Climate Variability and Farm Technology Adoption Decisions among Smallholder Farmers in Pangani River Basin

Abstract

Climate change is currently a serious threat for agriculture development and food security in sub-Saharan Africa. With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate outlook for the 21st century, the future of maize production in Tanzania remains under threat due to more intense and frequent droughts, and more erratic rainfall patterns. Effective adaptation to these ongoing changes in climatic condition is key to securing food production and livelihoods for millions of poor people. This paper analyzes factors that facilitate or impede the probability and level of adoption of sustainable farm technologies and farm households in response to climate shocks. A multivariate probit model was applied to the model the adoption decisions by farm households facing multiple farm technologies which can be adopted in various combinations. The analysis shows that both the probability and the level of decisions to adopt farm technologies influenced by rainfall and plot-level disturbances, household wealth, institutional factors, distance to the farm plot and input market. The results further show that there were complementarities between farm technologies which are not yet sufficiently exploited. In the light of these findings, government policies, and strategic investment plans should ensure the provision of improved farmer education to generate greater awareness about the multiple benefits of sustainable agricultural practices in the fight against climate change and variability.