Influence of social capital on adaptation to climate variability and vulnerability in farming households in Chamwino district, Tanzania
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Date
2022
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Publisher
Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Adaptation to climate variability results from an interplay of livelihood capitals. These
capitals (social, financial, physical, human and natural) prevail within climatic and non-climatic
conditions. Vulnerability to climate variability intensifies when people are socially disadvantaged.
The study assessed the influence of social capital on farming households’ adaptation to climate
variability and vulnerability using two villages in Chamwino District, Dodoma Region. A
cross-sectional research design was employed, whereby data was collected from 160 randomly
selected households using a questionnaire. In addition, data was collected from 32 focus group
participants and 5 key informants. Findings show that a farmer's adaptation strategy can influence
the accumulation or depletion of capital to adapt to climate variability. In addition, poor farming
households (23.12%) have limited livelihood capitals thus, creating adaptation failure and reliance
on less paid agricultural adaptation-based contracts to adapt to climate variability. A chi-square
test results show no association between poor households’ adaptation strategies and their income
(p>0.05). Therefore, it is concluded that adaptation is not one size fits all; availability of livelihood
capital within the household defines the context of adaptation. Therefore, it is recommended that
to absorb the vulnerability in adaptation to climate variability, there should be an active and
sustained engagement of public and private stakeholders with the local community in prioritizing
the adaptation needs of all socio-economic groups to enable them adapt to climate variability.
Description
Journal article
Keywords
Adaptation, vulnerability, Climate variability, Farming household, Social capital