Climate Variability and Change Trends, and Factors Affecting Farmers' Adoption of Climate Change Adaptation Methods in Liban Jawi Woreda, West Shoa Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

This study examined both the tendency of environmental condition variability, especially of precipitation and temperature variability, and determinants of farmers’ adaptation activity in response to the perceived impacts of climate change. To achieve this objective, the stratified random sampling method was used to choose 4 kebeles among 15 kebeles in the Liban Jawi district by classifying kebeles based on agroecological zone as highland, lowland, and mid-highland. The stratified random sampling method was used to choose 312 household heads in the district. Additionally, monthly precipitation and temperature meteorological data (1991 - 2023) were gathered from the National Meteorology Agency of Ethiopia. The outcome indicated that nearly 55.7% of household heads confirmed an increase in annual precipitation, and 80% of household heads detected an increase in temperature in the district. The Mann–Kendall tendency test confirmed that yearly precipitation had increased (Zc=16.35) and was statistically significant at p=0.05 since he calculated the p-value to be 0.0025 < 0.05 for the period of analysis. On the other hand, the Mann–Kendall trend test showed the maximum yearly temperature was increased (Zc=1.52) during the period of analysis, but it is not significant at [Zs] > 1.96 (0.05), which also supports farmers' perceptions. To trim down the perceived impacts of climate change, the household head practiced various farm-level adaptation practices. A multivariate regression model and Spearman correlation matrix were used to examine adaptation selection against a set of socio-economic, organizational, infrastructural, and demographic characteristics of the respondents. The majority of household heads in the study area practiced mixed farming (50%) and water conservation (21%), and adopting drought-tolerant and early-maturing crop varieties (17.01%), agroforestry practices and using weather information and forecasting were among the dominant adaptation practices, respectively, whereas the gender of the household head, education level, extension contact, access to credit, on/off farm income, family size, agroecology, government policy, land size, farm experience and climate information were determinants of adaptation practices in the Liban Jawi district. The outcome of this study provides baseline information for national and local governments, concerned researchers, higher officials and decision-makers in terms of communities' conceptualization of climate variability and change and adaptation practices. To overcome the impacts of climate change and variability, the government and cooperative unions should improve access to varieties and other agricultural inputs.