Abstract:
Globally, many nations have made climate change and variability as one of their main
developmental agenda as it relates to their economic, social and political affairs. The objective
of this study is to investigate the impacts of climate change and variability on the smallholder
farmers’ livelihoods in Debark Woreda of North Gondar zone. Using cross-sectional survey
design, a total of 126 households were addressed through purposive and stratified random
sampling technique from the three rural kebeles in the study area. Moreover, the study included
focus group discussants and key informants from the three rural kebeles. The study employed
both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the data.. The study used both primary and
secondary data. Specifically, the primary quantitative and qualitative data were collected
through survey questionnaire (quantitative), focus group discussion and key informant guides
(qualitative). On the other hand, the secondary data concerning the long term recorded
temperature and precipitation for 25 years was obtained from global weather data for SWAT.
Data analysis was undertaken both in quantitative and qualitative techniques. In addition to this,
the study has employed descriptive statistics like frequency, percentage, means, standard
deviation for quantitative data, and the qualitative data was analyzed thematically. In addition to
descriptive statistics inferential statistics like binary logistic regression model was taken as a
method for analyzing the impact of climate change on the livelihood of smallholder farmer.
Livelihood vulnerability was also analyzed using vulnerability index. The result of the study
showed that the vulnerability of the locality based on vulnerability to climate change with value
of 0.82 which is higher than the total average vulnerability index 0.76 values. The standard
precipitation index of rainfall showed that there was worst drought in the year 1992, 1996, 2001,
2006, and 2010, 2012 ,and the binary logistic model resulted also showed that gender, years of
experience, total livestock unit, land size, off farm income, access to credit and land tenure
security with less than 0.05 significant level.
