Farmers' Perception to Climate Change and Variability: The Case of La’Ilay Maichew Woreda, Central Tigray, Ethiopia

Climate change and variability is rapidly emerging as one of the most serious global problems affecting many sectors in the world and is considered to be one of the most serious threats to sustainable development. The impact of climate change depends on severity of the natural resource degradation and the technological capacity of the people to cope up the changes in climate. La’ilay Maichew woreda in Tigray regional state, is not an exception in this context. Farmers have been making efforts to cope up the adverse impact of climate change and variability by using different adaptation methods. Adaptation method is largely site-specific and site-specific issues that require site specific knowledge. Thus, this research was initiated to address the knowledge gab: to assess the information on perception of farmers towards climate change and variability. Quantitative design was primarily employed for the study. The essential data were collected from 130 randomly selected farm households using semi-structured interview schedule. Descriptive statistics were used for analyzing quantitative data. The study has established that rainfall and temperature in study area have been decreasing and increasing respectively. Majority of the farmers in La’ilay Maichew woreda recognize this increase in temperature and the reduction in the volume of rainfall. In general, increasing farmers’ awareness on climate change and variability risk perception, improve farmers’ income-earning opportunities, Moreover, access to extension and credit services are essential to cope up the adverse impact of climate change and variability in La’ilay Maichew Woreda. Keywords: Climate change and variability, perceptio

Demonstration and Popularization of Mould Board Plow with Their Production Packages in Tigray Region

Tigray is one of the national regional states of Ethiopia which is located in the North part of the country. Agriculture is the mainstay of Tigray’s economy. Agriculture in Tigray is predominantly of subsistence nature, characterized by the use of traditional farming implements and practices. Improved farm implements i.e. MBP with their production package were verified and demonstrated using the local farm implements as a local check. The overall objective of the project is to help increase agricultural production and productivity through the promotion of improved agricultural mechanization technologies (Melkassa mould board plough). Representative site and farmers were selected in collaboration with staff of MoARD. Then on-farm trainings were given to farmers and DAs. The Pre-extension popularization of Melkassa mould board plough was conducted on 215 host farmers respectively, across 6 woredas of the study areas from 2012-2015. Yield, economic data and farmers’ perception were collected. Descriptive statistics was used for analyzing quantitative data. The simple statistical analysis across all the demonstration sites indicated that the improved farm implements exhibited higher yield advantage and percent yield increase over the Traditional (Mahiresha). the improved MBP has  21-50% increment in productivity, 40% efficient in weed control,40 % decrease work frequency or time saving and 19% more power efficient  than the traditional Maresha. The demonstration of mould board plow on farmers field for different crops such as wheat, barely, sorghum, and teff was done since 2012. and the result of the trials shows that an average yield increment of 30.5%.and the specific result based on crop type also shows that use of improved Mould Board plow had 34.8%,45.25 %26.72% and  25.2% yield increment of teff, sorghum, barely,  and wheat respectively over the use of the tradition maresha. Different parameters were used to assess farmers’ perception on the improved farm implement MBP. Most of the farmers interviewed perceived that MBP  was technical suitable to their farm, time saving, effectiveness in weed control, and higher productivity. It was, thus, recommended that further popularizing and scale out of this improved farm implements are quite pertinent. Keywords: Demonstration, Popularization, Melkassa Mould Board plo

Stability and Performance Assessment in 18 Short-Duration Rice Genotypes under Rain Fed Lowland Production Conditions of Ethiopia

In order to identify high yielding and stable short-duration lowland rice genotypes, field experiment was conducted with 18 rice genotypes for three consecutive years (2013-2015) at five locations in a randomized complete block design of three replications. Combined analysis of variance showed highly significant differences for the genotype and environments. The genotype by environment interaction (GEI) was also highly significant indicating differential response of genotypes to environments. The partitioning of total sum of squares exhibited that the GEI effect was a predominant source of variation (34.44%), followed by the environment and genotype effects of 24.3% and 19.04%, respectively. The GEI effect was nearly two times higher than that of the genotype effect, suggesting the presence of different environment groups. In the AMMI analysis, the first six interaction principal component axes (IPCA1 to IPCA6) were highly significant and together explained 92.18% of interaction sum of squares. AMMI stability value (ASV) discriminated genotypes G17, G16 and G8 as the stable genotypes. But, based on the yield stability index (YSI), the most stable genotypes with high grain yield were genotypes G16 and G11. AMMI1 and GGE biplots also recommended G16 and G11as stable and high yielding genotypes, whereas G2 as unstable but high yielding. Thus, genotypes G16 and G11could be released for wider adaptation while genotype G2 for specific adaptation. Keywords: Lowland rice, AMMI, GGE, AMMI stability value, yield stability index. DOI: 10.7176/JEES/11-7-02 Publication date:July 31st 202

