Perceived Effective Adaptation Strategies against Climate Change Impacts: Perspectives of Maize Growers in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania.

Abstract

The world has been experiencing a tremendous increase in the average of warmth and shifts in rainfall quantity, seasonality, and occurrence of prolonged droughts, increased temperatures and intense precipitation. This study assessed effective adaptation strategies used by maize growers in cushioning climate change impacts in Iringa district. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Qualitative data were collected through focus group discussions, key informant interviews and participant observations, while quantitative data were collected using household questionnaire. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected covering a wide range of climate change impacts and response strategies. We found that maize production has decreased during the past two decades, since the year 2000 (i.e., from the average of 10-15 to 2-5 maize sacks per acre). It was affirmed that increased yield outputs and incomes are among the key determinants for the effectiveness of a response strategy. Findings indicate that some response strategies indicated a significant increase in maize crop yield. Such responses include using improved maize variety (P = 0.000 (P < 0.05), drought-tolerant crop (P = 0.014 (P < 0.05), changing planting dates (P = 0.001 (P < 0.05) and crop rotation (P = 0.000 (P < 0.05). Barriers such as access to capital, poor farming technologies, absence of improved maize agencies or shops, poor access to weather information and high prices for farm inputs to adopting effective adaptation strategies were uncovered. Moreover, most adaptation strategies were found to significantly increase crop production to most of the household farmers, thus leading to high mazie production. Thus, maize growers need support to enhance their locally-led adaptation options to climatic impacts.