Smallholder Farmers’ Perception to Climate Change and Variability in Western Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Under the global challenges of climate change and variability, low agricultural productivity and food insecurity are common features of most developing countries. In emerging nations, population growth and careless farming methods have led to extensive land degradation and deforestation, which has caused soil erosion and biodiversity loss. The livelihood of farmers in developing nations and agricultural output have been negatively impacted by climate change and fluctuation. Low agricultural production, chronic food insecurity, hunger, malnutrition, and ongoing poverty under climate change have posed a severe challenge to Ethiopia, as they do to many other developing nations. In order to counteract the negative effects of climate change and variability, smallholder farmers' perceptions of these issues become crucial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how farmers perceive these issues. During the 2018–2019 production season, 277 farm households from the two districts of the study region tended 551 maize plots for this study. The perception of climate change and the outcome model, or farmers' adaptation strategy to climate change and variability decision, were analyzed using the Heckman Probit regression two-step model.