Examination of 31 documented cases of African and Latin American farmers adopting “resource conserving agriculture” found that yield improved in19 of the 25 cases that reported on it, food security improved in seven of eight cases, and net income improved in 19 of 23 cases and observed that successful “resource conserving agriculture” initiatives did not occurs pontaneously rather required a variety of skills from smallholders and their allies which included adaptive farm management, effective producer organizations, entrepreneurship, capacity to innovate, value addition and boundary spanning, these being noted in the case of traditional farming in Ethiopia .Unfortunately, the struggling Ethiopian small farmers and pastoralists have already been hit hard by climate variability, losing harvests and livestock to drought, floods and struggling to survive amid changing rainfall patterns.
Sub-Saharan Africa is considered one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change, because of the high exposure and the low adaptive capacity of agriculture which is the most important livelihood .Mean annual temperature of Ethiopia has already increased by 1.3˚C between 1960 and 2006, also daily temperature data indicate significantly increasing trends in the frequency of hot days, and much larger increasing trends in the frequency of hot nights . Continued changing patterns and intensities of rainfall with increasing temperatures expected to have dire consequences for all Ethiopians, but especially more than 70 million poor rural people whose survival depended on rainfed agriculture,in 2005, 39% of Ethiopia’s population lay below the national poverty line.As the impacts of climate hazards and change occur alongside other trends, for example, population growth, land degradation, poor infrastructure, and low opportunities for markets, indicating the compounded nature of the problems faced by the rural community; the efforts to tackle climate hazards, variability and change in Ethiopia must be aligned with the overall development plans .
Despite the Government of Ethiopia and other development actors giving widespread recognition of this by planning for climate change, most attempts are isolated and suffer from under-investment.There is an important need of in depth research and closer scrutiny of how the local climate is changing, what the local communities are thinking about this change, what the small farmers can do in the long term as adaptations,and possible interventions/future investments needed to deliver sustainable results. As indicated above, till now, the Ethiopian agriculture has remained rather “traditional and ecological”—little change being experienced like “agricultural intensification” but to cater the need of the increased population, the traditional system has proved insufficient, has to be improved especially to cope with the climate change instabilities. For such a need the necessity for “ecological intensification” under unfavorable conditions was advocated which depends on reducing the reliance on subsistence cereal production and integration with livestock enterprises, greater crop diversification and agroforestry practices that may ensure higher economic value and soil conservation . So, to understand the nexus of climate change and sustainable development, what needed is an in-depth field survey to find out the local community’s ideas and perceptions and how they are responding to climate irregularities.
As in most vulnerable communities, there is a symbiotic relation between lives, livelihoods and the biophysical environment. It is hypothesized that in response to the climate change the small farmers, in the way of the process of adaptation to all changes and survival strategy,may have modified and/or replaced many practices which have become unsustainable and adopt new ones can be demonstrated in the present study in the Highlands of Ethiopia. This understanding is also important for understanding the level of success of the process of constant adjustment to change be considered as an indicative of the adaptive capacity and knowledge of the rural farmers as has been stressed for attaining sustainable development. A focus group of elderly men and women who have been living for long in the area were selected from the community to discuss about climate and farming .The discussion was facilitated in local language , as these community members lived for long periods in the area had good understanding of conditions and changes in their surrounding and also about the “normal climate conditions”. Discussion was started by posing questions such as what are the “good”seasons and what were the “bad” seasons, how did they understand and describe climate and climate change at the local levels. The participants described “good season” as that give enough rain with regular distribution that can support crops, trees and animals in sufficient amount, there would be no fear of starvation and insecurity to the family; whereas they described “bad” season associated with low and irregular rains, heat, hails and storms bringing crop damage and the fear to face food shortage, starvation and insecurity to the family. The participants were solicited to identify and list the bad and good points of the earlier as well as during recent years in a chart and filter tip pen, the main memorable indicators of climate situation in the area from past were identified by the participants as rain fall, heat, hail and coolness.