Climate Change, Vulnerability, and Adaption Under the Small Farming Households of Konso Community, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The overall aim of this case study is to understand climate change, vulnerability, and adaptation at small farming household scale. A total of 244 household heads were randomly selected from the clusters of wealth rank groups in the two farming practices of ox-plough and hoe cultivation. The findings indicate that both the community perceptions and meteorological evidences imply an increasing trend of drought occurrence and rainfall intensity accounting for the continuous vulnerability of the agrarian community with climate change. Moreover, the root causes of the vulnerability of the community to the impacts of climate change are attributed to the combined effects of environmental and socioeconomic and political factors, where the poor and the landless youth are affected the hardest. The study also found that the communities are practicing a wide range of ingenious land husbandry practices, innovations, and early warning systems as strategy of adaption to climate change. Finally, it concludes with the need of supporting local experimentation and innovation in developing resilience to the impact of climate change and food insecurity.