Adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural Practices among Small Scale Farmers of Kurfa Chele District, East Hararghe Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Climate variability and change has caused instability in production and decline in productivity exacerbating food insecurity particularly in Latin America, Africa including Ethiopia and some parts of Asia. The magnitude and frequency of extreme climatic events are projected to increase. The effects of these climatic changes will become even more pronounced among small scale farmers whose farming activities are weather dependent and vulnerable to climate change, and already affected by environmental degradation and socio-economic risks. Effective adaptation to climate change among small scale farmers is therefore of critical importance and is dependent on the adoption of climate-smart practices. However, studies have shown low adoption of climate-smart farming practices among small scale farmers world over, in East Hararghe Zone and Kurfa Chele District. This study, therefore, examined factors influencing adoption of climate-smart practices among farmers Kurfa Chele District, East Hararghe Zone, evaluated their existing knowledge, attitude and practice of these practices, assessed their perception of climate change, examined the extent of climate information dissemination, and the resultant impact on the uptake of these practices. The research adopted a survey research design, where both quantitative and qualitative research strategies were used. Data was gathered through Focus Group Discussions, questionnaires, key informant interviews, observations and a desk review. Both simple random and purposive sampling was used to sample 420 small scale farmers and technical officers of the agriculture sector respectively. Data were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. To test the statistical significance of the findings and relationships between the variables, the chi-square test was used