Abstract:
Climate change is a global phenomenon. Its impact on agricultural activities and the livelihoo
d of the population in developing countries has increased dramatically. Understanding howfarmers perceive climate change and how they adapt to it is very important to the implementat
ion of adequate and relevant adaptation strategies. This study was conducted in the Dangila
district to investigate farmers’ perception and the trend of rainfall and temperature, theadaption strategies, and the factors that impact their choice to adapt by sampling 138 farmhouseholds. Both primary and secondary data sources were used in the study. The survquestionnaire, FGD, and KII were used to gather the data. The Mann-Kendall trend test anSen’s Slope estimator were used to analyze the trend and magnitude of climate changeFurthermore, descriptive statistics and a multinomial logit model were used to identifadaptation strategies and determine factors that influence the choice of adaptation strategierespectively. The rainfall showed a non-significant increasing trend in winter (Bega), summ(June – September), and annually. However, there is a non-significant decreasing trend rainfall in the spring (Belg) season. From 1991-2022, the annual maximum and minimumtemperatures have shown a statistically significant increasing trend, with recorded increment
s of 0.3
O
C decadal with a 0.03
O
C yearly increasing rate. Farmers perceived an increase annual temperature and a decrease in rainfall trend with low variability. Among theinterviewed farmers chi-square test showed a significant variation in the perception temperature and rainfall over Agroecology and Sex. The descriptive statistics results that themain adaptation strategies used by farmers include the use of improved variety, soil andwater conservation, planting trees & agroforestry, and use of irrigation & water harvesting.The multinomial logit model revealed determinant factors such as gender, age, family sizeducational level, farming experience, access to extension service, access to climateinformation, lack of infrastructure, farmland size, agroecological zone, Tropical livestockUnit, and financial interest which has a positive and negative impact on different adaptatiostrategies in the study district. Given the main study outcomes, it is recommended that ruraldevelopment approaches should be put into practice to support farmers in adapting to the
climate-related impact and the risks they encounter more effectively.