Household’s vulnerability to climate change among farmers in Meatu and Iramba districts, Tanzania

Agricultural Jomml2017, 12 (1-2): pp1-10,

Understanding how the fanning households are affected by climate change is important in formulating policies to strengthen household's adaptive capacity which are instrumental in poverty reduction and increasing food security. This manuscript analysed fanning household's vulnerability to climate change in Iramba and Meatu districts. A cross sectional design was used whereby data were collected from 183 randomly selected households from 3 villages, 2 from Meatu District and one from Iramba District. Data analysis was based on indices constructed from selected indicators for exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. The indicators were weighted using principal component analysis. Inter-district analysis of the vulnerability index shows that there was no significant difference in household vulnerability on based districts. However, on exposure, the results shows that Iramba was highly significant (p = 0.001) compared to Meatu. Generally, occurrence of drought contributed positively to the household's vulnerability due to the impact of climate change. According to the absolute value of the weights, occurrence of natural disaster such as drought contributes more to the exposure index compared to other indicators. Based on the results it can be concluded that, vulnerability of the framing households in the study area is low. Involvement of the household on non-farm income generating activities and unreliable rainfall were the most important determinants of a household's vulnerability. In addition, the impact of climate change on the study areas included the loss of lives, decline of both animal and crop production and loss of household properties such as damage to houses. Therefore, it is recommended that to improve the capacity of fanning households there is need to improve adaptive indicators such as improving the irrigation facilities in the local area. Similarly, creating opportunities for non-farm income to reduce the extensive dependence of the community on natural resource based livelihoods.