ADAPTATION STRATEGIES TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND THEIR DETERMINANTS BY SMALLHOLDER FARMERS: THE CASE OF CHIRO WOREDA OF OROMIA NATIONAL REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Though climate change is a global phenomenon, it highly impacts smallholder farmers whose livelihood depends on rain-fed agriculture. As a result, the study was conducted with the objective of examining the perception level, the types of climate change adaptation strategies pursued, and factors influencing the adaptation strategies focusing on randomly selected 175 smallholder farmers from three kebeles in Chiro woreda of West Hararghe zone. Household survey, focus group discussions and key informant interviews were used to obtain pertinent data for the study. The study employed both descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression econometric model for data analysis. With regards to the climate change perception, 96% reported that they observed the general change in climate while 94% and 92% specifically observed decrease in precipitation and increase in temperature respectively. Planting diversified crops, tree planting, soil and water conservation and planting improved crop varieties were the climate change adaptation strategies pursued by sample households. The economic model result showed level of education, family size, age, livestock ownership, access to extension services, access to climate change information, participation in farmer-to farm extension and size of farmland as significant determinants of climate change adaptation strategies. According to the study, planting diversified crop was preferred to provide human food and animal feed for livestock at the expense of improved farming. Hence, development programs should focus on promotion of livestock feed and creation of non-farm employment while extension services should focus on integrating adult education, cross-learning among farmers and emphasizing promotion of climate change adaptation practices