ANALYSIS OF CLIMATE VARIABILITY, PERCEPTION AND ADAPTATION OPTIONS OF SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN THE RURAL AREAS OF DIRE DAWA ADMINISTRATION, EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Climate variability increasingly affects the livelihoods of smallholder farmers by reducing agricultural crop production. Moreover, better understanding of climate variability together with the perception of smallholder farmers is essential to devise proper strategies that enhance adaptive capacity. In light of these, this study was conducted to analyses climate variability, farmer’s perception and adaptation options in rural areas of Dire Dawa. To achieve this aims, climate data were obtained from NMA and data on perception and adaptation strategies were collected from a randomly selected 120 sample households through interviews. Climate data were examined for climate variability indicators and trends using INSTAT+ v3.36 and XLSAT 2014 respectively, whereas perception and adaptation options were analyzed using SPSS. Analysis of historical climate data revealed that the earliest and latest onset dates of rainy season were 15th of April and 2nd of August respectively. On average, the rainy season (belg-kiremt) started on June 24th (176 DOY) and showed nearly moderate variation (CV of 19.8%). On the other hand, earliest and latest end dates of rainfall were 28th October (302 DOY) and 28th December (363 DOY) respectively. Moreover, the belg season rainfall indicated high CV (43.7%) as compared to annual (CV of 19.8%) and kiremt season (CV of 18.3%). The Mann-Kendall test showed a decreasing trend in annual and belg seasonal rainfall by -0.12mm and -0.4mm over the past three decades respectively. The study suggested that, the decreased annual rainfall by -0.12mm and increased maximum and minimum annual temperature (by 0.74OC and 0.15OC respectively) were consistent with local smallholder farmers’ perception 90% and 91.7% respectively. “Comparing appearances of lived experience with heat temperature, an elderly farmers stated that, our life was uncomfortable during the day to stay in the farm, especially when working on farm at midday time due to extreme temperature. Smallholder farmers also took a number of measures to adapt to adverse effects of climate variability and change within their capacity. Soil and water conservation practices (100%), off-farm income diversification (63%), planting drought-tolerant varieties (50%) and changing of planting date (45%) were found to be prominent adaptation strategies for their livelihoods. Despite higher perception and implementation of adaptation practices, the study area still faces vagaries of climate change and variability. Therefore, it is essential to bolster efforts to improve success of smallholder farmers avoid delay of implementing adaptation practices