Livelihood vulnerability to climate variability and change in different agroecological zones of Gurage Administrative Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Introduction: Climate change and related extreme events are negatively affecting agricultural production where millions of smallholder farmers depend up on it. Ethiopian rain-fed agriculture system is becoming more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Identification of difference in the level of vulnerability of a system is important in selecting appropriate and effective adaption options to climate change. Thus, this study examined the vulnerability of farm household's livelihood to climate variability and change in different agroecological zones of Gurage Zone using the Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) and Livelihood Vulnerability Index–Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (LVI–IPCC) methods. Data were collected from a representative of 357 sample households across three agroecological zones using a mixture of participatory methods. Results: Results suggested that although there was difference in components relative value across agroecological zones, the overall LVI indicate that Sodo woreda (District) which is found in the lowland agroecological zone was more vulnerable to climate variability and change. This study found that vulnerability differences were attributable to variations in household characteristics, lack of access to infrastructure, low level of livelihood diversification, and lack of available technologies. Conclusions: Therefore, this study calls for stakeholders to prepare context-specific intervention to reduce smallholder farmer's vulnerability to climate variability and change and strengthen the adaptive capacity of farm households. Keywords: Vulnerability Index, Agroecological zones, Gurage Zone