Climate vulnerability of agroecological and conventional smallholders in Mvomero district, Tanzania: using mixed-methods to uncover local experiences and motivations of farming for the future
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Date
2024-07-16
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Abstract
Changing rainfall patterns make farmers increasingly vulnerable to crop failure,
income loss and food insecurity. Agroecology is proposed to reduce climate
vulnerabilities of farmers, as such practices and social movement aim to create
more resilient farm and food systems. It is however fairly unknown if, and to what
extent, agroecological farmers are better able to cope with climate induced
exposures as compared to conventional smallholders. We conducted 194
surveys with agroecological and conventional smallholders to explore the three
components of climate vulnerability: exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity.
We combined this with field observations and interviews, and an analysis of long-
term rainfall data. We also followed up the initial survey analysis with additional
focus group discussions. Just as climate change occurs incrementally over
time, we highlight modest, yet important differences between conventional and
agroecological farmers. We find that agroecological farmers are less vulnerable
to short-term dry spells, due to a combination of farming practices that improve
soil water retention, like mulching and the use of cover crops. However, the
use of botanicals might induce new vulnerabilities, as their processing requires
additional labor, and sometimes expenditures, and may not protect the crops
from pests and diseases. We also find limitations to agroecology in terms of
scale, as most farmers are unable to use botanicals on all their farmland. Yet,
agroecological farmers process and apply botanicals for health benefits both
in production and consumption of foods, and they can occasionally sell their
organic farm products for a higher price than conventional famers. With this
study, we emphasize that farmers’ reasons to practice agroecology is not just to
boost productivity and become more climate resilient, but rather for improving
the long-term health of producers, consumers, soils and the environment.
Description
Journal article
Keywords
climate vulnerability, agroecology, botanicals, participatory methods, small-scale farming, mixed methods
Citation
Johansson E, Martin R and Mapunda K (2024) Climate vulnerability of agroecological and conventional smallholders in Mvomero district, Tanzania: using mixed-methods to uncover local experiences and motivations of farming for the future. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 8:1423861. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1423861