Applying Multivariate Analysis to Assess Phenotypic Diversity in Rice Cultivars Grown at Fogera and Pawe, Northwest Ethiopia

Field experiment was conducted to assess genetic variation and traits relationship in rice cultivars from Ethiopia based on quantitative traits. Sixty rice cultivars comprising improved varieties and collected accessions were evaluated at Fogera and Pawe research stations. The experiment was arranged using alpha lattice design of three replications.  Correlation studies revealed panicle length, plant height, filled grains per panicle, spikiletes fertility rate, biomass yield, harvest index and thousand seeds weight having a significant positive association with grain yield both at Pawe and Fogera. However, days to heading and days to maturity exhibited a significant negative association with grain yield at Fogera but positive association at Pawe. Principal component analysis showed that the first four components explained a cumulative variance of 81.07, 74.95%, and 80.63% at Fogera, Pawe and combined data, respectively. Days to heading, days to maturity, plant height, panicle length, filled grains per panicle and grain yield were the most discriminate traits for explaining the total variation. Cluster analysis classified sixty rice cultivars into four different groups. The first and second clusters comprised the largest number of cultivars. About 48% of improved cultivars containing the desired traits adapted predominantly to upland production system belonged to Cluster I, having the lowest intra-cluster distance. Clusters II and IV included both upland and lowland cultivars and the highest intra-cluster distance in both confirmed their heterogeneous composition while Cluster III contained exclusively of upland cultivars comprising improved and landrace types. The highest inter-cluster distance was observed between clusters II and IV, followed by clusters III and IV but the lowest between clusters I and II. Thus, future crossing program between cultivars of different cluster groups could possibly result in better heterosis in our rice breeding program. Keywords: Genetic variation, rice, cluster, principal component, Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/11-15-03 Publication date:August 31st 2021

The Role of Women in the Traditional Cattle Fattening and Marketing Activities in West Hararghe Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

The objective of this study is to evaluate the involvement of women in the traditional cattle fattening and marketing in West Hararghe, four selected districts, namely Habro, Gemechis, Chiro and Tullo. For the purpose of this study, two kebeles (the smallest administrative unit) per district were selected. Data was collected with the help of structured questioner, focus group discussion (FGD), key informant interview (KII) and personal observation. Woredas and kebeles were selected purposively while 160 respondents were selected using systematic sampling and these respondents were directly involved in the structured interview. The result of this assessment showed that only 2.5% of 160 households who participated in the survey were females. However, the involvement of women in the routine management activities had a paramount importance in the study areas. Educating females so that they can understand gender equity and easily adopt to new agricultural technologies and organizing them in saving and credit associations and assisting them with financial credit services is recommended. Keywords: Fattening, women, cattle fattenin

Farmers' Adaptation Mechanisms to Climate Change and Variability: The Case of La’Ilay Maichew Woreda, Central Tigray, Ethiopia

Climate change and variability is rapidly emerging as one of the most serious global problems affecting many sectors in the world and is considered to be one of the most serious threats to sustainable development. The impact of climate change depends on severity of the natural resource degradation and the technological capacity of the people to cope up the changes in climate. La’ilay Maichew woreda in Tigray regional state, is not an exception in this context. Farmers have been making efforts to cope up the adverse impact of climate change and variability by using different adaptation methods. Adaptation method is largely site-specific and site-specific issues that require site specific knowledge. Thus, this research was initiated to address the knowledge gab: to identify the adaptation methods and factors that affect farmers’ choice of adaption strategies. Quantitative design was primarily employed for the study. The essential data were collected from 130 randomly selected farm households using semi-structured interview schedule. Descriptive statistics and MNL logit model were used for analyzing quantitative data. The study has established that rainfall and temperature in study area have been decreasing and increasing respectively. To adapt this climate change the farmers have been using a combination of adaptive strategies, which include agronomic practices, livestock management and water and soil conservation. The results from MNL highlighted that sex, age, education, family size; farm income, farm size, TLU, extension visit, credit use, and access to climate information were the significant factors that influenced farmers’ choice of adaptation option to climate change in the study area. In general, increasing farmers’ awareness on climate change and variability risk perception, improve farmers’ income-earning opportunities, Moreover, access to extension and credit services are essential to cope up the adverse impact of climate change and variability in La’ilay Maichew Woreda. It was, thus, recommended that policy aimed to reduce adverse impact of climate change in the area could be successful if these factors mentioned above are taken into consideration with respect to the intrinsic nature of climate change adaptation options

