Climate Change-Induced Agricultural Drought over Moist-Cool and Moist-Warm Climatic Zones: A Case Study in Ale and Adami-Tulu Woredas, in Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

<span>Frequency and intensity of drought have troubled sustainable agriculture and worsened food insecurity of Ethiopians. This study aimed to investigate climate change-induced agricultural drought over the moist-cool and moist-warm climatic zones, using historical precipitation and temperature data recorded in the crop growing months for 35 years. The changes of temperatures and precipitation were analyzed using Mann Kendall trend test. Agricultural drought indices were analyzed using R-model by withdrawing potential evapotranspiration from precipitation to determine the existing water balance. The values of drought indices were used to characterize the duration, severity, intensity and trends of agricultural drought. Results showed that the changes in maximum and minimum temperatures and precipitation were significantly stronger in the Ale Woreda (P<0.05). However, minimum temperature and precipitation in Adami-Tulu did not noticeably change. The spatial drought events occurred more widely in Ale than in Adami Tulu. The events occurred 12 and 17 times with cumulative severity indices of 41.95 and 48.22 in Ale and Adami-Tulu, respectively. Agricultural drought intensities of the two districts were labeled as “severe” and “moderate dry”, for Ale and Adami-Tulu, respectively. The intensity of drought in Ale district significantly increased (P<0.05) and that in Adami-Tulu negligibly changed. Therefore, the study explicitly showed that more changes in temperature and precipitation aggravated agricultural drought in Ale than in Adami-Tulu more intensely and it is suggested that more attention shall be paid to Ale Woreda.</span>

Climate variability and the responses of crop yields to agricultural drought in the East Wollega Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

“…Spring and summer minimum temperature of midland of east Wollega zone were significntly increasing trend at P<0.01.While its annual temperature was notably increased at P< 0.05 (Table 2). It is line with current study, Benti and Chimdi [24] reported significant increasing trends of summer and annual minimum temperature at western parts Ethiopia too. Minimum temperature of spring and summer of east Wollega zone lowlands were showed that significantly increasing trend at P <0.01 while its annual minimum temperature was especially increased at P < 0.05 (Table 2).…”

“…Therefore, all selected crops were significantly correlated to drought indices (p<0.001) (Figure 6). This finding is compatible to the information generated by [24,33,34] in which maize crop yield was highlighted as the least affected by climate change at 21 st century and wheat was most vulnerable and also studied by Pant [26] stated that yield of maize was increased from1990 to 2010 in Ethiopia and Nepal.…”

“…According to Edwards et al [16], McKee et al [17] and Wang et al [29], the lower values of drought indices indicate the higher intensity of drought and thus, drought intensity values 1.65 and -1.57 were labeled as severely dry soil while -1.48,-1.26,-1.28,-1.24 &-1.10 were moderately dry (Table 3). Alike to this finding, Benti and Chimdi [24] reported the dry soil condition was occurred at the southern of Bako district where altitudes of the area is lower. The seasonal rainfall failure during cropping seasons devastated in causing critical food shortage for a large proportion of population [2].…”

Drought potential index using Normalized Difference Drought Index (NDDI) method based on Geographical Information System (GIS) in Slogohimo, Wonogiri Indonesia

“…Climate change-induced disasters can significantly affect ecosystems and various economic sectors, with agriculture and food security most notably vulnerable. Sudden and unforeseen climate-related crises can devastate livestock and crop yields, putting local food reserves at risk [22]. One of the efforts that can be made to reduce the negative impact of drought and the potential for lack is by adding organic material, which is applied as mulch.…”

GROWTH AND YIELD OF WATERMELON (Citrullus vulgaris) IN SUBSURFACE FERTIGATION USING CLAY POT ON ALFISOL AND ENTISOL

“…The availability of water even though in small quantities must be considered and its continuity maintained (Benti & Achalu Chimdi, 2019), so that an irrigation system needs to be carried out, and one of the appropriate irrigation systems to use is subsurface irrigation (Sadewa et al, 2016). Sub-irrigation system is one way of providing irrigation water that can be applied profitably (Yuswari, 2016), because the subirrigation system utilizes the power of capillaries (Septiana, 2014;Rinasari et al, 2016) to absorb water from underground to the root zone.…”