Climate Change Adaptation and Small scale Irrigation Development

Climate change is an immediate and unprecedented threat to the poverty of hundreds of millions of people who depend on small scale agriculture. People living in the developing world are particularly vulnerable to climate change as a result of their high dependence on natural resources for their livelihoods, comparatively higher exposure to extreme events and widespread poverty and marginalization. Changes related to global warming in such areas have potentially serious consequences for ecosystems and people. At the same time, Small-scale irrigation development is one important rural development strategy of Ethiopian government in reducing risks associated with rainfall variability. It was also claimed that Ethiopia cannot assure food security for its population with rain-fed agriculture alone without a substantive contribution of irrigation development. Therefore, these review attempts to examine the link between Climate change adaptation mechanisms and small-scale irrigation development: its implications on poverty reduction in selected regions of Ethiopia.