Impact of climate-smart agricultural services on farmer resilience in Ethiopia

Abstract

Climate change poses significant threats to agriculture and livelihoods, particularly in developing regions. This study investigates the impacts of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) services on farmers’ resilience in the Gubalafto district of Ethiopia. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design; data were collected from 355 randomly surveyed households. Principal component analysis and multinomial endogenous switching regression were employed to analyse the data. The findings revealed that 44% of the households had a low resilience capacity index (RCI), whereas 37% and 19% had medium and high RCIs, respectively. About 21.13%, 23%, 15% and 10% of households were classified as single, partial, multiple and full adopters, respectively. Adopters of partial, multiple and full practices experienced increases in resilience capacity of 7.4%, 12% and 17%, respectively. Households that adopted more diverse combinations of CSA practices were more resilient than non-adopters. Thus, enhancing adoption levels and capability aspects should be the primary goal of any intervention.