Farmers' Perception to Climate Change and Variability: The Case of La’Ilay Maichew Woreda, Central Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

Climate change and variability is rapidly emerging as one of the most serious global problems affecting many sectors in the world and is considered to be one of the most serious threats to sustainable development. The impact of climate change depends on severity of the natural resource degradation and the technological capacity of the people to cope up the changes in climate. La’ilay Maichew woreda in Tigray regional state, is not an exception in this context. Farmers have been making efforts to cope up the adverse impact of climate change and variability by using different adaptation methods. Adaptation method is largely site-specific and site-specific issues that require site specific knowledge. Thus, this research was initiated to address the knowledge gab: to assess the information on perception of farmers towards climate change and variability. Quantitative design was primarily employed for the study. The essential data were collected from 130 randomly selected farm households using semi-structured interview schedule. Descriptive statistics were used for analyzing quantitative data. The study has established that rainfall and temperature in study area have been decreasing and increasing respectively. Majority of the farmers in La’ilay Maichew woreda recognize this increase in temperature and the reduction in the volume of rainfall. In general, increasing farmers’ awareness on climate change and variability risk perception, improve farmers’ income-earning opportunities, Moreover, access to extension and credit services are essential to cope up the adverse impact of climate change and variability in La’ilay Maichew Woreda.

Keywords: Climate change and variability, perception