Impacts of climate change on maize and beans production and compatibility of adaptation strategies in Pangani River Basin, Tanzania

Abstract

Climate change present new development challenges particularly in Sub-Saharan countries where the majority of the population depend on climate-sensitive activities such as rain-fed agriculture. Africa's vulnerability to climate change impacts is underscored by the severe droughts experienced recently in the Sahel in 2012 and the Horn of Africa in 2011. All these bring into focus the serious impacts of climate change and compatibility of adaptation as a way of providing sustainable solutions to reduce the vulnerability of the majority of poor Africans. This study employed Ricardian approach to assess the impacts of temperature and rainfall variability on the net revenue from two main food crops (maize and beans) from Pangani River Basin produced primarily under rain fed agriculture. The study also employed the gross margin to assess the compatibility of irrigation adaptation strategy. The results indicate that increase in temperature and decrease in rainfall has decreased the net revenue from maize and beans production and raised rent for irrigated farms particularly in the middle and low altitudes of the basin. Increase in temperature has increased the net revenue from maize and beans production in the upper altitudes of basin. The results clearly demonstrate that climate change have affected the livelihood of the majority of the poor small scale farmers found in the middle and lower altitudes and improved that of farmers living in the upper. They also demonstrate that irrigation is a significant technique for adaptation to climate change in the basin.