Perception of Fogera Cattle Farmers on Climate Change and Variability in Awi Zone, Ethiopia
Open Access
- 1 January 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Scientific Research Publishing, Inc. in Open Journal of Animal Sciences
- Vol. 10 (04), 792-815
- https://doi.org/10.4236/ojas.2020.104052
Abstract
This study aimed at assessing perception of Fogera cattle farmers on climate change and variability in selected districts of Awi zone. The zone was classified as lowland (2500 m.a.s.l) based on altitudinal variation from which a total of three districts one per cluster were selected through random sampling. 150 households were selected through systematic random sampling targeting Fogera cattle owners for primary data collection. Over 36 years (from 1983-2019) of meteorological data were taken from the National Meteorological Agency. Meteorological data result confirmed that climate was changing across all the agro-ecological zones. Both the mean annual maximum and minimum temperature was considerably increasing for all agro-ecological zones whereas the mean annual rainfall was decreasing which is consistent with the farmers’ perception. Meteorological data result also showed that the short rainy and dry season rainfall indicated high interannual variability at all agro-ecological zones. Survey result revealed that 97.13% of the farmers recognized climate change and variability impact in all agro-ecological zones. About 80.91% of Fogera cattle farmers reported the incidence of negative impacts of climate change and variability on cattle. Chi-square test values of survey results show that in all agro-ecological zones frequency of drought, duration of dry spell, wind, and floods were ever-increasing (p < 0.001). Moreover, about 84.48%, 65.3%, and 60.47% of farmers owning Fogera cattle in the lowland, midland, and highland, respectively perceived the prevalence of increasing (p < 0.001) cattle mortality. In response to climate change and variability, farmers were reducing number of livestock, diversification of livestock species, and replacing Fogera cattle with small ruminants as adaptation strategies. Thus, regular prediction of climate change and variability and designing pertinent response strategies is essential to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change for enhancing resilience capacity of the Fogera cattle farmers in the study areas.Keywords
This publication has 32 references indexed in Scilit:
- Perceptions of households on purpose of keeping, trait preference, and production constraints for selected goat types in EthiopiaTropical Animal Health and Production, 2013
- Recent spatiotemporal temperature and rainfall variability and trends over the Upper Blue Nile River Basin, EthiopiaInternational Journal of Climatology, 2013
- Tendências na variabilidade climática sazonal e anual das temperaturas máxima e mínima do ar no Estado do ParanáBragantia, 2011
- Variabilidade temporal da evapotranspiração real e da razão entre evapotranspiração real e potencial em Campinas, Estado de São PauloBragantia, 2011
- Livestock production: recent trends, future prospectsPhilosophical Transactions B, 2010
- Séries anuais de temperatura máxima média do ar no Estado de São Paulo: variações e tendências climáticasRevista Brasileira de Meteorologia, 2010
- Livestock-related greenhouse gas emissions: impacts and options for policy makersEnvironmental Science & Policy, 2009
- Enhancing the effectiveness of prewhitening in trend analysis of hydrologic dataJournal of Hydrology, 2009
- A comparison of the power of thettest, Mann-Kendall and bootstrap tests for trend detection / Une comparaison de la puissance des teststde Student, de Mann-Kendall et du bootstrap pour la détection de tendanceHydrological Sciences Journal, 2004
- Nonparametric Tests Against TrendEconometrica, 1945