Determinants of smallholder farmers’ adaptation strategies to climate variability in Suha watershed, Upper Blue Nile basin, Northwest Ethiopia

This study assessed how smallholder farmers perceive climate variability, what adaptation strategies they practice, and factors that determine their adaptation use in the Suha watershed, north-west Ethiopia. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs were employed to obtain survey data from selected households and a long period of meteorological records from Ethiopia's nation metrological agency. A descriptive analysis was used to summarize farmers’ perceptions, to see the actual seasonal/annual variability of rainfall and temperature, and to identify the different adaptation responses to climate variability. A binary logit model was mainly used to identify the determinant factors for adaptation responses. The descriptive statistics showed seasonal and annual rainfall variability across highland, midland, and lowland agroecology over the last three decades. The analysis model also indicated that the agro-ecological location of farmers, age, education, farm size, income from farming, access to information, extension service, and livestock ownership were the determinant variables for crop diversification strategy. Similarly, soil and water conservation as an adaptation strategy was positively influenced by the agro-ecological location of farmers, age, household head, educational attainment, family size, access to information, extension service, and livestock ownership. Besides, the agro-ecological location of farmers, academic status, farm income, and access to climate information were influential factors in practicing improved crop varieties in the watershed. However, the agro-ecological location of farmers and livestock ownership has negatively influenced on the practice of soil and water conservation in the watershed. This result is critical for context-based interventions in tropical highland settings, where dissected topography and convectively dominated rainfall could lead to local climatic variability. Therefore, taking an efficient adaptation measure to climate variability needs to consider the influence of different factors based on the agro-ecological zone of the farmers.