Climate variability poses major challenges to smallholder maize farmers in Ethiopia, affecting productivity, livelihoods, and food security. Comprehensive maize value-chain assessments could enhance farmers' climate-change resilience and promote more sustainable and adaptive production systems. This study assessed climate risks along the maize value chain, identified context-specific, best-bet climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, and examined adoption barriers among smallholder farmers in southern Ethiopia. We applied a mixed-methods approach, combining climate-trend analysis, household surveys, focus group discussions, and stakeholder consultations across Gofa, South Omo, Wolaita Zones, and Sidama Regional State. The study observed declining rainfall in South Omo during the Kiremt (mid-June to mid-September) and Belg (February to May) rainy seasons, and increased precipitation in Wolaita and Gofa in October to December. Farmers cited drought, erratic rainfall, heat stress, and fall armyworm as major risks affecting maize production, which disrupted sowing and fertilizer application, increased pest outbreaks and soil degradation, and lowered yields. In response, farmers adopted CSA practices to differing degrees, which notably improved maize varieties (68.4–89.5%), conservation agriculture (58.30–73.7%), integrated soil-fertility management (ISFM) (65.20–80.60%), and agroforestry (44.5–76.3%). The five key barriers to CSA adoption identified were input shortages, limited access to finance, lack of awareness, limited technical capacity, and lack of agro-advisory information. By providing a multi-level understanding of climate risks and CSA adaptation strategies and scaling tailored best-bet CSA practices across the maize value chain, these findings provide actionable insights for implementing climate-resilient policies and extension programs that enhance yields and build climate resilience across Ethiopia's maize value chain. • Rainfall decline, drought, and pest outbreaks severely disrupt maize value chains. • Integrating climate-smart agriculture (CSA) innovations enhances resilience smallholder maize producers. • Context-specific CSA packages provide targeted resilience pathways. • Limited uptake of climate advisory constrains wider CSA adoption.
Sintayehu et al. (Wed,) studied this question.