Drought trends and farmers' perceptions in Siraro district, the central valley of Ethiopia

This study was conducted in the Siraro district, Ethiopia's central rift valley, to assess drought frequency, and extremes from 1986 to 2016 and farmers' perceptions of these parameters. The Mann–Kendall test was used for trend analysis. A household survey was conducted to find out how farmers perceive the drought trend. The results revealed that the rainfall anomaly index values ranged from – 6. in 2009 to 4.52 in 2010, with sixteen years of positive rainfall anomalies and fifteen years of negative rainfall anomalies. The standard precipitation–evapotranspiration index (SPEI) ranged from – 2.2 to 1.69. The study also noted temporal variation and irregular distribution of precipitation across seasons and years. Seasonal and annual minimum and maximum temperatures showed significant increasing trends. The findings match up with the perception tendencies of most farmers in terms of average minimum and maximum temperatures and frequency of droughts. Potential evapotranspiration of the area was from 113.8 to 199.1 mm, with a mean of 151.2 mm. Moreover, most months of the observed periods showed negative climate water balances. Drought frequency and severity appear to have had a negative impact on the agricultural sector in the studied area.. As a result, there is a need for adaptation strategies to combat the impacts of recurring droughts.