Climate change adaptation strategies of rural women-headed households in southwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

Climate change imposes severe challenges on smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, with women-headed households being particularly vulnerable. This study assessed climate change adaptation strategies among 304 women-headed households in Omo Nada district, southwestern Ethiopia, and analyzed factors influencing their choices using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and a multinomial logit (MNL) model. Results showed that 92.1% of respondents perceived climate change, and 69.7% had adopted at least one adaptation strategy. The most common strategy was crop-livestock integration (32.2%), followed by agroforestry (22.4%), small-scale irrigation (9.9%), and soil and water conservation (5.3%). The MNL model (Pseudo R 2 = 0.618) revealed that a one-year increase in education raised the predicted probability of choosing small-scale irrigation by 3.86 percentage points ( p < 0.01) and agroforestry by 7.8 percentage points ( p < 0.01). Credit access increased the probability of small-scale irrigation by 13.97 percentage points ( p < 0.01) and agroforestry by 16.75 percentage points ( p < 0.01). Higher livestock holdings (TLU) were associated with a 6.15 percentage point lower probability of crop-livestock integration ( p < 0.01) but a 3.6 percentage point higher probability of agroforestry ( p < 0.05). Extension contact frequency increased the probability of crop-livestock integration by 18.07 percentage points ( p < 0.01). Climate perception raised the probability of crop-livestock integration and agroforestry by 43.9 and 42.6 percentage points, respectively ( p < 0.01). The study highlights the need for targeted institutional support credit, female extension agents, adult education, and climate awareness campaigns to strengthen adaptive capacity among women-headed households.