Analysis of factors influencing women’s decision to adapt to climate change: the case of rural women in Haramaya District, Eastern Ethiopia

Climate change poses a great threat to human security through erratic rainfall patterns and decreasing crop yields, contributing to increased hunger. Adaptation is considered an appropriate response to climate change, especially for women farmers. Therefore, this study investigates whether women farmers in Haramaya recognize climate change and consequently adapt to it in their agricultural activities. The study also examines the factors influencing woman’s decision to adapt to climate change and identifying the types of climate change adaptation options practiced by women in Haramaya district, eastern Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to obtain a total of 150 rural women households in Haramaya district, while descriptive statistics and multinomial logit model (MNL) were used to analyze the data obtained from the households. The results showed that the most widely used adaptation method by women farmers were soil and water conservation measures (37.3percent). The multinomial logit analysis revealed that the factors influencing women’s decision to adapt to climate change include age of women, education, family size, farming experience, access to credit, access to information on climate change, total annual income, perception of women households on climate change and women empowerment. Therefore, the government needs to help farmers overcome constraints they face in taking up adaptation to climate change. Furthermore, the government can play a significant role by promoting policies aimed to enhance adaptation at household level through empowering women and the support of extension services, meteorological service by reporting and alerting households about weather changes in an understandable way so that they can be able to plan for their future farming.