ASSESSING COMMUNITY PERCEPTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND VARIABILITY, ITS IMPACTS IN ANLEMO WOREDA, HADIYA ZONE SOUTHERN NATION NATIONALITIES AND PEOPLES

The study assessed the rural community's perception of climate change and variability, its impacts, and adaptation strategies in Anlemo woreda. The study used purposive sampling techniques to select woreda and both kebeles. The sizes of the sample household respondents were 191 each, and 30 participants were from female-headed households. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis were used. A time-series analysis was used to show the trend of temperature and rainfall. The researcher used the Coefficient of variation and percent of deviation to discern rainfall variability. The findings of the study showed that both maximum and the average temperature had increased, belg rainfall had decreased, whereas annual and Meher rainfall had increased and showed inter-annual and seasonal variation. The researchers also showed that the district is experiencing increasing land degradation, spatially soil erosion, nutrient depilation, and deforestation are perceived as impacts of climate variability. The results revealed that most people perceived long-term variability in the pattern of rainfall amount and distribution and an increasing trend and variability of temperature. Therefore, farmers are undertaking different adaptation and coping mechanisms. Providing training, increasing accessibility to infrastructure, the credit services market, and introducing new technologies are forwarded as recommendations.