Climate information services and crop Production enhancement among sorghum and Maize farmers in Kondoa and Kiteto districts, Tanzania
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Date
2022
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Abstract
In recent years growing attention has been given to the use of climate information services (CSI) in improving farming decision making under uncertainty associated with climate variability. In Tanzania, this is generally important to tackle low agricultural productivity amongst farmers and to foster their adoption of CSI to meet the food needs of ever-increasing populations. However, common approaches, such as the use of radio and television for CSI knowledge exchange and dissemination have limitations in rural areas of Tanzania. Consequently, understanding the link between CIS usage and crop production enhancement has become increasingly important, particularly in semi-arid areas where drought is common. Hence, this article investigated the contribution of CIS to crop production enhancement among sorghum and maize farmers in the Kondoa and Kiteto districts, purposively selected, as part of the Global Framework for Climate Services Adoption Program in Africa (GFCS-APA) initiative implemented in four villages. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design using a Difference-in-Difference (DID) linear mixed model with pre-and post-period data samples of farmers exposed to GFCS-APA multi-agency program (treatment) and non-exposed (control group). As such, this study conducted a farmers’ household survey for a total sample of 360 farmers who were part of the multi-agency program by GFCS-APA, of which, 151 farmers were directly involved with GFCS-APA (treatment group) and 209 farmers were set aside as non-beneficiaries (control group). Generally, the findings show that farmers are endogenously treated to improve maize yields rather than sorghum yields when they are exposed to CIS. It is concluded that the usage of CIS boosts maize yields dramatically as opposed to sorghum, and this is statistical significance. Therefore, it is recommended that the pathways for increasing the use of CIS should take into account the adoption hurdles that are inherent to farmers’ traits and livelihood plans.
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climate information services, climate variability, maize productivity, sorghum productivity, semi-arid area