Vulnerability of Smallholder Farmers to Climate Change at Dabat and West Belesa Districts, North Gondar, Ethiopia

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This article analyzes climate change vulnerability of farm households in Dabat and West Belesa Districts of North Gondar, Ethiopia. A total of 790 households surveyed to collect data on Socio-Demographic Profile, Livelihood Strategies, Social Networks, Health, Food, Water, and Natural Disasters and Climate Variability. Two Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) approaches were employed to analyze the data collected. The first approach was the composite index approach which is used to analyze the vulnerability of major-components and the overall Districts vulnerability based on 29 environmental and socio-economic vulnerability indicators. The second was IPCC framework approach which is employed to reflect the three vulnerability components identified by IPCC: exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. SPSS version number 20 was the tool of analyzes. The overall vulnerability result in the case of LVI - composite index approach was 0.393 and 0.447 for Dabat and West Belesa respectively and similar result was found using the IPCC framework approach result which was 0.027 and 0.048 for Dabat and West Belesa respectively. This result reveals that farmers living in West Belesa were more vulnerable to climate change than farmers living in Dabat. Interventions including improving education access, introducing alternative means of livelihood, creation of access to market and road access, access to timely Agro-weather information and increasing access to people-centered early warning information are needed from government and development actors.