| Abstract: | This study was aimed to examine impacts of climate variability on vegetable
production and farmer‟s prioritization of climate smart agriculture
technologies and identification of vulnerable farmers. The study was
conducted on vegetable farmers along the Little Akaki River in Addis Ababa.
Field data were collected through semi structured survey questioner from
randomly selected 156 vegetable farmers. Twenty years (1996-2016) climate
data were analyzed with qualitative and quantitative descriptive statistics
methods. The result of monthly and annual precipitation variability indicates
a coefficient of variation (CV) ranging from 23% -73% and 49% - 98%
respectively. Seasonally CV ranges between 34% - 99%, 50% - 97% and
20% - 84% in Belg and Bega and Kiremt respectively. The result of climate
data and respondents‟ perception on local climate variability indicates an
increasing trend in temperature and precipitation variability. Urban
vegetable farmers perceived that increase in frequency of flood and rainfall
(44.9%), drought frequency (13.5%) and increase in temperature (89.7%)
and decrease in the trend of vegetable productivity (86.5%) as the major
impact of climate variability. However, the changing vegetable variety
(31.4%), early planting (26.9%), mixed farming (26.6%), late planting
(5.1%), using agro chemicals (4.5%), and agro forestry (1.9%) were the
major on-farm climates smart agriculture technologies identified to
adaptation. Shift occupation (37.8%), non-adaptation (36.5%) and non-farm
activates (24.4%) were employed as off farm adaptation option. In addition,
result from vulnerability analysis indicates that the absence of direct access
to markets, inadequate access to weather information, land fragmentation
and tenure complications were the major vulnerable determinants. It is
recommended that there should be market for selling vegetable products,
accesses to weather information, and integration of indigenous and modern
knowledge on climate variability adaptation should be addressed |
