ASSESSING VULNERABILITY OF SMALLHOLDER FARMERS’ TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND ADAPTATION STRATEGIES IN DOBA DISTRICT, WEST HARARGHE ZONE, ETHIOPIA

Agricultural sector plays a key role in Ethiopia’s economy, but the sector and smallholders farmers are susceptible to climate change due to high dependence on erratic rainfall. This study therefore sought to assess vulnerability of smallholder farmers to climate change and adaptation strategies in Doba district, West Hararghe Zone, Ethiopia. Long-term rainfall and temperature data were obtained from National Meteorological Agency (NMA) of Ethiopia. Rainfall and temperature data were analyzed using INSTAT +v.3.37 and XLSTAT 2014. Integrated vulnerability approach was used to assess vulnerability through construction of indices from selected indicators of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. The indicators were weighted by principal component analysis (PCA).To assess vulnerability to climate change and adaptation strategies, a total of 150 sample households were selected using simple random sampling technique and data were collected by household survey through questionnaire, focus group discussion and key informant interview, and the acquired data were analyzed using SPSSv20. The trend analysis showed that the annual rainfall, kiremt and belg rainfall showed a decreasing trend by factor of -0.375,-0.414 and -0.718 mm/year respectively. The average onset date, cessation date, and length of growing period were 28 April, 25 October and 169 days respectively. Maximum temperature revealed a statistically significant increasing trend for annual, kiremt and belg seasons. The vulnerability index of kebeles in different agro-ecologies ranged between-1.57 and 0.45. Based on the result, Gemechu representing the highland was the most vulnerable kebele with an index of -1.57 followed by Urji Berisa (-0.19) representing the midland and Dirre Negeya (0.45) representing lowland agro-ecology. The result shows that farmers living in the highland areas were more vulnerable to climate change shocks as compared to those living in the midland and lowland area. It was also observed that to reduce climate change risks, farmers in the study area employed several adaptation strategies. The study found out that soil and water conservation (100%), mixed cropping (84.7%), income diversification (65.3%) and crop diversification (48.7%) were found to be prominent adaptation strategies for their livelihoods. Since the study area was vulnerable to climate change, more effective adaptation strategies should be designed to reduce current and future vulnerability of smallholder farmers.