Assessing The Impacts of Climate Variability on Rural Households in Agricultural Land Through The Application of Livelihood Vulnerability Index

Abstract

Climate variability adversely affects rural households in Ethiopia as they depend on rain-fed agriculture, which is highly vulnerable to climate fluctuations and severe events such as drought and pests. In view of this, we have assessed the impacts of climate variability on rural household’s livelihoods in agricultural land in Tarchazuria district of Dawuro Zone. A total of 270 samples of household heads were selected using a multistage sampling technique with sample size allocation procedures of the simple random sampling method. Simple linear regression, the standard precipitation index, the coefficient of variance, and descriptive statistics were used to analyze climatic data such as rainfall and temperature. Two livelihood vulnerability analysis approaches, such as composite index and Livelihood Vulnerability Index-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (LVI-IPCC) approaches, were used to analyze indices for socioeconomic and biophysical indicators. The study revealed that the variability patterns of rainfall and increasing temperatures had been detrimental effects on rural households' livelihoods. The result showed households of overall standardized, average scores of Wara Gesa (0.60) had high livelihood vulnerability with dominant major components of natural, physical, social capital, and livelihood strategies to climate-induced natural hazards than Mela Gelda (0.56). The LVI-IPCC analysis results also revealed that the rural households in Mela Gelda were more exposed to climate variability than Wara Gesa and slightly sensitive to climate variability, considering the health and knowledge and skills, natural capitals, and financial capitals of the households. Therefore, interventions including road infrastructure construction, integrated with watershed management, early warning information system, providing training, livelihood diversification, and SWC measures' practices should be a better response to climate variability-induced natural hazards.
 Keywords: Households; Livelihood Vulnerability Index; climate variability; Tarchazuria District
 
 Copyright (c) 2021 Geosfera Indonesia and Department of Geography Education, University of Jember
 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share A like 4.0 International License

Spatiotemporal Variability and Trends in Rainfall and Temperature in South Ethiopia: Implications for Climate Change Adaptations in Rural Communities

“…In Ethiopia, several studies have assessed the variations in rainfall and temperature over a wide range of geographic areas and time scales [23][24][25][26][27][28]. Despite the fact that these studies ofered an important foundation for understanding climate trends and variability, the majority of the previous studies were limited to data from a few selected meteorological stations.…”

Spatiotemporal land use and cover changes across agroecologies and slope gradients using geospatial technologies in Zoa watershed, Southwest Ethiopia

“…The rainfall is a bimodal type in the watershed. March to May is the short rainy season, while June to September is the long rainy season ( Gitima et al., 2021 ). The Zoa river is a tributary of the Omo-Gibe basin that flows from the south east to the northwest, eventually reaching the Gojeb river.…”

“…Even though the watershed has a lot of agriculture potential; farmers use traditional means of production results very low productivity. Furthermore, agricultural activity is primarily rain-fed, and market access is limited, rendering farming households' livelihoods extremely stagnant ( Gitima et al., 2021 ). Farmland, grassland, forestland, shrubland, and bareland are among the five major LULC classifications identified in the research area ( Table 1 ).…”

“…Zoa watershed exhibits climatic variations from lowland to highland ( Gezmu et al., 2021 ). The watershed receives a total annual rainfall of 1398.8 mm, with mean minimum and maximum annual temperatures ranging from 14.65 °C to 16.12 °C and 26.4 °C–29.3 °C, respectively ( Gitima et al., 2021 ). Temperature becomes intense in January, February and March.…”

“…Moreover, about 64.4% of the interviewees specified that drought incidences including erratic rainfall were considered the drivers of LULC change. According to Gitima et al. (2021) , both minimum and maximum temperature were increased with the seasonal erratic nature of rainfall bringing indescribable hardship in the Dawuro zone.…”