Abstract:
Title: Adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural Technologies and Determinants Choice of Adaptation Strategies to Climate Variability in Midhega District, Eastern Ethiopia. Ahmed Abdella, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Agricultural productivity in Midhega Tola is constrained by climate-related risks to include prolonged dry seasons, more frequent and intense drought, increased incidence of pests and diseases.
As agricultural adaptation strategies, Climate-smart agriculture technology (CSA) is proposed to transform and reorient agricultural systems to support mainly food security under climate change and variability. The current study assessed climate variability and trends, CSA technologies under adoption by smallholder farmers, and the factors that influence their adoption decision in the study area. Primary data was collected through a multistage sampling technique to select sample farm households and kebeles. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a household survey using a semi-structured questionnaire, focus group discussion, and key informant interview. The multinomial logit model was employed to identify factors that influence smallholder farmers’ decisions on the adoption of CSA technologies in the study area. Eighty percent of the sampled households made attempts to adapt at least one of CSA practices like agronomic practice, SWC, integrating crop with livestock, and rainwater harvest. Accordingly, the SWC and integrated crop with livestock practices were adopted dominantly in the area, while rainwater harvest was scant. The result of the MNL model indicated that ownership of livestock, income, access to weather information, and education level of the household head has a positive influence on the adoption of CSA practices, while the gender and age of household held showed a significant and negative correlation with the adoption of CSA practices. Therefore, encouraging the practice-based education program (adult education) for local farmers, improving access to credit, market services, and enhancing institutional linkages between Research, Extension, and Meteorology service is critical for the dissemination of weather information which would aid in decision-making as to when farm operations would be carried out for improved agricultural productivity and production in the study area are recommended issues to minimize the climate variability impact.
Keywords: Crop-Livestock Integration, Soil and Water Conservation, Multinomial Logit, & Smallholder Farmers.