Efficiency of farmers' coping and adaptation strategies against climate variability and change in agricultural production in Manyoni district, Tanzania
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Date
2022
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Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Agriculture remains the main source of livelihood for rural communities in Tanzania but
faces the challenge of climate variability and change (CV and C). Understanding farmers'
coping and adaptation to CV and C and factors influencing the adoption decision is
necessary for the agriculture of small-scale farmers. There is also a need of understanding
the efficiency of adopted coping and adaptation strategies on the technical efficiency (TE)
of agricultural production. This is important in designing realistic strategies and policies
for agricultural production. This study was conducted purposively in Manyoni District,
Singida region, Tanzania using a cross-sectional research design. A random sample of 330
small-scale farmers was selected from six wards was involved. The study used Statistical
Package for Social Sciences (SPSS –version 26) for descriptive analysis while for
inferential analysis the study adopted STATA version 16. Multivariate probit model
(MVP) was used to determine coping and adaptation strategies and factors influencing
adoption decisions while stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) was used to determine the
impact of coping and adaptation strategies on the technical efficiency of sorghum
production. The results showed that the main coping strategies included selling of
livestock, off-farm employment, decreasing meals consumption, and supplementing
livestock feeds. The frontier results show that improved seeds and coping strategies
significantly led to high sorghum production, while off-farm employment and decreasing
meals significantly improved TE of sorghum small-scale farmers. In addition, households'
characteristics influenced the choice of coping strategies and TE of sorghum production.
These included age, sex, education, household size, farm size, farming experience,
technology uses, annual income, access to credit, extension services, livestock ownership,
and shift in rain season. Concerning adaptation strategies, the main ones were planting
drought-tolerant crops, early maturing crops, resistant livestock breeds, and conservation agriculture. The results show that farm size, hired labour, and adaptation strategies
significantly led to high sorghum production, while drought-tolerant crops, drainage
systems, and conservation agriculture (adaptation strategies) had a significant impact on
TE of sorghum production. Results of MVP and SFA showed that sex, education, farmers'
organizations, access to credit, farming experience, technology uses, age, annual income,
extension services, shift in rain season, livestock ownership, and household size had
significant influence on the farmers' choice of CV and C adaptation strategies and TE on
sorghum production. The study concludes that the adoption of coping and adaptation
strategies is important and inevitable. Economic activities diversification through
livestock keeping and off-farm employment is the key factor to mitigate the impact of CV
and C. Availability of extension services and accessibility of credit was important for
agriculture technology diffusion and enabling economic activities diversification
respectively. Therefore, the Government should invest in climate-resilient programme and
formulate policies that will focus on addressing challenges facing small-scale farmers in
the course of adopting coping and adaptation strategies. To survive with CV and C and to
achieve TE of sorghum production, the government should ensure availability of
extension services in villages. The Government should ensure constant allocation of
special funds for small-scale farmers to access credit. Overall, the study suggests policy
reforms to promote small-scale farmers coping and adaptation to CV and C for efficient
response and TE. The study recommends areas for further study to be on TE of both crop
and livestock productivity that will involve both quantitative and qualitative data.
Furthermore, the future study to make use of parametric method (SFA) and non-
parametric method (DEA).
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Keywords
Farmers' coping strategies, Climate variability, Agricultural production, Tanzania, Manyoni district