Moving the Conversation on Climate Change and Inequality to the Local

Abstract

Climate change is expected to shift seasonality in Tanzania, while smallholder farmers’ livelihoods and the economy rely upon the success of rainfed agriculture. However, we should not a priori assume doomsday climate vulnerability scenarios of drought and devastation in the rural global South nor, on the other hand, that farmers will optimally employ local knowledge for effective adaptation. Drawing from qualitative fieldwork in two Tanzanian communities, I question these grand narratives of devastation and local adaptive capacity and introduce an approach that brings inequality to the center. Poorer nations are most vulnerable to climate change, but they are not homogenous and neither are the smallholder farmers living within them. I present evidence on the crucial context-specific dimensions of socio-ecological vulnerability for these smallholder farmers—1) water resources and access to them; 2) agricultural knowledge, including farmers’ own knowledge and their interactions with sources like government-run agricultural extension and NGOs; and 3) existing drought-coping strategies—and the heterogeneity among farmers across these dimensions. Ultimately, this case demonstrates how climate change can reproduce existing inequalities within nations by drawing upon how farmers currently respond to drought as evidence. I present the difficult and somewhat bleak contexts within which the farmers are coping, but also illustrate the agency that farmers exhibit in response to these conditions and the adaptive capacity they possess. Finally, I call for more sub-national research on climate and inequality by sociologists and draw connections among within-nation inequality, climate change, and agricultural development initiatives.

The fingerprints of climate warming on cereal crops phenology and adaptation options

“…Furthermore, temperature rise can have either negative or positive impacts on crop productivity depending upon regions 36 – 48 . Shift in the seasonality is the one of the big example of rise in temperature 49 .…”

A call for a sociology of adaptation

“…In her other work, Sen finds that everyday adaptations are also easily visible within the daily labor people enact to adapt their lives and livelihoods to climate change, which she terms “adaptation labor.” In Colombia, Castro and Kuntz (2022) show how the complex realities of land tenure shape households' vulnerabilities and adaptation decisions. Using the case of Tanzania, Teller (2016) explains how smallholder farmers' agency differs based on within‐country inequalities and differences in their existing resources and knowledge. In China, Morey Burnham and co‐author Zhao Ma have examined the factors influencing the success of adaptation strategies for smallholder farmers (Burnham & Ma, 2018), and how farmers' own perceptions about their ability to adapt shapes their likelihood to pursue adaptation (Burnham & Ma, 2017).…”

Climate Change and Salinity Effects on Crops and Chemical Communication Between Plants and Plant Growth-Promoting Microorganisms Under Stress

“…Depending on geographical regions, the effect of temperature may be positive or negative. In general, a rise in temperature has caused a shift in the phenological development of crops (Teller, 2016), lower water use and nitrogen use efficiency , shortening of vegetative and reproductive growth phases of plants (Wang et al, 2018), and decrease in the number of grains and grain-filling duration (Lin et al, 2017). The proliferation of insects and pests at high rates which attack major crops are indirect effects of climate change (Dhankher and Foyer, 2018).…”