Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Sustainable Food Production in Rombo District, Tanzania

Abstract

Although various studies on climate change and food production have beenconducted, information on how households in Tanzania respond to climatechange for sustainable food production is scarce. This paper investigatesclimate change adaptation practices in enhancing sustainable foodproduction in Rombo District, Tanzania. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design. Quantitative data were analysed by using theStatistical Package for Social Sciences software, while the qualitative datawere analysed through factual and logical interpretation of the findings.Results show that drought was the main effect of climate change asreported by 65.7% of the respondents in the study area. Furthermore, thefindings show that 81.4% of the respondents applied artificial fertilizers totheir farms in efforts to adapt to climate change. Study results also show asignificant association between the education level of the respondents anduse of improved seeds (P = 0.08) and soil water conservation (P = 0.09) asadaptation measures to climate change. In adapting to the changingclimate, respondents also experienced some challenges such as lack ofresources in terms of financial, material and human labour. Properknowledge on the adaptation measures is recommended to be given tofarmers through various methods.