Climate Change/Variability Impacts on Farmers livelihoods and Adaptation Strategies: In the Case of Ensaro District, Ethiopia

This study identifies the major impacts of climate change and methods used by farmers to adapt the changing climate in Ensaro district, Ethiopia.124 sample households were selected purposively from three rural kebele's of the district and most of the respondents have perceived the increasing trend of temperature and the variation of rainfall in duration and intensity.The most significant impacts of climate variability and change as perceived by the local people were shortage of water, flood, landslide, drought, expose to disease, shortage of forage, force to out migrate, famine, loss of livestock and decline in crop yields.Prevalence of newly introduced human, crop and animal diseases, flooding, drying up of rivers and streams, rainfall variability in duration and amount and the variation of onset and offset date of rainfall are the most mentioned indicators of climate change by farmers.Communities disobeying of God, deforestation and population pressure were the major causes of climate change/variability as perceived by the respondents.Terracing, afforestation, rain water harvesting, crop diversification, use of improved crops, income diversification (petty trade, wage laborer etc.), seasonal migration to generate income and livestock management (destocking, cut and feeding system) are the most coping/adaptation strategies practiced by the farmers in the study area.Results from the binary logit model revealed that the respondent's age, educational status, access to extension and farm experience have a positive and significant effect on farmer's taking of adaptation measures.On the other hand, sex of household heads, small farm land size, less access to market and less access to credit have negative and significant effect on farmers taking of adaptation measures in the study area.