Afar pastoralist households’ resilience to climate change in Ethiopia

Climate change and extremes are major challenges to pastoral production systems. Alternative ways of making a living could determine a pastoralist household’s resilience. The study “Understanding resilience of pastoralists to climate change and variability in the southern Afar Region, Ethiopia” by Muluken Mekuyie et al, published in 2018 in Climate Risk Management 20: 64-77, looked into reasons for differences between rural Afar households in terms of resilience to climate change.

The results indicated that agropastoralist households were more resilient than pastoralist ones to climate-induced shock. Households in Gewane District were more resilient than those in Amibara District. Male-headed households were more resilient than female-headed ones. The authors found that enhancing livestock assets and productivity, social safety nets, access to market, credit, extension services and education, improving irrigated crop farming and providing farm inputs significantly enhanced the resilience of the Afar pastoralists to climate change and variability.

Posted on 2 August 2018 in Pastoralism & Climate Change, Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition