However, some adaptive strategies may fail to bring intended positive outcomes which result in insufficient adaptation or maladaptation that exacerbates vulnerability of the target group or neighbouring communities. More attention has to be paid to potential consequences of adaptation policies and practices with their implication for future adaptive capacity and long-term adaptation. Smallholder agriculture in pastoral and agropastoral production systems ex-hibit distinct characteristics, and presents unique opportunities and challenges for agricultural research and development as well as adaptation. The dry land ecosystems these agricultural systems inhabit offer two key features—a highly variable climate, and increasingly limited natural resources to which small-holders for generations have strived to adapt. The ecosystems support inherently climate-sensitive and vulnerable agriculture-based livelihoods, and have continuously attempted to strike the delicate balance between meeting growing human need and diminishing natural resources base in changing environment .

The fact that pastoralism primarily depends on resource-extracting extensive livestock production underscores the centrality of natural resource management such as land use planning. Thus, vertical grow system addressing adaptation deficit in subsistence and traditional agricultural systems within such fragile ecosystems presents unique challenges with implications for development.The preference could be attributed to the ability of pastoralism to exploit prevailing ecological conditions and suitability to the socio-cultural structures of the society. Nevertheless internal and external pressures from both climate and non-climate factors are forcing pastoralist communities to transition into different livelihood systems. For example, Afar pastoralists in northern Ethiopia have moved into cultivation and non-pastoral livelihoods without detaching from the pastoral way of life . Similarly, pastoralists in East Africa are increasingly pursuing non-pastoral income and livelihood strategies to buffer against systemic shocks, mainly climate perturbations manifested in terms of in-creased temperatures and frequency/intensity of droughts.

The farming communities in the study area have always made efforts to adapt to a variable climate, often inadequately and on a limited basis. But there is a tremendous vulnerability to climate change which has become a growing concern . Compounded with vulnerability from non-climatic forces such as conflicts and political instability, they now face increased pressure from increasingly unpredictable weather and associated climate-induced shocks often beyond the range of experiences . In particular, where the succession of extreme events such as drought increases in frequency and severity, adequate recovery periods are likely to be rarer and future adaptive capacity may be substantially eroded. There is a growing global interest in the role of rain-fed smallholder agriculture in ensuring food security, mobile grow system reduced poverty and rural development in Africa in the face of environmental changes. Climate change manifesting itself in terms of below average extremely low seasonal rainfalls leading to severe droughts and high temperature are key features. These changes raise the demand for more livestock water to substitute for loss due to dehydration and put increased evaporative demand on plants.

There is deep concern about how this sector is positioned to withstand increasingly frequent and intense perturbations in the natural climate coupled with other external pressures from demographic changes and socio-economic changes associated with globalisation. The concern underpins the proposition that adaptation and development have vital links implying climate change can impede the ability to achieve development whilst development can reduce vulnerability to climate change . Thus, underdevelopment of this vital economic sector is associated with weak adaptive capacity which makes addressing vulnerability and adaptation deficit more challenging. In Ethiopia, the agriculture sector enjoys strong political will and policy sup-port to enhance its performance, address food insecurity, reduce vulnerability and adapt to climate change and its impacts.