Livelihood resilience capacity and its determinants of Lowland Smallholder farmers to climate change-induced hazards in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Climate change is a global environmental threat to all agroecology, particularly for Ethiopian lowlands with low resilience capacities. Building livelihood resilience demands measurement and identification of factors that influence resilience capacity. The study's objective was to measure subjective resilience capacity, compare it with objective resilience capacity, and identify factors affecting the status of subjective resilience capacity to climate change-induced hazards. The livelihood subjective and objective resilience index was calculated, and the researcher applied a generalized ordered logit econometric model for 422 households obtained through a multi-stage sampling. The results show that the mean subjective resilience index for all components is linearly correlated with the mean objective resilience index for all components, and a statistically significant difference. Moreover, the subjective resilience index status grouped into three categories shows that 57(13.5 %) are low resilient, 287(68 %) are moderately resilient, and 78(18.5 %) are highly resilient. Farmland nature, education level, land size, confidence in service, nonfarm diversification, institutional involvement, hazard awareness, and market distance affect its capacity. Therefore, combining subjective and objective measurements provides the best resilience index. The direction of future policy should involve planning and implementing transformative resilience capacity building. This includes improving farmers’ land fertility and moisture content, scaling up soil conservation structures to minimize the influence of steep slopes, and fostering farmers’ trust in extension workers. Planning and implementing women-focused resilience programs such as informal education, promoting non-farm participation by giving information, and facilitating access to extension services should be prioritized by development agents.