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. 2024 Nov 12;14(1):27632.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-75778-3.

Perception of smallholder farmers about climate change and its impacts on crop production across agroecological zones of the Gassera District, Southeastern Ethiopia

Henok W/Yohannes Aniye  1   2 , Tsegaye Bekele  3 , Walelign Worku  4
Affiliations

Perception of smallholder farmers about climate change and its impacts on crop production across agroecological zones of the Gassera District, Southeastern Ethiopia

Henok W/Yohannes Aniye et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Climate change and variability have threatened rainfed agriculture by affecting the livelihoods of rural communities in Ethiopia. The study area, Gassera District, is among the high-potential crop production areas of the Bale Zone and is severely impacted by recurrent droughts resulting from climate change. This study evaluated smallholder farmers' perceptions of significant climate change and its effects on food crop production across the agroecological zones of the Gassera District. A cross-sectional survey design was employed to collect data from 444 farm households via multistage random sampling techniques. Multiple linear regression (MLR) models were used for the data analysis. The results revealed that 98.5% of the interviewed farmers were aware of climate variability and that 51.6% understood its impact to a reasonable extent. However, over half of the farmers did not perceive climate change as the greatest threat to their livelihood. Most farmers experienced rain becoming more erratic, starting late, and ending early as medium climatic factors (60.4%, 68.1%, and 66.2%, respectively), affecting their crop production. The results revealed that rainfall had a negative and insignificant decreasing trend (2.92 mm/year). The annual mean temperature exhibited a positive and statistically significant increasing trend (Ρ < 0.01). Crop production is positively and linearly correlated with the amount of annual rainfall at the Ρ ≤ 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the greatest crop yield loss was associated with lowland agroecology. The MLR results revealed that farmer agroecology, age, sex, and chemical use had substantial impacts on crop yield loss. We urge farmers to understand the long-term effects of climate change on their livelihoods.

Keywords: Climate change; Climate variability; Farmers’ perceptions; Impact on crops; Vulnerability.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate The purpose of the study was clearly explained to household respondents and agricultural experts. The author declared that all the principles of anonymity and confidentiality, informed consent and voluntary participation, no harm to participants, and no invasion of privacy were implemented. Ethical approval for this study complies with national and Hawassa University postgraduate research guidelines and legislation. The ethical approval was also granted by the administration and advancement of the college research ethics sector and ethical committee. Consent to participants The data were collected from household respondents, local administrators, and district agricultural experts with their consent. Data collected from the BZFEDD and the GDARDO were requested formally through the official letter written by Hawassa University, College of Forestry and Natural Resources. The author declared that part of the Ph.D. thesis manuscript was original research work and acknowledged all sources of materials dearly. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Farmers’ perceptions of the impact of climate phenomena on crop production over the last 10 years. Source: Author’s survey (2022).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
(a) Trends of annual mean temperature and rainfall from 1990–2019, and (b) Annual rainfall (mm) and crop yield (Qt ha-1) from 2009–2016. Note: R2 = 0.597; significant at the < 0.01 level; R2 = 0.034; insignificant at the > 0.05 level (two-tailed). Source: GMS, (2022) and GDARDO, (2022).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Map of the Gassera district showing AEZs and locations of the three sampled Kebeles. Source: Author’s (Arc map 10.2).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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