IMPACT OF CLIMATE VARIABILITY ON COFFEE YIELD AND ADAPTATION STRATEGIES IN GOMMA DISTRICT, JIMMA ZONE OF OROMIA NATIONAL REGION, ETHIOPIA

Changes in frequency and severity of extreme climate events is having significant impacts on human natural systems including coffee production, but this impact and adaptation strategies have not been well explored at local scale.. This study was therefore; conducted to assess the impact of climate variability on coffee yield and farmer’s adaptation strategies in Gomma District. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select the sample households for this study. A total of 262 respondents were selected from four kebeles. Data were collected using household survey, Key informant interviews, focus group discussion and field observation. Meteorological data from 1988 to 2019 and time series data of coffee yield from 2007 to 2019 were collected from the National meteorological agency of Ethiopia and district’s Agriculture and Natural Resource office respectively. INSTAT+ v.3.36, SPSS version 25 and XLSTAT 2014 were employed for data analysis. The result observed that annual rainfall amount showed statistically non-significant increasing trend by a factor of 2.68 mm/year. The annual mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures at study area significantly increased by a factor of 0.4 0C and 0.2 0C per decade, respectively. Pearson correlation showed that, temperatures, start of rainy season and end of season had negative correlation with coffee yield, whereas length of growing period, kiremt season and belg Season rain had positive correlation. Climate factors such as, start of rainy season, end of season, kiremt and belg season, maximum and minimum temperature, contributed about 74% for the variation of coffee yield during the study period. Adaptation strategies pursued by farmers to minimize detrimental effect of climate variability include using shade tree, improved varieties and agroforestry and crop diversification. The study concludes that climate variability and its effect on coffee production are evident in the study area. However, further studies on the impacts of climate variability on coffee production at agro ecological zones is necessary to design and apply more effective climate adaptation strategies for various growing condition and cultivation practices.