Climate Change Trends and its Effects on the Production of Selected Food Crops: Evidence from Amaro Kelle District of Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Amaro Kelle district of Southern Ethiopia is a rainfall-based agricultural districts that is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and risk. This study analysed climate change trends and effects on the selected food crops production: evidence from the Amaro Kelle district of Southern Ethiopia. Secondary data on climate change trends and food crop production from the Ethiopian national meteorological agency and the Amaro Kelle agricultural and rural development office were used for the study. Microsoft Excel was used to analyse the data on temperature, rainfall and crop production trends. The result on Trend analysis showed an increase in maximum and minimum temperatures at the rate of 0.056 and 0.0787 0C per 32 years, while there is a decrease in annual rainfall at the rate of-7.6012 mm per 32 years. These climatic conditions increased maize and sorghum productivity at the rate of 713.69 and 376.56 tonnes per 12 years, respectively, and decreased productivity of teff and wheat at the rate of-2618.5 and-30.892 tonnes per 12 years, respectively. These findings indicated that climate change positively and negatively affected the district's food crop production and food security. Finally, the study recommends that farmers in the district should focus on the cultivation of those crops that correlate positively with increasing temperature and decreasing rainfall trend in the study area.