. Moreover, it is very essential to provide appropriate herd management and marketing strategy based on the production system to avoid the significant price reduction during drought periods. Originality/value This research is focused on smallholder crop-livestock farmers, livestock-based CCASs and presents the determinant factors to their choice of adaptation.
Highlights
In Ethiopia, the livestock sector significantly contributes to sustainable agricultural development where it accounts approximately 17% of total gross domestic product (GDP) and 39% of agricultural GDP (Shapiro et al, 2017)
The coefficient of variation (CoV) for Tmax ranged between 1.66% (Kobo) and 5.02% (Alamata), which shows that the variability in maximum temperature was minimum
Though livestock-based climate change adaptation measures are instrumental to build the resilience of mixed crop-livestock farmers to climate change, their implementation has been influenced by inadequate information and resources in the study regions
Summary
In Ethiopia, the livestock sector significantly contributes to sustainable agricultural development where it accounts approximately 17% of total gross domestic product (GDP) and 39% of agricultural GDP (Shapiro et al, 2017). The livestock sector is increasingly organized in long market chains that employ at least 1.3 billion people globally and directly supports the livelihoods of 600 million poor smallholder farmers in developing countries (Thornton et al, 2007). Smallholder production remains the predominant enterprise model in global agriculture, largely because of the large number of household farms in low income countries (FAO, 2014). The impacts of CC and/or CV are severe in farming communities within developing lowincome countries like Ethiopia and low-middle income countries owing to lack of resources, knowledge, veterinary and extension services and research in technology development (Thornton et al, 2009; Bryan et al, 2013). Analysis of observed temperature data indicates that there has been an increase in seasonal mean temperature in many areas of the country over the past decades (Funk et al, 2008), and there is a change in the rainfall trend
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