Abstract
This study assessed smallholder farmers’ vulnerability to climate extremes in west and southwest Showa zones, central Ethiopia. The study used 1981–2020 rainfall and temperature data obtained from the Ethiopian Meteorology Institute and employed RClimDex1 for data quality control and extreme climate indices analysis. The selected ten (10) major components of Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LV I) were used to assess farmers’ vulnerability, categorized into exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity based on the livelihood vulnerability indicator intergovernmental panel for climate change (LVI-IPCC) framework. Primary data gathered through household surveys conducted across 626 selected peasant associations representing different agro ecological zones (lowland, midland, and highland). The primary data analysis performed via statistical package for social sciences (IBM SPSS) Statistics Version 26 and R software. The study finding indicated that lowland agroecology (0.47) is more vulnerable to climate extremes than highlands (0.38) and midlands (0.40) agro-ecologies In terms of smallholder farmers’ sensitivity to extreme climate events, lowland agro-ecology suggested a higher sensitivity index than the other two ecologies. The smallholder farmers’ sensitivity to extreme climate events was 0.70, 0.57, and 0.67 LVI values on lowland, midland, and highland agro-ecosystems, respectively. Midland agroecology has strong adaptive capacity (0.560) and is the least vulnerable. In lowland agroecology, smallholder farmers are more vulnerable to extreme weather because of their limited adaptive capacity and higher exposure. The study’s findings will guide policymakers in addressing the negative effects of climate extreme indices on smallholder farmers. Providing improved seeds, irrigation, credit access, and real-time weather information updates can reduce vulnerability in lowland areas.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (JUCAVM) for providing the necessary educational support for the successful completion of the study. We would like to sincerely thank Wollaga University for their kind support and financial assistance, which allowed us to conduct this study. Also, we thank West and South west shewa Zones agricultural offices to support on gathering important or data for our study information. Availability of data and materials.
The climate extremes datasets analyzed during the current study are available at http://cccma.seos.uvic.ca/ETCCDMI/, the European Copernicus climate data repository. The socioeconomic data was observed from farmers and other stakeholders in the study zones.
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This research was supported by Wollega University non-profit making Organization who support staff member to update their status.
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Derartu wodajo Sedata; Conceptualization, data observation, data arrangement and designed the investigation, Executed, Analyzed, interpreted the data and Data analysis, Interpretation and manuscript writing.
Diriba Korecha, Dadi Conceptualization, designing, Data analysis (supervision) and Manuscript review and editing.
Weyessa Garedew Terefe; Conceptualization, data collection (supervision), data analysis, Data interpretation and Manuscript review and editing.
Tedesse Terefe Zeleke; Designing the investigation, Data collection and data analysis (supervision).
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This study, titled Smallholder Farmers’ Vulnerability to Climate Extremes in West and Southwest Showa Zones, Ethiopia, has been conducted following ethical guidelines and principles. We confirm that all procedures performed in our study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Zonal Agricultural Office of the West and South West Shewa. The head of the agricultural office provided a support letter to the weredas agricultural office to reach the peasant associations (PAs) with the support of developing agents (DAs) in all weredas. The research protocol and methodologies employed in this study have been reviewed and approved by the advisors suggested as co-authors.
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Sedata, D.W., Dadi, D.K., Terefe, W.G. et al. Smallholder farmers’ vulnerability to climate extremes in west and southwest Showa zones, Ethiopia. Climatic Change 178, 15 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-024-03852-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-024-03852-w