Analysis of Smallholders’ Livelihood Vulnerability to Drought across Agroecology and Farm Typology in the Upper Awash Sub-Basin, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Assessing the magnitude of smallholder farmers’ livelihood vulnerability to drought is an initial step in identifying the causal factors and proposing interventions that mitigate the impacts of drought. This study aimed to assess smallholders’ livelihood vulnerability to the drought in the upper Awash sub-basin, Ethiopia. Household (HH) and climate data were used for indicators related to sensitivity, exposure, and adaptive capacity that define vulnerability to drought. The vulnerability of farmers’ livelihood to drought was compared among the studies agroecological zone (AEZ) and farm typologies. Results: The result illustrated a diverse magnitude of vulnerability index (VI) ranging from −1.956 to −4.253 for AEZ. The highest magnitude of VI was estimated for livelihood in the lowland AEZ, while the lowest magnitude of VI was estimated in midland AEZ. This could be accounted for by the fact that lowland farmers shown the highest exposure (0.432) and sensitivity (0.420) and the lowest adaptive capacity (0.288). A closer look at farmers’ livelihood typology, in each of the AEZ, showed substantial diversity of farmers’ livelihood vulnerability to drought, implying potential aggregations at AEZ. Accordingly, the vulnerability index for livestock and on-farm-income-based livelihood and marginal and off-farm-income-based livelihood typologies were higher than the intensive-irrigation-farming-based smallholders’ livelihood typology. Conclusions: Based on the result, we concluded that procedures for smallholders’ livelihood resilience-building efforts should better target AEZ to prioritize the focus region and farmers’ livelihood typology to tailor technologies to farms. Although the result emphasizes the importance of irrigation-based livelihood strategy, the overall enhancement of farmers adaptive capacity needs to focus on action areas such as reducing the sensitivity and exposure of the households, improving farmers usage of technologies, diversify farmers’ livelihood options, and, hence, long-term wealth accumulation to strengthen farmers’ adaptive capacity toward drought impacts.

Determinants of Smallholder Households’ Resilience to Livelihood Insecurity in Goncha District, Northwest Highlands of Ethiopia

“…The majority respondents (54.29%) composed from 3 to 4 productive labor sizes. Productive labour size strongly correlated to more income and livelihood development at household level [61,68]. In association with this, of the total about 53.57% respondents composed from 5 to 6 family members.…”

“…The male-headed households were more effective in agricultural productivity than female-headed households due to lower capacity of assets accumulation [48]. Female headed households are less resilient than male-headed because of low adaptive capacity, lack of assets and more vulnerability [22,61]. Farming experience and age are continuous variables considering in the study.…”

“…Kola agroecology is the most vulnerable area to livelihood insecurity because of severe land degradation, climate variability, and drought. The lowland or kola agroecological zone was more susceptible to climate variability and change due to lack of access to basic services, low level of diversification of income activities, and lack of available technologies [34,61]. Weak social networks, severe land degradation, and low assets possession in the kola agroecology result in the highest exposure and sensitivity, the lowest adaptive capacity and the most susceptible livelihood as compared to other agroecologies [93,61].…”

“…The lowland or kola agroecological zone was more susceptible to climate variability and change due to lack of access to basic services, low level of diversification of income activities, and lack of available technologies [34,61]. Weak social networks, severe land degradation, and low assets possession in the kola agroecology result in the highest exposure and sensitivity, the lowest adaptive capacity and the most susceptible livelihood as compared to other agroecologies [93,61]. In the lowland agroecology erratic rainfall and high temperature during growing season, and invasive crop pests could result in crop failure and reduction of productivity, indicating more sensitive (61).…”

“…Improved human capital, participation in diverse social networks, access to information, and openness to sustainable agriculture, value-added practices, and technological innovation are also principal factors for achieving resilience at the household level [43]. Across diverse livelihood zones of Ethiopia, numerous studies conducted on livelihood vulnerability to climate change induced hazards [34,2,11,61,65] and household resilience to food insecurity [92,56,1]. Household resilience to food insecurity implies that the ability of household to maintain a certain level of food security when faced with agricultural drought and other shocks [71].…”