Abstract

In Ethiopia, climate change is set to hit the agricultural sector adversely and cause considerable negative impacts particularly for smallholder farmers. Weather information is one of the requirements for effective climate change adaptation in Ethiopia, where Agriculture is the back bone of the economy. This study made during 2011/12 investigates whether smallholder farmers, development agents and organizations in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia have access to weather information and consequently use it in their agricultural activities to overcome adverse impacts of climate change. For this study, data were collected and analyzed from 200 randomly selected households, 34 development agents and 18 experts of different organizations in four districts (Meki, Melkassa, Miesso and Ziway) representing the same agro-ecological settings in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. The result revealed that the adaptation capacity of farmers in using weather information are constrained by language problems, difficulty in understanding forecast terminology, absence of a center for coordination and downscaling weather information at local level and inconsistency in the time of information provision were the common problems identified in the study area. A new weather information delivery system is proposed which enables effective and location and purpose specific weather information delivery to farming communities and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector.

Keywords: Central rift valley; Climate change adaptation; Ethiopia; Needs assessment; Smallholder farmers; Weather information