Narrow Results

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the role of different climate change adaptation strategies in supporting food productivity in Ethiopia. The analysis relies on unique primary survey data on 1000 farms producing cereal crops in the Nile Basin, Ethiopia. Based on monthly collected meteorological station data, the Thin Plate Spline method of spatial interpolation is used to impute the household specific rainfall and temperature values of each household. The rainfall data is disaggregated at season level (Meher and Belg). Econometric results show that the implementation of adaptation strategies supports farm productivity. Changing crops is found to be the most successful strategy, followed by the implementation of soil conservation and tree planting. We complement the analysis with some evidence on the determinants of adaptation. We find that extension services (both formal and farmer-to-farmer) and information on future climate changes affect positively and significantly the probability of adaptation through changing crops and tree planting. This finding highlights the crucial role played by information dissemination in improving farmers' decision-making.

Many studies of climate change adaptation have relied on farmers’ perceptions of climate change to explain why farmers are adopting new farming methods, and to advise adaptation policy framework that justifies Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) especially in Africa. These studies have rarely verified whether farmers’ perceptions are consistent with observed changes in meteorological conditions to establish sufficient premise. This study compares farmers’ perceptions of changes in precipitation and temperature in a rainfed agriculture region of Ghana against objective measurements made in nearby weather stations in the region. The study finds that farmers correctly perceived the increase in temperature over time but incorrectly perceived a reduction in precipitation, while objective data showed high fluctuations with no clear trend. It is possible that farmers mistakenly assumed reduction in soil moisture meant to support crop growth requirements was caused by less rainfall when in fact it was caused by higher temperature.