Abstract
A study was carried in two villages of Kamenyanga and Kintinku of Manyoni District, central Tanzania. The overall objective of this study was to understand local communities’ perceptions on climate and variability issues and establish its impacts and adaptation strategies within agricultural sector. Both secondary and primary were used. Primary data were obtained using different Participatory Research Approaches (PRA) including, focus group discussions and household questionnaires. In each village, a sample size of 10% of all households was interviewed. Findings showed that local people perceived changes in rainfall and temperature. The changes have affected crops and livestock in a number of ways resulting in reduced productivity. Empirical analysis of rainfall suggest decreasing rainfall trend between 1922 and 2007 whereas mean maximum and minimum temperature increased by 1.9 and 0.2°C respectively. The average annual temperature increase of 0.7°C between 1984 and 2004 was realized. There are different wealth groups namely the rich, the middle and the poor and these are differently vulnerable climate change. The study concluded that, the wealth of knowledge on coping and adaptation that farmer has should form a foundation for designing agricultural innovation systems to deal with impacts of climate change and variability. Further, development initiatives at community level in semi arid areas should put more emphasis on water harvesting to ensure water storage for crops and livestock. Key words: Agriculture production, climate change, Kamenyanga village, Manyoni District, rainfall, Singida Region.
Highlights
In Sub-Sahara Africa, agriculture plays a very important role in providing food and income for the majority of the population
Manyoni District was selected for the following reasons; first, it falls within the semi-arid areas of Tanzania where there are frequent food shortages due to uncertainty of rainfall
The area provides an opportunity to study impacts associated with CC & V on crop and livestock and third it is within the project area on “Strengthening Local Agricultural Innovation Systems to adapt to climate change in Tanzania and Malawi Project”
Summary
In Sub-Sahara Africa, agriculture plays a very important role in providing food and income for the majority of the population. Over 70% of the population depend on subsistence agriculture which is almost entirely rain fed. It accounts for an average of 50% of Gross Net Product and about 66% of total export earnings. Climate change and variability (CC & V) is rapidly emerging as one of the most serious global problems affecting many sectors in the world and is considered to be one of the most serious threats to sustainable development with adverse impact on environment, human health, food security, economic activities, natural resources and physical infrastructure (IPCC, 2007; Huq et al, 2006). Previous assessments (IPCC, 1998; Hulme, 1996) concluded that Africa is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change because of factors such as widespread poverty, recurrent droughts, inequitable land distribution and over dependence on rain-fed agriculture
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