Analysis of Smallholders’ Livelihood Vulnerability to Drought across Agroecology and Farm Typology in the Upper Awash Sub-Basin, Ethiopia

Impact and adaptation of climate variability and change on small-holders and agriculture in Ethiopia: A review

Ethiopia is highly vulnerable to climate variability and change due to depend on the rain-fed agricultural system. The paper provides comprehensive review of impact and adaptation of climate variability and change on small-holder farmers and agriculture in Ethiopia. The study used secondary data from journal articles, books and technical reports, and discussed and organized with desk review. The study explored that climate variability and change has significantly affected crop and livestock production, fisheries and aquaculture, and food security. The study found that over 38 million people seriously interrupted from their living condition associated to climate related crises since 2000s up to 2010s in Ethiopia. Locust upsurge with the pest spreads reduces 1,228,352, 1,026,132 and 843,241 quintals of cereal crop productions in Oromia, Somali and Tigray regions of Ethiopia, respectively in 2020 production year. Drought declined 26% of number of cattle herd sizes in Dire and Yabelo District, Borana zone, southern Ethiopia in 2010/2011year. Although Effect of climate variability and change has become a serious problem on crop cultivation, pastoralism, and agro-pastoralism in Ethiopia, pastoralism, and agro-pastoralism are more vulnerable comparatively. Small-holder farmers have practiced soil and water conservation, improved crop and livestock variety, tree planting, livestock mobility, crop diversification, planting date adjustment, irrigation, agronomic practices, livelihood diversification, integrating livestock with crop production to reduce adverse impact of climate variability and change in the country. Livestock ownership, farm size, extension service, credit service, distance to market, and access to climate information were major factor of adaptation strategies. It concluded that farmers have practiced different adaptation strategies to reduce impact of climate variability and change in different part of the country. The study suggest that scholars should conduct their studies in disaggregate way for impact and adaptation to climate related problem and the corresponding factors across agro-ecologies in Ethiopia.

Impacts of small-scale irrigation on farmers' livelihood: Evidence from the drought prone areas of upper Awash sub-basin, Ethiopia

Irrigation is an important mechanism to mitigate risks associated with the variability in rainfall for the smallholder subsistence farming system. This study analyzed how practicing small-scale irrigation (SSI) impacts the key livelihood assets on farm households' human, physical, natural, financial, and social capitals in Ethiopia's upper Awash sub-basin. The household-level survey data, collected from the 396 sample households, was used to carry out the current study. A Propensity Score Matching (PSM) analytical model was applied to match the SSI user and non-user groups. The difference between the five capital assets of livelihood was estimated using the PSM's Nearest Neighbor, Radius, Kernel Mahalanobis, and Stratification matching criteria. The results indicated that farmers' participation in SSI has enhanced the capital assets of the farm households. Compared to the non-users, the irrigation users were better off in the number variety of food consumed (0.28 ± 0.13 Standard Error [SE]), types of crops produced (0.60 ± 0.17 SE), expenditures on land renting, and agricultural inputs (3118 ± 877 SE) measured in Ethiopian Birr (ETB), as well as on-farm (9024 ± 2267 SE ETB) and non-farm (3766 ± 1466 SE ETB) incomes. Challenges such as the involvement of local brokers in the market value chain and the absence of farmers' marketing cooperatives have reduced the benefit of irrigated agriculture. Hence, the expansion of SSI schemes for the non-user farmers should consider improving the water usage mechanism and productivity, establishing proper water allocation institutions between up and down streams and limiting the role of brokers in the irrigation product marketing chain be future policy directions.