Assessing the Institutional Outreach and Sustainability of Micro Finance Institution in Ethiopia: Evidence from Omo Microfinance Institutions Hawassa Branch

Institutional sustainability and outreach are key for achieving the micro finance goal of meeting financial requirement of poor people. So, the objective of this study was to assess the institutional outreach and sustainability of Omo Microfinance Institution at Hawassa branch.  To this end, the researchers had used descriptive research design because using this type of research design enables the researchers to assess and describe the present situation of institutional sustainability and outreach of the institution.  The primary data was collected from 60 randomly selected employees of OMFI Hawassa branch using structured questionnaire. Then, descriptive statistics analysis has been done through SPSS version 23.0 in order to get the reliable findings.  Consequently, the result of  the study showed that the factors influencing outreach and sustainability of OMFI Hawassa branch were nature of loan extended to customers, Poor loan management, flexibility of loan repayment schedule, loan defaulting faced by customers, and  per customer outstanding. Besides, the study showed  that level of sustainability and institutional outreach level is increased by higher deposit mobilization, saving mobilization extended to borrowers, increase in saving amount, and  regulatory saving framework for the reason most of the respondents expressed their positive level of agreement with statements asked about  this variables. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher forwarded possible recommendations for the OMFI Hawassa branch in order to improve the institutional sustainability in one hand and outreach in other hand. Keywords: Omo Microfinance Institution, Institutional Sustainability, Outreach DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-15-01 Publication date:August 31st 202

COMESA: Prospects and Challenges for Regional Trade Integration

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) was established with a view to achieve sustainable development through progressive realization of integration, begin with preferential trade area then becoming a common market and finally transforming into economic community. In COMESA, member states have been obligated to establish a customs union, abolish all non-tariff barriers, and determine a common external tariff and follow common standards of custom procedures. Among those commitments, FTA is established to facilitate regional integration through zero customs tariffs on goods traded among the Member States. The study has found that, less diversity in trade, overlapped memberships, heterogeneity of the economy, loss of import-export tax revenue, lack of political commitment, loss of national sovereignty, poor private sector participation, and poor infrastructure were identified as challenge to achieve the objective of COMESA. Therefore, states needs to take affirmative action’s including harmonizing their national trade policies in the manner of pre portrayed goal of COMESA-FTA arrangement. In doing so, it needs to venture the expected challenges of membership to COMESA-FTA and potential gains from trade liberalization. Keywords: COMESA, Regional Integration, Free Trade Area DOI: 10.7176/IAGS/76-02 Publication date:September 30th 201

Geotechnical, Geological and Geophysical Investigation in Weyib River Irrigation Project, Agarfa

This research is part a number of studies such as soil phyisico-chemical, hydrology etc. The main objective of this research was to assess the suitability of the proposed weir and other engineering structure sites, understand the lithological and structural features of the foundation and reservoir area and construction materials availability assessment. Geological, geophysical and geotechnical investigation conducted. Soil, water and rock samples are taken to the central laboratory for analysis. The integrated study shows that the area is suitable for constructing such structure. Keywords: Atterberg limit, permeability, geophysical survey, shrinkag

Pastoral Conflict, Emerging Trends and Environmental Stress in Nyangatom, Southern Ethiopia

This study examined the dynamics of conflict, emerging trends and relationship between inter-pastoral conflicts and environmental changes in Nyangatom, Southern Ethiopia.  The study employed a qualitative approach and exploratory case study research design.  The study revealed that inter-pastoral conflicts stem from multiple and compounding dynamics. The environmental change has escalated intense inter-pastoralists’ contestation and conflicts, including cross-border conflict, on the scarce and fast-depleting natural resources. Indeed, there is a causal link between inter-pastoral conflicts and environmental changes. In this regard, the environmental factor has uniquely affected the Nyangatom due to the drying of Kibish River and rapid invasion of Prosopis–Juliflora in their key grazing lands. In response to environmental stresses as part of the traditional copying mechanism, the Nyangatom cross border deep into South-Sudan to their ethnic kin of Toposa and into Kenya that usually causes frequent cross-border conflicts with Turkana pastoralists. Irrespective of discernible risk of conflicts, they used to migrate to Mursi and Surma territories that caused conflict. And yet, the Nyangatom has often engaged in frequent conflicts with Dasanach. The study suggests alternative livelihood options and an understanding of the complex conflict dynamics in view of the cause-effect relationships for future management of inter-pastoral and cross-border conflicts in the region