Climate Change Perceptions by Smallholder Coffee Farmers in the Northern and Southern Highlands of Tanzania

Abstract

Smallholder farmers are among the most vulnerable groups to climate change. Efforts to enhance farmers’ adaptation to climate change are hindered by lack of information on how they are experiencing and responding to climate change. Therefore, this paper examines smallholder farmers’ perceptions of climate change, factors influencing their perceptions, and the impacts and adaptation strategies adopted over the past three to four decades. A list of farmers was obtained from the Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Society (AMCOS) and filtered on the basis of age and farming experience. In order to explore factors influencing household perceptions of climate change, a structured questionnaire was administered to the randomly selected household heads. Data on rainfall and temperature were acquired from Lyamungo and Burka Coffee estate (Northern Highlands zone) and Mbimba and Mbinga (Southern Highlands zone) offices of the Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) with the exception of data from Burka Coffee estate, which were acquired from a private operator. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models were used to analyze the data. Farmers’ perceptions were consistent with meteorological data both pointing to significant decline in rainfall and increase in temperature since 1979. Factors such as level of education, farming experience, and access to climate information influenced farmers’ perception on climate change aspects. Based on these results, it is recommended to enhance timely and accurate weather information delivery along with developing institutions responsible for education and extension services provision. The focus of education or training should be on attenuating the impacts of climate change through relevant adaptation measures in each coffee-growing region.

Climate Change Perception and Uptake of Climate-Smart Agriculture in Rice Production in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

“…Farmers perceive different climate events and the events are usually interrelated. Available literature in sub-Saharan Africa has largely treated the determinants of perception singly see [16,[33][34][35][36][37][38] without due consideration to the interrelated nature of perceived climate events. Although we are aware of the study of Liverpool-Tasie et al [12], an exception in Nigeria, that considered the interrelated nature of farmers perceived climate events, the study however dealt with maize and poultry farmers.…”

“…The dependent variables are the perceived climate events and they are listed below: The choice of the independent variables was supported by available literature on factors influencing climate change perception in sub-Saharan Africa [12,16,[33][34][35][36][37][38]. We used the STATA software to carry out the multivariate probit regression analysis.…”

“…An increase in educational attainment of the farmers increases their perception, understanding and knowledge base in handling climate events such as late onset of rain and early cessation of rain. Education is notably a key determinant aimed at assisting the farmers to overcome the horrible experiences of climate events such as late onset of rain and early cessation of rain [38]. It has a way of equipping the farmers with the right knowledge and relevant information cum exposure in handling the challenges of late onset of rain and early cessation of rain which regularly interfere with the planting calendar.…”

“…The soil and water conditions present during flooding usher in the growth of microbial diseases organisms. Increased temperature encourages the growth of soil pathogens, which spawn insect attacks and pest/diseases in rice fields, reducing rice yields, outputs and income [38]. Rice reproductive and developmental stages are hampered by high temperature, which reduces plant height and root extension.…”

The Impacts of Current Climate Variability on Coffee Production in the Northern and Southern Highlands of Tanzania

“…Generally, different studies indicate that smallholder coffee farmers have been responding to climate change impacts through a range of interventions, including agronomic practices such as planting shade trees, pruning, planting drought-tolerant varieties, and application of organic fertilizers (Kajembe et al, 2016;Wagner et al, 2018;Mbwambo et al, 2021). In the study by Pham et al (2019), adaptation and management practices were identified by more than 70% of total studies (25 papers), of which agro forestry, either through intercropping or shading, was most common (18 papers), followed by irrigation and efficient use and management of water (12 papers), development of new cultivars that are drought and heat-stress resistant and/or pest and disease tolerant (10 papers) and diversification of cropping patterns or livelihood activities (9 papers).…”