The impact of climate variability on maize (zea mays) production and farmers coping strategies in Handeni and Kilindi districts, Tanga, Tanzania
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Date
2008
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Publisher
Sokoine UNiversity of Agriculture
Abstract
This 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.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Maize production, Climate change, Rainfall trend