Farmers’ perception of drought and its socioeconomic impact: the case of Tigray and Afar regions of Ethiopia

Mafongoya

Journal of Asian and African Studies

2020

Drought is a major challenge threatening agricultural productivity in uMsinga. The occurrence of drought is expected to increase in coming decades, intensifying in severity, duration and the way people are affected by drought. The objective of this study is to understand small-scale farmers’ and rural communities’ perceptions of drought, its environmental and socio-economic impacts, adaptive and mitigation measures at household level and their satisfaction with the government’s role in drought management in the community. The study utilized a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods, in the form of questionnaires, focus groups and key informant interviews. The sample size for the research study was 180 respondents for the questionnaire component and a total of 30 respondents for the focus groups and key informant interviews. The results show that increased levels of poverty, food insecurity and increased migration were the main socio-economic impacts perceived by respondents. Water scarcity, crop failure, forest degradation and an increase in average temperatures were perceived by respondents as the main environmental impacts caused by drought in uMsinga. Respondents perceived drought as a serious threat to agricultural production and adopted various indigenous adaptive strategies. A majority of respondents adopted a reactive approach to drought management, and therefore did not adopt many mitigation measures.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 53%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impacts of Drought and the Adaptive Strategies of Small-Scale Farmers in uMsinga, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Mafongoya

Journal of Asian and African Studies

2020

“…In this regard, perceptions of households with differential characteristics are also genuine in Southern Ethiopian lowlands where households expressed their perceptions for local climate variability related interrogations as good times only remained as past history, rainfall both in its amount and frequency (rainy days) has been observed with decreasing tendency, and bad weathers are the implications of God's punishment (Aklilu and Alebachew 2009). Ethiopian farmers perceive drought impacts as augmenting average temperature and degraded environmental resources like water quality, pasture, and forest at a maximum extent with meager proactive preparedness on the contrary (Habtamu et al 2018). These conditions further necessitate vitally investigating local communities' perceptions and understanding of climate induced health hazards for effective disaster risk management (Ncube and Tawodzera 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community Perceptions and Understanding of Vulnerability in Drought Prone Gamo Lowlands, Southwest Ethiopia

Tora¹,

Degaga²,

Utallo³

2021

Preprint

The conceptual root of vulnerability dates back to the 1970s in social sciences. Vulnerability is a multi-dimensional and determinant precondition for disaster occurrence. Gamo lowlands are exposed to multiple vulnerabilities. The objective of the study was to assess community perceptions and understanding of vulnerability in drought-affected rural Gamo lowlands. A community-based cross-sectional survey design and mixed methods approach were implemented in the study. Four staged multistage sampling was employed to identify respondent households. Into four study sites, sample households were allocated proportionally by lottery method. Data were gathered from 285 lowland rural households. The structured survey questionnaire, KII, FGD, and informal interview were used to collect primary data. Data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. SPSS version 23 was employed for descriptive statistical duties. 68.1% of households were found at low educational status with 46 years of average age. Locally, people perceive and understand vulnerability as exposure to drought hazard, rainfall inconsistency, the prevalence of human and animal diseases, livelihood insecurity, food shortfalls, poor income, lack of access to market, landholding, and livestock ownership which are schematized by vulnerability perception pathways that delineate its extent. The findings also showed that all households are not equally vulnerable as 96.5% of the studied households stated differential idiosyncrasy of vulnerability. Old aged, small-sized, and female-headed households with no supportive force were found to be more vulnerable. For better resilience, enhancing communities’ perceptions and understanding of vulnerability via continuous awareness creation by all the concerned stakeholders is recommended as the majority were lowly educated.

“…The study examined socioeconomic and environmental impacts, adaptation strategies, and opinions on government drought mitigation measures. A recent study by Menghistu et al. (2018) assessed farmers' perception of drought and its impact in Tigray.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception of weather and seasonal drought forecasts and its impact on livelihood in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

Kuswanto

Hibatullah

Soedjono

2019

Heliyon

A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018 to assess the perception of households on drought forecasts and its impact on crop and livestock losses. A total of 300 households from seven districts in East Nusa Tenggara Indonesia were considered. The study indicated that the majority of the households are poor families with low education background. They sold poultry for income generation during drought events. The survey revealed that only small percentage of the households usied forecast to support their livelihood management. The statistical test confirmed that the use of forecast did not necessarily impacted the crop loss. However, the crops were significantly affected by the response to drought forecast. Households that changed their agricultural practice experienced significantly different losses than households that did not do anything differently to their crops. The households argued that the accuracy of the forecasts issued by the government was very low. Therefore, it is recommended that policymakers and government authorities provide more accurate forecasts and a better strategy to increase household awareness of using drought forecasts.