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Perception of climate change and its impact by smallholders in pastoral/agropastoral systems of Borana, South Ethiopia
Debela et al. SpringerPlus
Perception of climate change and its impact by smallholders in pastoral/agropastoral systems of Borana, South Ethiopia
Nega Debela 0
Caroline Mohammed 0
Kerry Bridle 0
Ross Corkrey 0
David McNeil 0
0 Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania , Hobart, TAS 7001 , Australia
This study investigates the perception of historic changes in climate and associated impact on local agriculture among smallholders in pastoral/agropastoral systems of Borana in southern Ethiopia. We drew on empirical data obtained from farm household surveys conducted in 5 districts, 20 pastoral/agropastoral associations and 480 farm households. Using this data, this study analyses smallholders' perception of climate change and its associated impact on local agriculture, and the effect of various household and farm attributes on perception. Results suggest that most participants perceived climatic change and its negative impact on agricultural and considered climate change as a salient risk to their future livelihoods and economic development. Different levels of perception were expressed in terms of climate change and the impact on traditional rain-fed agriculture. Age, education level, livestock holding, access to climate information and extension services significantly affected perception levels. Household size, production system, farm and non-farm incomes did not significantly affect perception levels of smallholders. Smallholders attributed climate change to a range of biophysical, deistic and anthropogenic causes. Increased access to agricultural support services, which improves the availability and the quality of relevant climate information will further enhance awareness of climate change within of the rural community and result in better management of climate-induced risks in these vulnerable agricultural systems.
Adaptation; Farm households; Pastoral/agropastoral systems; Perception; Rainfed agriculture; Vulnerability
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Introduction
Perception strongly affects how farmers deal with
climateinduced risks and opportunities, and the precise nature of
their behavioural responses to this perception will shape
adaptation options, the process involved and adaptation
outcomes (Adger et al. 2009; Pauw 2013). Misconception
about climate change and its associated risk may result in
no adaptation or maladaptation thus increasing the negative
impact of climate change (Grothmann and Patt 2005).
Rural households in sub-Saharan Africa are heavily
reliant on their natural resource base to provide food
and income for the family, and the availability of such
resources is dependent on favourable seasonal weather
conditions (Solomon et al. 2007). In the climatically more
variable regions of sub-Saharan Africa, where dryland
farming systems are common, the heavy reliance on rainfed
agriculture increases the vulnerability of rural households
to the adverse impacts of climate change (Thomas et al.
2007; Mertz et al. 2009). Resource-poor farmers have
limited capacity to adapt and are particularly vulnerable
(Antwi-Agyei et al. 2012). In Ethiopia, agricultural
production is predominantly rain-fed and irrigated
agriculture constitutes only 1.1 % of the total cultivated
land (Bewket and Conway 2007) and less than 3 % of the
current food production in the country (Awulachew et al.
2005). Pastoralism in Ethiopia represents about 60 % of
the land mass and much of the commercially valuable
livestock is produced under rainfed dryland small-scale
agricultural systems vulnerable to the adverse impacts
of climate change (Little et al. 2010; Fratkin 2014). In
addition to climate change agricultural systems in
developing countries are faced with other risks such as
demand for rapidly growing population, changing land
tenure systems and ecological degradation (Jones and
Thornton 2009; Rufino et al. 2013).
The current international scientific consensus is that
recent global warming conditions indicate a fairly stable
long-term trend with natural variability of local climate
(Hansen et al. 2012). The notorious variability in local
climate conditions and the underlying long-term trend
towards global warming makes it difficult for local people
to discern climate change. Beliefs and attitudes towards
climate change depend on contextual factors including
access to climate information and experiential learning.
For instance, the large majority of scientists working in
disciplines contributing to studies of our climate, accept
that climate change is almost certainly being caused by
human activities (Hansen et al. 2012). Indigenous people
with limited access to climate information are more likely
to attribute changing climatic conditions, particularly
extreme weather events, to a change in their rituals and
cultural practices (Nyanga et al. 2011). Irrespective of the
driving forces however understanding views of target
communities is important to prompt the need to adapt and
facilitate support for policy related adaptation (...truncated)