Assessment of the impacts of climate change and related extremes to the livelihood of smallholder rice farmers in Mbarali district- Tanzania

This study aimed at assessing the impacts of climate change and the related extremes to the livelihoods of smallholder rice farmers in Mbarali district. Majority of the smallholder farmers in Mbarali district depend on minted rice farming practices. Based on the risks of climatic change and the challenges facing farmers in Mbarali district, this study attempted to explore the perceptions of farmers about climate change, socio-economic impacts and the adaptation strategies of the farmers in the study area. The data for this study were collected through structured questionnaires that were administered to 106 households constituting 5% of the total population, whereby sub- samples from each village was randomly sampled and interviewed. Furthermore, focus group discussion and key informant interview was administered in collecting supportive primary data. Descriptive analysis was carried out using SPSS version 20. Rainfall and temperature data were analyzed using Microsoft excel. Farmers' perception showed that farmers in the study area were aware of the long term changes in trends of temperature and rainfall. They were able to associate the climatic changes with rice productivity farming calendar loss of soil fertility, destruction of farm infrastructures, rural- urban migration and outbreak of human and crop diseases in their respective area. The empirical climate data from Mbarali district confirmed that there was an increase and decrease in temperature and annual rainfall respectively. These impacts had serious implication on farmers, whose livelihood depends on rain-fed rice farming. These results also confirmed that farmers have continuously been making efforts to adapt to the impacts of climate change but lack of capital, lack of necessary farm inputs and untimely weather forecast information were some of the factors that limited their efforts to successfully cope and adapt to climate change impacts.