Abstract:
Climate variability and change are adversely affecting agricultural activities in many
developing countries including Ethiopia. The purpose of this study was to analyze climate
variability impact on maize yield and Farmers’ adaptation options in Hawassa Zuria district,
Sidama Region, Ethiopia. Historical climate data of rainfall and temperature for the period of
1989 to 2019 were obtained from the National Meteorological Agency (NMA) of Ethiopia.
After data quality control, onset date, cessation of the rainy season, length of the growing
season, dry spell length and number of rainy days were analyzed using INSTAT+ v3.37.
Mann–Kendall trend tests and Sen’s slope estimator were used to detect the magnitude and
statistical significance of changes in rainfall and temperature. Moreover, data on farmers
adaptation practice was collected from a total of 290 household heads through survey
questionary, interviews and focus group discussions.The onset of rainy season and length of
growing period were highly variable in the study area. The annual rainfall amount showed a
statistically non-significant increasing trend by a factor of 4.34 mm/year in the study area.
The annual mean maximum and mean minimum temperature significantly increased by a
factor of 0.2940C and 0.640C per decade, respectively. In the study area, there was a negative
correlation between maize yield and rainfall and temperature features. Due to climatic
factors, about 94% of maize yield variation was observed in the study area. This maximum
value of variation on maize yield was the combination of the start of the season, end of the
season, number of rainy days, kiremt and belg rainy season, maximum and minimum
temperature, and the rest 6% non-climatic factors in the study area. Over 50% of sampled
farmers get information about climate through extension agents. Coping and adaptation
strategies implemented to combat challenges of climate variability/change includes, planting
trees (41.4%), inter-cropping system (43.8%), applying new cropping system and irrigation
(19.7%), receiving aid safety net (19%), diversification of crops and livestock (38.3%),
migration (3.4%), use of early maturing crops (26.6%) and using new varieties of crops
(31.4%).
