Assessing small-holder coffee farmers' awareness and choice of climate change/variability adaptation strategies in Mattu Woreda, southwestern Ethiopia

It is advocated that smallholder coffee farmers' characteristics and perceptions strongly affect the use and selection of climate variability/change response mechanisms. Therefore, we investigated the climate change/variability perceptions and determining factors of the selection of smallholder coffee farmers' adaptation strategies over the period 1992-2022 in Mattu woreda, Ethiopia. This study used cross-sectional research design as the data was collected from different groups (adaptor and non-adaptor) at a time. A sample of 325 coffee farmers were randomly selected for a self-administered questionnaire supplemented with face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions. A multinomial logistic regression model was used for statistical analysis. The findings of the study showed that 79% of coffee farmers are conscious of the prevailing climate change and related consequences on coffee growth, production, productivity, and quality. Coffee farmers practiced planting coffee under shade, close spacing, mulching, and irrigation, developing an adaptable coffee variety, developing disease and heat-tolerant varieties, changing the location and planting date, and pruning as strategies to lessen the influence of climatic change on coffee production. However, most coffee farmers prefer to plant coffee under shade and pruning. The selection of climate change/variability adaptation strategies among coffee farmers is significantly influenced by age, family size, coffee farm experience, land holding size, income of HHs, distance to coffee farm plots, access to climate information, and training and TLU (P < 0.05). Therefore, provision of climate information, extension services, and seed varieties to farmers, and improving social and physical infrastructures are recommended to better adapt and mitigate the effect of climate change/variability.