ASSESSING THE ROLE OF AGROFORESTERY PRACTICES IN CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: THE CASE OF KARAT DISTRICT, KONSO ZONE, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Agro-forestry practices are being increasingly advocated as possible remedies. As it is a land use system that has the potential of improving agricultural land use while providing lasting benefits and alleviating adverse environmental effects. The study was conducted to assess the role of agroforestery practices in climate change adaptation: The Case of Karat District, Konso Zone, Southern Ethiopia .Primary data were collected through field visits and interview; whereas secondary data were collected from the district agricultural offices, written and unwritten materials. For social survey, simple random sampling technique was used and 100 sample households were selected. A purposive selection of different agroforestry practices were done for the estimation of biomass and carbon sequestration. For woody biomass inventory data, the total number of plots was 45 ( i.e. 3kebeles *3 agroforestry practices *5 plots) with more or less comparable terrain, sample plots in three kebeles were purposively laid down having plot areas of 50 × 100 m for parklands, 10 × 10 m for woodlots and 20 × 20 m for home gardens. Data obtained from opened and semi-structured questionnaire were analyzed using tools like; descriptive statistics and chi-square test and presented by tables, graphs and photographs. Temperature and rainfall trends were analyzed using simple linear regression. For this study, we used allometric equation developed by previous researchers, And for analysis SPSS version 23,were used to test for differences in C stocks between the three agroforestry practices two-way ANOVA were performed (α=0.05), The mean differences across the system were analyzed using a post hocScheffe test. The results showed that woodlot sequestered the highest carbon stock of 99.6 Mg ha-1 followed by Homegarden 29.33 Mg ha-1 and park land had the lowest carbon stock which is 5.64 Mg ha-1. Farmers are recommended to continue using agroforestry practices on their land and to manage them appropriately to improve soil fertility spatially Woodlots which sequesters the highest carbon stock. Generally farmers aware about productive and protective role of agroforestry and practices it on their farms in modern way to overcome climate change challenges.