Evaluating adaptation efforts of food-aid-reliant smallholder farmers in the drought-prone area

This study aimed to evaluate the adaptation efforts of food-aid-reliant smallholder farmers in the drought-prone area of northern Ethiopia. The study involved mixed approaches to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from the randomly selected 398 respondents. The study employed a household survey method to collect quantitative data, while to gather qualitative data focus group discussions and key informant interview methods were used with the help of semi-structured and unstructured questions, respectively. The primary data were gathered focusing on food aid and the opinion of the farmers, perceived causes for food shortage and aid dependence, approaches of improving and sustaining adaptive capacity, options and practice of livelihood diversification, the role of local institutions in building adaptive capacity, and factors influencing the efforts to build adaptive capacity and sustain livelihood. While descriptive statists and econometric models were used to analyze quantitative data, content analysis was used to summarize the qualitative data. The results showed that 100% of the farm households reported that they have been suffering from food insecurity. As a result, about 67% of the respondents were dependent on external support for their livelihood. Climate variability, frequent droughts, low productivity, land degradation, and low technology adoption were the major causes of food insecurity and reliance on aid. To build adaptive capacity and livelihood resilience of the rural poor, implementing integrated watershed management activities was taken as a key approach to improve the productivity of the land, ensure food security, and avoid reliance on external aid coming from abroad. The model was checked for its validity before the analysis. Active community participation, awareness of climate change, social transfer, access to credit service, use of organic fertilizer, and community engagement in off-farm income activities is factors that have a positive and significant influence on adaptive capacity. Therefore, policymakers and planners should focus on improving land productivity, enhancing household income, lessening the vulnerability of households, and increasing the adaptive capacity of aid-dependent poor farmers'.