The impacts of climate change on food production in Tanzania: the case of maize and paddy

The study investigates the impacts of climate change on food production in Tanzania.This study focuses on maize and paddy crops since they are regarded as staple food in Tanzania. Climate change is being investigated in because it is a threat to food security in Tanzania and in Africa as a whole. The study uses cross section data from National Panel Survey 2010/2011. OLS regression was used to estimate crop yield for both maize and paddy given climate variables as explanatory variables together with other variables like household characteristics, farm characteristics and inputs used in crop production. The findings show that climate change will have significant impact on crop yield if regressed on the aggregate crop yield. On maize only, climate change has no impact while on paddy yield climate change has an impact. Other variables like household size, improved seeds, irrigation, pesticide, labour, education, gender, age and soil quality has an impact on food production. Therefore, the government effort should be increased to solve challenges in rural areas where agriculture takes place mostly. This should include government preparing conducive environment for adaptation measures such as the application of irrigation system and provision of improved seeds to the farms. Planting of crops that are drought resistance and the application of pesticide and fertilizer so that crops grow well.