Strategies for climatic risk adaptation by smallholder livestock farmers in North Wollo Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

In less developed countries, like Ethiopia, climate change has been challenging for national economy and social development. It superimposed devastating risks on livestock farmers. Recurrently, the risks adversely affected livestock production, food security, income and the wellbeing of the farmers in the country. Hence, the farmers need to adapt and keep rearing their livestock and meet their food demands. Ethiopian government made various efforts to support smallholder livestock farmers (SHLF) to adapt to climatic risks. However, the farmers in northern parts of Ethiopia, particularly North Wollo zone, are still vulnerable to the risks. Understanding whether adaptive capacity existed or not in the study area is important to design adaptation strategy. Limited information existed to explain adaptive capacity of the smallholder livestock farmers in north Wollo zone. Therefore, this study examined existing adaptation strategies, accessing information, and supporting institutions in building adaptive capacity of the farmers to climatic risks. The study was conducted in North Wollo zone using a mixed research design. Cross-sectional survey research and case-study research designs were employed. For the former, multistage sampling design was used to select the sample. Data were collected using a household (HH) survey from 317 randomly selected SHLF from three agro-ecological zones. FGD was conducted to complement the information of the survey. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. SPSS and STATA were used for data analysis. For the case-study research, purposive sampling was used to select relevant institutions and individuals. Data were collected using FGD and KIIs from 41 farmers and 37 experts, and analysed with thematic and SNA. Gephi was the software used for SNA. The study results reveal that the importance of livestock species and climatic risks varied across agroecologies. Accordingly, different adaptation strategies were used in the highland, midland and lowland of north Wollo zone. In all agro-ecologies, however, feed storing and animal health caring were the common adaptation strategies. In breed improvement, the farmers in the highland and midland used crossbreeding as an important adaptation strategies while animal selection in the lowland. In livestock husbandry adaptation strategy, selective feeding, indoors feeding and herd size reduction were prominent adaptation strategies in the highland, midland and lowland, respectively. In natural resource management, water harvesting was commonly practicing strategy in the highland while SWC and tree plantation in midland and lowland. The study also reveals that SHLFs accessed relevant information for their climatic risk adaptation. Yet, the information was inadequate and not easily accessible to use. Local meetings and training were the major information accessing methods (IAMs) for SHLFs. Personal character, agro-ecology, and information type determined farmers’ decision in using a particular AIMs. Moreover, the study reveals the importance of supporting institutions in climatic risk adaptation. Different institutions existed from public, private, and civil institutions. Public institutions supported the farmers in livestock production improvement and risks management. While private institutions built climatic risks resilience of the farmers; and civil institutions built their social capital and self-reliance in performing new technologies and way of doings. Based on the results of the study, it is concluded that smallholder livestock farmers need diverse adaptation strategies, quality information, and supportive institutions to build their adaptive capacity to climatic risks. Therefore, planers should have agro-ecology based knowledge in planning climatic risk adaptation strategies for SHLFs. Extension workers should easily access relevant and adequate information to SHLFs using combined IAMs to build their adaptive capacity to climatic risks. Similar research should be conducted in food secure areas of the Amhara region and elsewhere in Ethiopia to give a full picture and design pragmatic adaptation strategies for smallholder livestock farmers at regional level and national level.