Smallholder farmers' perceptions, coping and adaptation strategies to climate variability in the UNESCO designated cultural landscapes of Konso, Ethiopia

Knowledge and perceptions of smallholders about climate variability are essential for climate change adaptation and natural resource conservation. However, there are limited studies that consider the interplay of local perceptions, coping, and adaptation strategies to climate variability. Thus, this study aims to assess smallholders' perceptions, coping, and adaptation strategies to climate variability in Konso. The study was based on survey data collected from 355 households, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. The econometric models were used to examine factors influencing smallholders' perceptions and adaptations to climate variability, while the chi-square test was employed to assess significant differences between the two agroecologies. The results indicate that smallholders perceived the late-onset, early cessation, and shortened rainy seasons as the most common types of climate variability manifestations in the study area. Additionally, smallholders reported recurring droughts, new weeds, pests, and heat-induced disease prevalence as a result of climate variability. Moreover, the binary and multinomial logit models demonstrated that education, access to credit, extension services, and climate information had a positive impact on smallholders' perceptions, coping and adaptations to climate variability. Smallholders responded to climate variability by adopting terracing, agroforestry, manure, crop varieties, soil bunds, intercropping, reduced tillage, and irrigation. Thus, it is important to enhance smallholders' adaptive capacity by facilitating access to reliable climate information, extension, and credit services. Finally, policy-driven interventions aimed at diversifying livelihoods into nonfarm/off-farm employment opportunities are suggested to reduce stallholders' vulnerability to impacts of climate variability.