Rural Female Headed Households´ Perception and Adaptation to Climate Variability in the Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study investigated female headed households´ (FHHs) perception and adaptation to climate variability in the selected areas of the Amhara region. Descriptive statistics and multi-nominal logit model were employed to analyze the collected data. It was found that the major climatic related hazards experienced in the area were drought (40.8%), followed by crop pest and disease (23.7%), hailstorm (20%) and livestock epidemic (15.5%). In response to this, FHHs (71%) used diversification of income, soil and water conservation (10%) and seasonal migration (8%) as an adaptation strategy while 11% of the respondents did not take any measures due to limited right to access and control over land, socio-cultural barriers, limited access to credit and extension services. The Multinomial logit model shows that age, family size, farm size, land ownership, access to climate information positively and significantly correlated with FHHs’ choice of various adaptation strategies.

Keywords: adaptation, perception, determinants, female headed households