Smallholder farmers’ resilience capacity to climate change shocks at Kikombo ward in Dodoma region
Date
2023-06Author
Marko, Wenseslaus G.
Mafwolo, Gemma D.
Mzirai, Omari B.
Maguta, Mihayo M.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Despite the fact that, climate change is a threat worldwide, semi-arid areas are more
vulnerable to its distress. This study was conducted at Kikombo Ward in Chamwino District
to examine the local community’s resilience capacity to climate change shocks using 73
families which were randomly selected. Cross tabulation, correlation, and Binary logistic
regression were used to study the variables using IBM SPSS version 20. The results revealed
that 97% of the respondents were aware of the impacts of climate change on agriculture,
but only 43.7% were practicing Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). Even though 43.7% of
smallholder farmers reported to practice CSA, their crop production was still low which
raises questions about the effectiveness and challenges faced in the application of CSA. The
findings further disclosed that most of the CSA practices were not done in the farmers' plots
or were done partially. Challenges facing smallholder farmers in practicing CSA included; a
lack of knowledge on the proper application of the CSA practices (p=0.023) as well as the
cost of tools and inputs (p=0.034). The findings indicate that, most of the households had low
resilience capacity to climate change shocks and the community's ability to absorb climate
change shocks depended mainly on income accrued from small businesses. Services provided
to promote the adoption of CSA were inadequate and therefore insignificant in enhancing
the adoption of CSA. In this regard, the government and development partner’s support are
highly recommended for optimum CSA application in the community.