Impact of climate variability, farmers adaptation and coping strategies on coffee production in highlands of Kigoma District, Tanzania

Abstract

Abstract. Msuya AM, Mahonge CP. 2022. Impact on coffee production of climate variability, farmers adaptation and coping strategies in highlands of Kigoma District, Tanzania. Asian J For 6: 34-42. Worldwide, climate change and variability have raised concerns about potential changes to crop yields and production systems. This study concerns climate variability’s effects on coffee production among smallholder farmers in the highland zone of the Kigoma District, the western part of Tanzania. This study specifically aimed to determine how climatic variability affected coffee production and the strategies taken to cope with the problem. Also, this study determined farmers” perceptions of climatic change and variability. The coffee production and rainfall data for thirty years (1981-2010) were used. Also, to study the trend relationship between climate change and agricultural production. Data were collected using household surveys, interviews, focus group discussions, documentary reviews, and field observations. The sampling unit was the household; 120 respondents were selected from 5 villages. First, a purposive sampling technique was employed to study wards and villages, and then 5 villages from 2 wards were selected. In each village, 24 households producing coffee were randomly selected from the village register to 120 respondents. Then, correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between rainfall variability and coffee production in the area. In contrast, to study the effect of rainfall variability/change on coffee production, a simple linear regression was used. Both coffee production and rainfall showed a decreasing trend. However, the correlation between both trends was insignificant at a 5% probability level. Moreover, it can be concluded that coffee production was not much influenced by rainfall, given the weak correlation between rainfall and coffee production and the decreasing trend for both. Still, other factors, like a shortage of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides, must influence coffee production in the study area.