Kutua, Kidagho Mohamed2026-02-272026-02-272008https://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/20.500.14820/7343DissertationThis study was conducted in Handeni and Kilindi districts, Tanga region in Tanzania to assess the effect of climate variability on maize production and farmers’ coping strategies. It aimed at giving baseline data for future planning in improving rain-fed agriculture. Rainfall data and maize production data for the past thirty years were assessed for trends. Correlation analysis was used to asses the relationship between rainfall and maize production trends. A representative sample of 420 households from six villages were randomly sampled and interviewed for their coping strategies (short term intervention) and adaptation strategies (long term solution) and their perspective on climate variability using a structured questionnaire. Focus group discussions with key informants were conducted to enrich the questionnaire data. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer program and Microsoft Excel. Both rainfall and maize production showed decreasing trends while temperature showed increasing trend. The correlation between rainfall and maize production was significantly high (p<0.001, R2 = 0.745). Given the high correlation between rainfall and maize production and the decreasing trends for both, it can be argued that rainfall was a major factor in the trend shown by maize production. This is a clear evidence of the impact of climate variability on maize production in Handeni and Kilindi districts. Farmers responded to those impacts by adopting different coping strategies. The major coping strategies were to resort into wage labour, collecting wild roots /fruits and sale of livestock and the major adaptation strategies was to grow drought tolerant crops, rainwater harvesting and cultivation along bottomland wetlands.enMaize productionClimate changeRainfall trendThesis