An assessment of climate variability and change adaptation strategies among small sale farmers in semi-arid areas of Tanzania

Although climate variability and change are not new phenomena, their trends over time are not well understood at the local level in semi-arid areas .The study sought to understand climate variability and adaptation strategies o small-scale farmers in semi-arid areas. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design in which data from the field was collected at one point in time. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 240 smallholder women farmers. Quantitative data were analysed by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19.0 programme software. Climatic data were analyzed using Excel to generate tables, graphs and simple linear regression (R2). The results showed that there was no significant increase (P > 0.05) in annual rainfall variability. However, seasonal rainfall variability showed a clear decreasing trend in April and October, both in Igunga and Kishapu. Decreasing rainfall trend in April occurred simultaneously with increasing temperature trend. In addition, farmers’ perception and meteorological data trends compared well on change and on increased rainfall unpredictability as well as on increased temperature years. The regression analysis results show rainfall variability of R2 = 0.096 in Igunga and R2 = 0.186 in Kishapu which implies that about 0.96% and 1.86% of the changes in the rainfall across the districts are associated with changes in weather variables. The study recommended to the government and other development partners to strengthen small-scale farmers ability to adapt to climate variability and change by investing on already available adaptation practices