Effects of Climate Variability in South Ari Woreda, South Omo Zone, Ethiopia

B.Y. Kassahun¹ , C.H. Hamer²

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.6 , Issue.12 , pp.42-52, Dec-2020

Online published on Dec 31, 2020

Copyright © B.Y. Kassahun, C.H. Hamer . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
The rural livelihood is inherently sensitive to climate change and variability. Climate variability affects all countries but disproportionately affecting the poor people with less adaptive capacity. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to analyze rainfall and temperature variability and its effect on crop production in South Ari Woreda. The study sought to analyze 33 years climate data (rainfall and temperature) of the Woreda. Primary data were collected from key informants and field observations. Besides, secondary data was collected from official reports of the Woreda. Document analysis, interview and field observation are data collecting methods used in this study. Trend analysis was used to analyze the study area rainfall and temperature data. Annual rainfall and annual temperature show an increasing trend of by 3.7mm and 0.40C per decade respectively. The study also identified that almost the entire community livelihood depends on rain fed agriculture which is being adversely affected by the rainfall and temperature variability. Consequently, increasing trend of rainfall particularly during autumn and spring seasons is causing flooding on the highland areas under the study. This situation resulted in high damage of growing crops on the farmland. High temperature during winter and summer seasons is causing drought on the lowland areas of the study. The frequent drought in the study area affected crop production and animal rearing. In general the variability of rainfall accompanied with increasing temperature in the study area exposed the local community to food insecurity which is not familiar in the study area ever before. Therefore, all governmental and charity society have to support the community to reducing their vulnerability to climate change and variability induced shocks by adopting long term adaptation strategies and by improving community awareness and adaptive capacity.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Climate Variability, Rainfall, South Ari Woreda, Temperature

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