Abstract
This research reports on how farmers perceive and adapt to climate change in three agro-ecological zones of Sidama, South Ethiopia. The main aim is to increase understanding about smallholder farmers’ perspectives by documenting and analysing local people’s perception of climate change. The research was held as part of a large project investigating vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. The researcher spent six months (from January to May 2012) in the field undertaking, among other things, focus group discussion (FGD) meetings from March to May 2012. Findings revealed that farmers clearly perceive climate change based on their lived experience and knowledge of their local environment. They identify shifting seasons, increased aridity, drought, erratic rainfall, floods, extreme heat and the emergence/spread of diseases such as malaria as indicators of change. Yet their perception of the causes of climate change varied: deforestation, God’s wrath, abandonment of past traditions/practices, and overpopulation. They also assigned important role to religious beliefs and government authority to address the problems engendered by what they refer to as “changed times.” Since the problem is rightly recognised, government policy needs to focus on aligning local knowledge and values with scientific information for adaptation to climate change.
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Notes
- 1.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007), climate change is a variation in the mean state of the climate persisting for an extended period (typically decades or longer) and resulting from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
- 2.
Ethiopia’s population in 2011 was 85 million.
- 3.
Depending on the instruments they use and weather elements they record, weather stations are categorized in Ethiopia into four classes. First class stations or Synoptic stations (only 2 exist in the SNNP region, namely, in Hawassa and Arba Minch), record all weather elements and receiving satellite data. Second class or Principal or Indicative stations record temperature, rainfall, humidity, sunshine and some other weather elements. Third class or Ordinary stations record temperature and rainfall. Fourth class record only rainfall (SNNPR; NMA; http://www.ethiomet.gov.et/stations/regional_information/).
- 4.
Kebele is similar to a ward, a neighbourhood or a localized group of people. It is part of a woreda, or district, itself usually part of a Zone, which in turn are grouped into one of the Regions (or Kilil) that comprise the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
- 5.
Here the names of the locations Xexicha, Awaada and Jara Galalcha represent highlands, midlands and lowlands, respectively.
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful for financial support for the field-work from the NORAD, Hawassa University and the University of East London. Thanks also to two anonymous referees for useful comments on the first draft of the paper. The views expressed and any errors or omissions are my own.
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Hameso, S. (2014). Perceptions About Climate Change in Sidama, Ethiopia. In: Leal Filho, W., Alves, F., Caeiro, S., Azeiteiro, U. (eds) International Perspectives on Climate Change. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04489-7_19
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