Community- based solutions for agricultural risk mitigation and transfer to enhance adaptation to climate change in Ethiopia

Agriculture is the primary sources of economic development in Ethiopia, however its role in alleviating poverty and food insecurity is undermined by a multitude of factors including the recent climate change such as drought and floods. Agricultural insura nce is seen as one of the best strategies to address farm risks and encourage farmers to embrace modern production practices with greater potential for better and quality yields. While traditional forms of agricultural insurance have a dismal record of fa ilure in less developing economies, recent advances in the design and rollout of index based insurance products has the potential to address farm risks and encourage farmers to adopt agricultural technologies. Recently, in Northern part of Ethiopia, a con sortium of development partners in collaboration with regional government introduced a risk management strategies called insurance for work (IFW). This allows cash constrained small farmers to pay for part or all of their drought insurance premium with la bor (mainly) in the off-season. An insurance certificate be issued to farmers who invest his/her labor in natural resource management practices such as tree planting. However, its impact, constraints and feasibility are not yet investigated. The main obje ctive of this study is to identify the role of different micro-insurance products including (IFW) on maize and wheat technology adoption and food security and assessing smallholders vulnerability and risks in the face of current and future climate change scenarios in East Africa, in Ethiopia. Experimental methods will be used eliciting farmers choice of different hypothetical insurance products. To mention, econometrics methods will be used to investigate potential factors influencing the choice of insur ance products, the impact of climate change on technology adoption and food security and assess farmers vulnerability and risks in a changing climate.We will draw policy implications for climate change adaptation.