Abstract

The study examined climate variability; identified types of adjustments agro-pastoral households are making in their crop and livestock production practices in response to climate changes; and assessed factors influencing agro-pastoral households’ decision to practice adaptation mechanism. Thirty years of meteorological station data beginning from the year 1987 to 2016 and primary data collected from randomly selected 156 agro-pastoral households were used in this study. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multinomial econometric model. The result revealed that the temporal variation of total amount of annual rainfall was recognized as moderate and there was an increase of maximum temperature throughout the study period. There were also five highest drought and four highest flood years. Agro-pastorals practice multiple strategies to adapt to the changing climate. The empirical model also confirmed multiple factors including formal education, access to extension service, and market access influenced households’ decision to adopt climate change adaptation options. Therefore, policies and intervention programs aimed at promoting household level climate change adaptation need to invest more on providing reliable meteorological information, formal education, extension services, and better infrastructure.

Key Words: Agro-pastoral, Climate variability, Climate change, Adaptation strategies, Somali Region, MNL model