A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES ARBA MINCH UNIVERSITY IN

Abstract

In the last decade climate change has become increasingly apparent that it is already happening, and will continue to happen, bringing with its local impacts on people’s livelihoods. Ethiopia is vulnerable to climate variability and change because large segments of the population are poor and depend on agricultural income, which are highly sensitive to rainfall variability and change in temperature. The purpose of this study was to analyze the determinants of small farmers’ adoption of adaptation strategies to climate change in the case of Geresse wereda, Gamo zone. To achieve the study objectives, survey research design was used. 186 respondents used as sample and multistage sampling technique were employed. The primary data was collected through survey questionnaire, Focus Group Discussion and Key Informant Interview whereas, secondary data was collected from books, journals and unpublished master thesis. The data was analyzed by using SPSS version 22.0 and stata12. The major findings of the study showed that the climate condition had been varying over the last 10 years. The perceived indicators of such climate condition were high level of variability and change in temperature, the frequent occurrence of heat induced crop disease/crop damage, animal disease, incidence of drought or scarcity of water. There are also perceived indicators and threats of climate change problems such as incremental nature of change in precipitation, erratic nature of rain fall, shortage of rainy season and its sporadic nature. The adaptation strategies currently practiced in the study area were use of small-scale Irrigation and tree plantation. The Tobit model result revealed that age, educational level, frequency of extension contacts, have significantly and positively influenced the probability of adaptation strategy. Therefore, government and stakeholders should effectively enhance education, training, credit service to enhance adaptation strategies.