Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices and Its Impacts on Crop Productivity and Food Security of smallholders Farmers: A Case of North Wello Zone, Northeast Ethiopia

Abstract

Climate change and land degradation are two mutually reinforcing major environmental problems in Ethiopia's rain-fed farming practices, particularly in the Wello areas. Climate-smart agricultural practices are being implemented to increase land productivity, agricultural production, and food security under the changing climate. However, the effects of the introduced agricultural land and crop management on land productivity and food security in the study area have not been thoroughly investigated. Thus, this study aims to assess the factors influencing farmers' decisions to use climate-smart agricultural practices as adaptation strategies and the impacts of those decisions on productivity and food security in the North Wello administrative zone, northeast Ethiopia. The study collected cross-sectional household and plot-level primary data from 411 farm households in the area's lowland, midland, and highland agro-ecological zones. The livelihood vulnerability index approach based on the IPCC framework is customized for the agro-ecology specific vulnerability analysis with an objective weighing method. The land degradation status (land-based natural capital) was measured by the three global land degradation neutrality indicators (metrics): land cover change, land productivity dynamics, and soil organic carbon. The econometric models employed in this study are the ordered probit regression model to examine and explore the determinants for food security status in the study area, the multivariate probit model to explore the determinants for smallholder farmers' decisions to use multiple climate-smart agricultural practices, and the endogenous switching regression model to analyze the effect of climate-smart agricultural practices on crop productivity, and smallholder farmers' food security conditions. Based on the results, smallholder farmers face varying degrees of vulnerability to climate change within the same farming system in the study area. Households who reside in lowland agro-ecology (Habru) are relatively more vulnerable, than those households settled in highland (Gidan) and midland (Gubalafto) agro-ecologies. In lowland agro ecology, locust outbreaks and intermittent rainfall patterns combined with limited access to potable water have contributed the most to the livelihood vulnerability index to climate-related risks. Poor access to electricity, clean water, and a low crop diversification index contributed most significantly to the higher sensitivity score. Farmers in lowland and highland agro ecological zones have a weak adaptive capacity due to a less developed infrastructure, a low level of education, low farm income, and weak institutional support. The land degradation neutrality assessment metrics showed increasing tendencies in urban areas, agricultural lands, barren lands, and forest land, while decreasing pattern in water bodies and shrubland. The land productivity metrics show that stable land under stress covered 58.2% of the total area, and only 21% of the study area accounted for stable areas in the North Wello Zone. Cropland and barren land areas have the lowest SOC content. Based on the one-out-all-out principle, the intersection of the three metrics showed that 75% of North Wello's land area was degraded, 15% stable, and 10% improved. The common climate-smart crop and land management practices implemented by the respondents were efficient applications of inorganic fertilizers (54.5%), drought-resilient and high-yielding crop seeds (38.4%), organic fertilizers (36.5%), small-scale irrigations (23.6%), crop diversifications (19.5%), minimum tillage (16.6%), agroforestry (11%), and rainwater harvesting (8.8%). The multivariate probit estimation results showed the complementarity and substitutability of these identified climate-smart agricultural practices. The analysis of factors influencing climate-smart agricultural practices, conducted using a multivariate probit model, indicates that certain variables have a positive impact on the decision to adopt these practices. These variables include education level, membership in local vii organizations, farm size, tropical livestock unit (TLU), ownership of irrigated land, number of plots, presence of steep slopes, distance of farmland from home, and access to local media sources. Lack of credit, large family size, distance from extension services, and proximity to the nearest market were all associated with lower adoption of all climate-smart cropland management practices. The impact assessments using endogenous switching regression model estimation result revealed that farmers who implemented a single or full package of climate smart agricultural practices had a higher crop yield per hectare than those who did not. Adopting multiple climate-smart agricultural practices produces more crop yield than a single practice. Adopting input-based crop management practices combined with water management practices achieved a greater yield per hectare than any other practice, either in isolation or combined. The results further revealed that the joint adoption of improved seed varieties, small-scale irrigation, and inorganic fertilizers applications produced the highest household food consumption score (38.1%) and were more significant than the effects of each improved technology adopted in isolation. The irrigation practices significantly increased household food variety by 90.5%. In addition, the joint adoption of improved seed varieties, small-scale irrigation, and inorganic fertilizers applications showed an average decline in household food insecurity access scale of 69.9% (-7.9), whereas their counterfactual showed an increase of 87.7% (5.0). Improved crop seeds, inorganic fertilizers, and small-scale irrigation are currently most effective when used together rather than separately. Finally, the study encourages policymakers and development partners to create agroecosystem-based climate-smart landscape planning and crop management interventions to boost crop productivity and then food security among smallholder farmers in the study area.