Climate variability and farm technology adoption decisions among smallholder farmers in Pangani River Basin
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Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development
Abstract
Climate change is currently a serious threat for agriculture development and food security in sub-Saharan Africa.
With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate outlook for the 21 st century, the future of
maize production in Tanzania remains under threat due to more intense and frequent droughts, and more erratic
rainfall patterns. Effective adaptation to these ongoing changes in climatic condition is key to securing food
production and livelihoods for millions of poor people. This paper analyzes factors that facilitate or impede the
probability and level of adoption of sustainable farm technologies and farm households in response to climate
shocks. A multivariate probit model was applied to the model the adoption decisions by farm households facing
multiple farm technologies which can be adopted in various combinations. The analysis shows that both the
probability and the level of decisions to adopt farm technologies influenced by rainfall and plot-level
disturbances, household wealth, institutional factors, distance to the farm plot and input market. The results
further show that there were complementarities between farm technologies which are not yet sufficiently
exploited. In the light of these findings, government policies, and strategic investment plans should ensure the
provision of improved farmer education to generate greater awareness about the multiple benefits of sustainable
agricultural practices in the fight against climate change and variability.
Description
Journal Article
Keywords
Climate change, Technology adoption, Multivariate probit