Mekonnen H Daba
Understanding of local people’s perception on environmental conditions is crucial to design and implement appropriate adaptation strategies to climate change and variability. This study looked at communities’ perception of climate change impacts, barriers and effective adaptation strategies towards climate change in selected districts of western Oromia. This study examines smallholder farmers’ perceptions of climate variability, climate change and its impacts on crop production, and adaptation strategies adopted over the past three 30 years. Survey data were collected from 204 respondents using both qualitative and quantitative approaches through purposive sampling techniques. Descriptive statistics such as percentage and frequency were used for data analysis. The results of the study showed that the respondents were perceived, the occurrence of climate change in terms of increase in temperatures, decrease in rainfall and change in timing of rain, change in the onset of rains, erratic rainfall pattern. The study also indicated that due to climate change induced factors the agricultural productivity was reduced from time to time. The results show that about 80%) of farmers who participated had observed recent changes in climate. Perceptions of local communities on climate change and variability are consistent with the analyzed historical climate data. The analyzed climate data show fluctuations in onset date, cessation date and length of growing season (LGS) and change in climate. Farmers perceived weather related problems such as low rain, drought, flood, heat, cold, strong wind that led increased farming problems such as soil erosion, loss of soil fertility; reduction in crop yields and high rate of disease occurrence. The impacts of climate change on crop production were revealed by changes in start of farming season; including: rainfall coming early or late, decrease in rainfall, increase in temperature and increase in farming problems, in particular, increase in soil erosion, loss of soil fertility and reduction in crop yields. The results showed that farmers perceived climate change in terms of changes in rainfall and temperature, increase in drought condition, crop pests and diseases. Those changes had significant impact on farmers’ households whose income depends on rain fed farming. The findings revealed that the impacts of climate in rural areas include reduced in crop yield (49%); increase in pest and disease (34%) and soil erosion (98%). Respondents perceived the main cause of climate change was human action through; intensified agriculture, deforestation, increased use of fossil fuel and use of chemical fertilizer on farms. Therefore, to adapt to the changing in climate, farming community practiced some adaptation measure. The adaptation measures identified were soil and water conservation, crop rotation, change crop varieties, change planting dates, late planting, diversification of crop types and varieties, drought resistant varieties, building water harvesting schemes and use of irrigation. Widely used adaptation measures are soil and water conservation, crop rotation, changing planting dates and change crop varieties in the study area. Besides, the finding identified some serious barriers of adaptation measure to climate change including lack of information, shortage of labor, lack of capital, black of access to water and poor potential for irrigation. Therefore, there is a need to focus community dimensions such as perceptions of smallholder farmers. The study recommends enhanced knowledge of climate change and climate smart agriculture practices for their improved adoption.