Farmers' perception and knowledge on climate change and their coping strategies to the related hazards: case study from Adiha, central Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

Climate change adversely affects Ethiopian economy due to heavy dependence of the agricul-tural sector on rainfall. A decrease of rainfall and rise in temperature has been increasing the exposure of the country to frequent drought. The study was conducted in central Tigray, Adiha tabia, to examine the perception of farmers on trends of climate changes and existing coping strategies. Farmers’ knowledge of various ad-aptation strategies, drought early warning sys-tem and weather forecasting were assessed us-ing focus group discussion (FGD), which con-sisted of 144 systematically sampled respondents. Temperature is rising while precipitation is de-clining from time to time. Untimely rain and fre-quent drought are challenging crop production in the area. Drought is perceived, both by male and female respondents, as the primary climate related hazard which is occurring frequently and affecting their livelihood. Individual’s vulnerabil-ity to this hazard varies based on their hazard coping capacity. Lack of modern early warning systems, inflexible cropping calendar and nar-row choice of crop varieties should aggravates the vulnerability. Hence, improveing forecasting and dissemination of climate information, de-veloping drought resistant varieties and promo- ting farm-level adaptation measures like use of irrigation technologies and adjusting planting dates should be prioritized to improve commu-nity resilience to climate change.