Livelihood resilience in pastoral communities: Methodological and field insights from Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Livelihood resilience is crucial for both people and the environment, especially in remote and harsh ecosystems, such as the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau (QTP). This research aimed to fill the gap of assessing herders' livelihood resilience using more inclusive method. Using survey data from 758 pastoralists, complemented with focus group discussions and transect walks in the Three River Headwater Region (TRHR) on the QTP, we first developed a livelihood resilience evaluation index comprising dimensions of buffer capacity, self-organization and learning capacity. The method of entropy-TOPSIS was then applied to assess the livelihood resilience of local herders, and the spatial patterns were analyzed by spatial autocorrelation method. The results showed the overall level of pastoral livelihood resilience resulted weak, with an east to west spatial gradient toward lower livelihood resilience. Self-organization was the most important dimensions of livelihood resilience, with social cohesion being a dominant factor. Buffer capacity resulted the less important, but the natural capital was significantly higher than the other four livelihood capitals. Furthermore, the northeastern region was a hotspot, while the northwestern region was a cold spot of livelihood resilience. While pastoral populations in the TRHR had high self-organization abilities and potentially high learning capacities, the overall low buffer capacity and livelihood capital limited the improvement of their livelihood resilience. The key findings provide support for enabling policies and integrated strategies to enhance social-ecological resilience. Study may help as paradigm shift reference for the livelihood resilience of pastoral communities in high-altitude areas globally.

Spatiotemporal Changes in Mean and Extreme Climate: Farmers’ Perception and Its Agricultural Implications in Awash River Basin, Ethiopia

The increase in the intensity and frequency of climate extremes threatens socioeconomic development. This study examines variability of mean and extreme climate, farmers’ perception of the changes, and impacts in the Awash River Basin. Daily rainfall and temperature data were used to analyze 23 extreme climate indices. The Mann–Kendall test was used to assess the magnitude and significance of the changes. Results show an increase in minimum (0.019–0.055 °C/year) and maximum temperatures (0.049–0.09 °C/year), while total rainfall is on a downward trend (from −3.84 mm/year to −10.26 mm/year). Warm extreme temperature indicators, including warmest day (TXx), warmest night (TNx), warm day (TX90p), warm night (TN90p), and warm spell duration indicator (WSDI), show a significant increasing trend (p < 0.05). Nevertheless, except the tepid–cool humid agroecology zone, cold extreme temperature indicators in cool days (TN10p), cool nights (TX10p), and cold spell duration (CSDI) are declining. Extreme precipitation indices, including maximum 1-day precipitation amount (RX1day), count of days when precipitation ≥10 mm (R10 mm), maximum 5-day precipitation amount (RX5day), count of days when precipitation ≥20 mm (R20mm), very wet days (R95p), extreme wet days (R99p), and total precipitation (PRCPTOT), show a decreasing trend. The perception of most farmers’ on climate change and climate extremes agreed with climate records. The major impacts perceived and asserted over all agroecologies are food price inflation, crop productivity decline, crop pests and diseases spread, livestock disease increase, and the emergence of pests and weeds. The increasing trend in extreme warm temperatures, decreasing trend in the cold extreme, and declining trend in precipitation indicators affected agricultural productivity and farmers whose livelihood depends on rainfed agriculture. This agroecology-specific study provides critical information to policymakers, decision makers, and farmers about the potential impacts of climate change and extreme events, leading to the development of agroecology-based adaptation measures.

Rural Household Differentiation and Poverty Vulnerability: An Empirical Analysis Based on the Field Survey in Hubei, China

Rural family differentiation is an important perspective to analyze farmers’ behavior and poverty. Based on the data of 1673 farm households from rural field survey in 2019 in Hubei Province of China, this paper examines the main influencing factors of farm household differentiation on farm household poverty vulnerability from the perspective of the sustainable livelihoods of farm households. On this basis, the contribution of each influencing factor to farm household poverty vulnerability is analysed using the regression decomposition method. The results of the study show that the variables of farm household differentiation have a significant impact on poverty vulnerability, and the net household income per capita, which reflect the vertical differentiation of farm households, and the proportion of non-farm labor, which reflects the horizontal differentiation of farm households. Both have a significant negative impact on the poverty vulnerability of farm households. The regression decomposition method shows that the proportion of non-farm labor force, which reflects the horizontal differentiation of farm households, has the highest contribution to the poverty vulnerability of farm households. Human capital, natural capital, social capital, and physical capital also influence the poverty vulnerability of farm households to a certain extent.