Abstract

Climate change is a current threat to food production and food security. Temperature rise and variability in rainfall patterns has had serious consequences on crop and livestock production in Ethiopia leading to a decline in food production. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is the way to turn around the situation to more resilience and higher agricultural productivity leading to improved food security status. Although CSAs have been promoted in the country, not all farmers have adopted fully and their effects on food security are not clear. This review sought to evaluate the uptake of CSAs and their effects on food security among small scale farmers in Ethiopia. The demand for CSA practices was positively influenced by gender of the household head, household size, participation in off-farm employment, farm size, group membership, annual contacts with extension service agents, credit access and negatively influenced by age of the household head. The mean number of CSA strategies used by farmers was 2 applied by 44.8% of farmers. Most importantly, it was evident that CSA practices had a great potential to solve food security challenges. A complete package with crop management, field management, farm risk reduction and specific soil management practices had the highest implication to food security. To improve demand for CSAs, farmers need to be motivated to join and participate in farmer organizations through which they could gain access to extension information and credit. Additionally, farmers should be sensitized on the need to invest in farm productive assets in order to absorb the risks of climate change while also enabling them to benefit from use of CSAs which require these important assets. Finally, land fragmentation should be discouraged through civic education and provision of alternative income generating activities for farmers to benefit from CSAs when practiced on relatively bigger land.

Keywords: Climate change; CSA; Food security; Land fragmentation; Livelihood

Abbreviations: CC: Climate Change; COP: Conference of Parties: CSA; Climate Smart Agriculture; MCA: Environment Management Coordination Act; FACE: Free Air Carbon Enrichment; FARA: Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa; FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization; FICCF: Finance Innovation for Climate Change Fund; GHG: Green House Gas GOE Government of Ethiopia; HDDS: Household Dietary Diversity Score; ICRAF: International Centre for Research in Agro-forestry; IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; NCCRS: National Climate Change Response Strategy; NEMA: National Environment Management Authority; PALWECO: Program for Agriculture and Livelihoods in Western Communities; SAPs: Sustainable Agricultural Practices; UNCED: United Nations Conference on Environment and Development; UNDP: United Nations Development Program; UNFCCC: United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change; UNFPA: United Nations Population Fund