Impacts of Climate Change on Ethiopian Agriculture: A Review

Abstract

Background: Climate change poses a significant threat to the lives of predominantly agriculture dependent rural communities. Although there have been several studies on climate change impacts on agriculture; studies specific to impacts on Ethiopia’s agriculture and response of local communities are limited. Objective: This review is aimed at compiling the principal impacts of climate change on smallholder agriculture and response of the smallholders to the threat to their livelihood in Ethiopia. Method: Our literature review integrated peer-reviewed articles from Scopus; Web of Science; ScienceDirect; and PubMed databases; supplemented by climate change reports from the FAO and various national agencies. Findings: The available data showed that Ethiopia’s agricultural sector is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to its heavy reliance on rainfall; making the lives of over 78 percent of the country’s population that rely on it uncertain. The studies also indicated that climate change poses a huge additional challenge to the country’s traditional agriculture characterized by low productivity; low level of inputs use; reliance on archaic technology for production; insect pests; and enormous post-harvest loss. The attempts by the national government to combat the adverse effects of climate change on agriculture have been restrained by weak institutional capacity and limited climate information and expertise in the country. The smallholder farmers have implemented numerous indigenous adaptation mechanisms with limited climate forecasting information through mass media and farmers’ low capacity restricting their efforts. Conclusion: The indigenous adaptation strategies of the smallholder farmers should be reinforced with a wide range of institutional; policy; and technology support. We suggest possible policy directions that could support the indigenous adaptation mechanisms to climate change.