Livelihood Resilience Capacity and Adaptation Strategies of Rural Farm Households to Climate Variability-Induced Shocks in Damot Woyde District, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Small-holder farmers' livelihoods in developing countries are expected to be more vulnerable to climatic shocks. Building livelihood resilience needs lowering exposure and sensitivity to shock while enhancing adaptive capacity. The purpose of this study is to assess rural livelihood resilience to climate-induced shocks and to investigate the factors that influence household resilience and adaptation strategy selection in Damot Woyde, Southern Ethiopia. The study's data were gathered through a survey of 346 households, 6 focus group discussions, 27 key informant interviews, and personal observations. The livelihood resilience index was used to assess rural farm households' resilience to climatic shocks, and linear and binary logistic regressions were used to determine factors of livelihood resilience and adaptation strategy decisions, respectively. The findings revealed that social capital (0.801) from absorptive capacity and socio-demographic (0.550) from adaptive capacity contributed more to livelihood resilience. Whereas the score of farmland locations and soil fertility (0.154) from absorptive capacity, assets (0.216) and livelihood strategy (0.293) from adaptive capacity, and formal safety nets (0.263) from transformative capacity reveals the main causes of poor resilience capacity. Thus, the cumulative livelihood resilience score is only 0.356 (35.6%). Both Linear and logistic regression analysis revealed that literacy, income, food security, livelihood diversification, land size, soil fertility, extension and social services, and shock events are significant drivers of livelihood resilience and adaptation strategy choices. Therefore, it is recommended that relevant stakeholders, policymakers, and institutions enhance the access of farmers to these vital services in order to improve their adaptation and thus livelihood resilience to climate hazards.

Keywords: Livelihood Resilience; Adaptation Strategies; Climate-induced Shocks; Damot Woyde

DOI: 10.7176/JEES/13-4-02

Publication date:June 30^th 2023