IMPACTS OF DROUGHT ON SMALL SCALE CATTLE FATTENING AND ITS ADAPTATION STRATEGIES; THE CASE OF FEDIS DISTRICT EASTERN HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIYA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Drought was one of the most damaging climate-induced threats impacting the lives of many people every year in general and study area in particular. The purpose of this study was to determine adaptation strategies of smallholder farmer to impacts of drought based on the field survey in Fedis district of East Hararghe zone of Oromia regional state. A total of 359 sample respondents were selected by stratified random sampling methods. The study also used climate data of daily precipitation of rainfall from 1995 to 2021 to assess and identify Frequency and magnitude severity of recurrent drought hazard. The collected data were analyzed and interpreted by qualitative and quantitative methods such as descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage, Bar graph and pie chart) and standardized precipitation index by using statistical package for social science version 20 software. Moreover, multinomial Logit model (MNL) was employed to analyze the determinant factors of drought hazard . Impacts of droughts has a direct negative impact on forage growth which was direct impact cattle fattening. Cattle fattening practice in Ethiopia categorized in to three major fattening systems. Such as traditional system, By-product Based fattening and the Hararghe fattening In order to adapt the impact of drought hazard smallholder farmers have been using a variety of strategies including Short-term growing crop variety, crop diversification, growing drought tolerant crop, Selling some animals. Results from choice MNL model indicated that gender, age, level of education, Family size, source of income, access to early warning information and livelihood diversification influence smallholder farmer choices at 1%, 5% and 10% significance level.. If the responses of smallholder farmers to drought hazard are not well supported by the concerned bodies, the existing disaster preparedness and early warning systems in the area might not be enough to significantly mitigate the effects of drought and its impacts will be very serious on both the livelihood of local people and natural resources of the study area.