Farm Level Adaptation to Climate Change: The Case of Farmer’s in the Ethiopian Highlands

• Published in: Environmental management (New York) 2013-07, Vol.52 (1), p.29-44
• Main Authors: Gebrehiwot, Tagel, van der Veen, Anne
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adult; Agricultural production; Agriculture; Agriculture - methods; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Biological and medical sciences; Climate; Climate adaptation; Climate Change; Climatology. Bioclimatology. Climate change; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Decision Making; Developing countries; Development projects; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth, ocean, space; Ecology; Economic development; Economic growth; Environment; Environmental Management; Ethiopia; Exact sciences and technology; External geophysics; Farm income; Farmers; Farms; Female; Food security; Forestry Management; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; GDP; General aspects; Greenhouse effect; Gross Domestic Product; Households; Humans; LDCs; Logistic Models; Male; Mathematical models; Meteorology; Middle Aged; Nature Conservation; Perception; Perceptions; Policies; Precipitation; Rainfed farming; Rural areas; Rural Population; Small farms; Surveys and Questionnaires; Temperature; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control
• ISSN: 0364-152X; 1432-1009
• DOI: 10.1007/s00267-013-0039-3

In Ethiopia, climate change and associated risks are expected to have serious consequences for agriculture and food security. This in turn will seriously impact on the welfare of the people, particularly the rural farmers whose main livelihood depends on rain-fed agriculture. The level of impacts will mainly depend on the awareness and the level of adaptation in response to the changing climate. It is thus important to understand the role of the different factors that influence farmers’ adaptation to ensure the development of appropriate policy measures and the design of successful development projects. This study examines farmers’ perception of change in climatic attributes and the factors that influence farmers’ choice of adaptation measures to climate change and variability. The estimated results from the climate change adaptation models indicate that level of education, age and wealth of the head of the household; access to credit and agricultural services; information on climate, and temperature all influence farmers’ choices of adaptation. Moreover, lack of information on adaptation measures and lack of finance are seen as the main factors inhibiting adaptation to climate change. These conclusions were obtained with a Multinomial logit model, employing the results from a survey of 400 smallholder farmers in three districts in Tigray, northern Ethiopian.