ASSESSMENT OF FARMERS’ CLIMATE INFORMATION NEED AND ADOPTION OF CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES IN LASTA DISTRICT, NORTH WOLLO ZONE, AMHARA NATIONAL REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Climate change is already having an impact on agriculture as a result of increased prevalence of extreme events, increase of mean temperature, changes in water availability, and perturbations in ecosystems and increased unpredictability of weather patterns. This can lead to reduction in agricultural production and lower income in vulnerable areas. Developing countries and smallholder farmers in particular are being especially hard-hit by these changes. Adoption of climate smart agricultural practices and timely dissemination of useful information on climate change are considered as an appropriate response to climate change. This study was undertaken in Lasta district of North Wollo Zone of Amhara Regional with the objective of assessing farmers’ climate information need and identifying factors affecting adoption of climate smart agricultural practice. Three stage random sampling procedures were used to obtain a total of 160 rural households. The primary data were collected from female and male sample respondents, 14 key informants and three focus group discussions. Descriptive, inferential statistics and ordinal logistic regression were used to analyze the data obtained from sample household. The result indicates that majority of sample households (71.2 %) need information on forecasting of rainfall pattern followed by crops adaptable to climate change (45.6%) and causes of climate change (44.4%). The result of the study also shows that 86.2 % of the sample households adopted at least one climate smart agricultural practices to respond the adverse effect of climate change while the remaining 13.8% of sample households didn’t implement any climate smart agricultural practices. The econometric analysis demonstrated that out of the total thirteen variables included in the model eight variables including age of household head, livestock holding, frequency of contact with extension agent, household source of income, access to climate change information, distance to market, distance to the farm and farmer- to- farmer extension contact were found to be significantly affecting smallholder farmers choice of climate smart agricultural practices. It could be concluded that farmers having diverse source income and well developed infrastructure (road, market, information etc) were more likely to be adopt climate smart agricultural practices.