Utility Of Climate Change And Variability Information For Rice Farming In Babati District-Manyara Region

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to assess the utility of climate change and variability information for rice farming in Babati district of Manyara region.The subjects in this study were 122, comprising of 97 rice farmers, 07 key informants and 18 members of FGDs. Primary data were collected through questionnaire and checklist. Multiple responses analysis, chi-square test, linear and logistic regression were used to analyze the collected data. The result showed that 95.1% of the respondents had access to climate variability information that was largely based on low or high rainfall (100%), occurrences of floods (56-70%), and delaying/earling of rain season (40-53%). Moreover, 88.4% of respondents accessed the information through mass media. Linear regression results showed that there was a gradual increase (R2=0.2) in temperature from 1995 to 2016, and a simultaneous decrease of rainfall (R2 =0.007) and rice production (R2 =0.04). Also, 74.4% of the respondents together with local leaders (WEO, VEOs) were not integrating climatic information in farming decision. This weakness largely was contributed by inadequate institutional support, inadequate climate information, inadequate communication between farmers and extension officers, and disbelieving of climate information. Further logit regression results showed that education level (Wald statistics=19.1 ; p