The effects of adaptation to climate change on income of households in rural Ethiopia

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most serious impediments to agricultural prosperity in Ethiopia, especially where livestock is concerned. In particular, rural farming communities in the drylands of the Afar region are severely exposed to the impacts of climate change, with stark reminders from repeating droughts followed by crop failure and livestock decimation. Locals have a long history of applying adaptation measures to maintain their sustenance. However, a growing literature challenges whether these traditional methods can continue to sustain local livelihoods. This study identifies how pastoral, semi-pastoral, agro-pastoral and mixed-farming communities in Afar perceive and adapt to climate change and whether these practices have brought about any improvement in farm income. A panel data set of five years was gathered using structured questionnaires from a sample of 313 households. Household heads pointed out indicators to identify climate-related stress such as erratic rainfall, drought, temperature change, drying of water sources, prevalence of diseases and lack of human and livestock feed. A fixed effects quantitative model on the panel data was estimated to verify the effect of adaptation strategies on income of household heads. We found that the main adaptation strategies that significantly influenced household income levels were forage production (hay and straw), access to water sources, livestock diversification and migration. The implication is that people severely affected by climate change and living in a situation demanding urgent solutions can actively apply various adaptation strategies if the strategies are linked to the creation of sustainable income benefits. Thus, integrated approaches comprising adaptation methods and expected benefits are an important way to induce farming communities to address challenges related to climatic change.

Sustainability of Livestock Farming in South Africa. Outlook on Production Constraints, Climate-Related Events, and Upshot on Adaptive Capacity

“…Income generated from agricultural activities also determines the level of adaptive capacity. The higher the income generated, the more likely a farmer tends to increase the level of adaptive capacity [28], reported similar results, that level of income in livestock farming determines the level of adaptive capacity among rural household farming in Ethiopia.…”

Determinants of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation strategies: An Application of Protection Motivation Theory

“…In other words, limited diversification across sectors (e.g. between farm and non-farm sector) and dependence on single factor, climatic vagary, put farmers in Ethiopia at risk of climate change effect (Berhe et al, 2017). A comparative investigation compared among East African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania revealed that poor resilience farming system continues to put farmers at risk of climate change in the region (Shikuku et al, 2017).…”

“…In developing countries, a large proportion of population bears severe consequences of climate change because of pursuing rain-fed agriculture that heavily depends on climate pattern (Harun et al, 2014;Temesgen, Yehualashet, & Rajan, 2014). More specifically, shred of evidences also reveal that smallholder farming in developing regions are the most susceptible livelihood to climate change (Abrha & Simhadri, 2015; Alam G., Alam K., & Mushtaq, 2017;Berhe et al, 2017). The effect of climate change is heightened in sub-Saharan Africa partly due to low coping capabilities, poor preparedness and weak institutional capacity of detecting early warning (Debela et al, 2015).…”

Knowledge of Climate Change and the Perception of Nigeria’s Coastal Communities on the Occurrence of Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans

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