IMPACTS OF CLIMATE VARIABILITY ON GROUNDNUT (Arachis hypogaea L) YIELD AND FARMERS’ COPPING AND ADAPTATION STRATEGIES IN DARO LABU DISTRICT, WEST HARARGE, ETHIOPIA

for farmers to obtain early maturing seed varieties for planting before the onset of rainy season, altering plantation date should be promoted, and more research on early maturing crop varieties This study was undertaken in Daro Labu District to investigate the impacts of variability in rainfall characteristics and temperature on groundnut yield, and explore farmers’ copping and adaptation strategies. To achieve a set of objective, rainfall and temperature data from 1995-2019 and groundnut yield data from 2005-2019 were obtained from Ethiopian National Metrological Agency and Daro Labu District Agriculture and Natural Resource Office respectively. In addition, to elicit coping and adaptation measures, household interviews based on a statistically determined sample of 140 respondents were conducted. Instat software version +v.3.37, SPSS version 16.0 and XLSTAT 2014 were employed for the analyses. The long-term annual rainfall showed less variability from year to year with 19.1% coefficient of variation. Seasonally, bega and belg rainfall total showed high variability than the kiremt total rainfall. The variability of onset date of rainfall was moderate (CV= 28.7%), but more variable than LGP (CV= 20.3%) and cessation date (CV= 9.3%). The minimum and maximum temperatures showed an increasing trend both seasonally and annually. The result of the correlation analysis showed that belg rainy day, (r = -0.58) and belg rainfall total (r=-0.51) had negative strong relationship with groundnut yield. Kiremt rainfall total(r = -0.34), and length of growing period (r = -0.41) had moderate relationship with groundnut yield. However, onset date of the rainy season (r = 0.32) had positive correlation with groundnut yield. Moreover, belg mean temperature and kiremt mean temperature showed positive strong correlation with groundnut yield. Coefficient of multiple regressions (R2) was 0.49 (i.e.,49% of variation in groundnut yield has been explained by climatic parameters jointly at Daro Labu). In response to perceived impacts, farm households implemented various coping and adaptation strategies. Among the rainfall variables the study finds later and high variability of the start of rainy season and slight delay in rainfall cessation date in the study area. Hence, there is a need