Adaptations to Climate Change and Variability Among Smallholder Farmers in Tanzania

Abstract

Tanzania is not an exception to the situation where climate change and variability (CC&V) are emerging threats to development, with adverse impacts on environment, human health, natural resources and physical infrastructure. CC&V has been one of the major limiting factors in agriculture production, resulting in food insecurity and low household incomes possibly due to over-dependence on rain-fed agriculture by the majority of people living in rural areas of Tanzania. Thus, understanding adaptation to CC&V impacts among rural communities is of paramount importance for effective interventions on adaptation strategies. Checklist questions were used to collect information on various adaptation strategies to CC&V impacts carried out by farmer groups in two villages of the Matengo. Spectacular adaptation strategies found in both villages were working in farmer groups for activities such as agroforestry, dairy cattle keeping, running of hydro-mills, beekeeping, and fish farming. Most of these activities ensured both livelihood diversification and landscape conservation under a changing environment. Unique to these farmer groups were their spontaneous expansions, largely owing to farmers’ own inventiveness. This study, however, was only preliminary, hence calls for in-depth and longitudinal studies that could allow panel data collection and enable strategic intervention to the problems of CC&V.