Impact of climate change on agriculture and adaptation strategies in Ethiopia: A meta-analysis

Ethiopia is a rainfall-based agricultural country that is susceptible to the impacts of climate change and risk. Floods and droughts, which happen more frequently and intensely, significantly and negatively influence agricultural production. The objective of the meta-analysis is to identify impacts on various sectors, adaptation strategies, and the challenges of climate change in the Ethiopian context. Twenty-three peer-reviewed articles were identified from ScienceDirect and Web of Science, followed by PRISMA guidelines, and analyzed using Stata version 13. The results reveal that climate change negatively impacts agriculture (by changing crop suitability, phenology, and productivity), the environment, and society, resulting from shifting temperature and rainfall patterns. Temperature variations, patterns of precipitation, and severe weather conditions have profound implications for agricultural productivity, water resources, ecosystems, and human well-being, which are multifaceted and interlinked. In addition, the reviewed articles informed us that farmers have used different coping strategies in response to climate change, such as soil and water conservation, agroforestry practices, integrated soil fertility management, small-scale irrigation, the application of improved crop varieties, the use of improved livestock, mixed cropping, early and late planting, and the practice of income-generating activities. The random effects meta-regression result shows that effective implementation of the above-mentioned practices reduces the risk of climate change in different sectors. The assessment also points out many challenges to the realization of these approaches, such as the lack of financing, institutional support, insufficient stakeholder involvement, ecological and sociocultural factors, and limited access to weather information. The meta-analysis concludes that addressing challenges requires holistic and integrated approaches that encompass adaptation strategies, sustainable land and water management, and social resilience-building to help the resilience of Ethiopian communities and ecosystems in the face of a changing climate.