Smallholder Adaptation to Climate Change in Semi-arid Areas of Tanzania: Experiences from Iramba and Meatu Districts

Abstract

A study of the impact over the past 30 years of climate variability and change on smallholders’ farming systems and adaptation strategies was conducted in three villages of Iramba and Meatu Districts, Tanzania. Both districts involved in the study lie within a semi-arid zone. Crop failure and food insecurity are common characteristics to all three villages in the study. Personal descriptions of climate change and meteorological data confirmed that rainfall patterns have become increasingly inconsistent and unpredictable and that the length of dry spells has increased. Crop growing seasons have been shortened by 1 month or more. The availability of ground water, particularly from rivers, has increasingly become seasonal, compared to the situation in the 1970s and 1980s. These results have all impacted negatively on rain-fed agriculture and livestock production systems and increased the vulnerability of smallholder livelihoods, because of their high dependency on natural resources. Almost 80 % of the households in both study areas were characterized as poor. Households are becoming increasingly vulnerable to multiple factors including drought, price fluctuations, increased population pressure, loss of soil fertility and decreased productivity, scarcity of farm and grazing land, water and fuel wood shortages, loss of ‘ngitiri’, increased conflicts over pastures, crop and livestock diseases, male out-migration, and increased labor burdens on women. Responses to climate change impacts varied by the socioeconomic condition of households and gender. Coping and adaptation mechanisms to which farmers have resorted include selling labor, land leasing, shifts in crop and livestock systems, use of early maturing, drought and disease resistant varieties, small scale irrigation systems, gardening, increased use of crop residues as animal feed, diversification to off farm activities, and petty trade.