Influence of livelihood resources on adaptive strategies to enhance climatic resilience of farm households in Morogoro, Tanzania: an indicator-based analysis

Abstract

Given the projected climatic changes, building resilient agricultural systems is of vital significance in protecting vulnerable agrarian communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Under this scenario, the article attempts to identify a set of resilience-building adaptive strategies (intensification, diversification, alteration, migration, etc.) among farmers in Morogoro, Tanzania, and crafts a composite index of these strategies using a principal component analysis-based weighting scheme. The analysis also reveals the latent structure and internal correlations of actions intended to build resilience of the farming systems. Subsequently, the linkages of livelihood resources (natural, human, social and financial capitals) to the resilience-building strategies are examined. A multiple regression analysis is employed to link the composite index to variables representing the four capitals. The results bring quantitative evidence to the linkages and highlight the need of enhancing livelihood resources to enhance the ability to undertake adaptive strategies that denotes the ability to withstand stresses and shocks from climatic changes. Actions to improve human capital (awareness campaigns on climate change impacts as well as possible adaptive strategies), social capital (strengthening social networks, improving tenure security), financial capital (increasing credit availability) and natural capital (measures to enhance agricultural potential, support for adaptive action in areas with low agricultural potential) are needed in order to impart resilience to the farming systems against the changing climate.