Masters Dissertation
Agroforestry systems and practices comprise of a long list of land management practices.
Well-managed agroforestry can play a crucial role in improving resilience to climate
change. Climate change adaptation involves actions to reduce or eliminate the negative
effects of climate change or taking actions for the positive effects. Mitigation involves
any activities related to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the ecosystem.
Agroforestry has been practiced for a long time in Kilombero and various government
and non-governmental organizations have been facilitating their implementation to
overcome the impact of climate change and enhance resilience. This seems an important
aspect in implementing the Kilombero SACGOT cluster framework as it’s likely to
contribute to multiple value chains being addressed by the cluster. Despite agroforestry
being considered as the best option for climate change adaptation and mitigation in
Kilombero, there is a little information on the agroforestry systems and agroforestry
practices that are more potential for climate change adaptation and mitigation since they
are difference in practical. Therefore, a study was conducted in the Kilombero cluster of
Sagcot in Kilombero District aiming to evaluate the role of agroforestry systems and
practices in climate change adaptation and mitigation. The specific objectives of the
study were to identify the agroforestry systems and practices, to determine the role of
agroforestry systems and practices in climate change adaptation, to determine the socio-
economic factors influencing the adoption of agroforestry systems and practices, and to
quantify the role of systems and practices in carbon capture and emission mitigation.
Household surveys were conducted in a community with agroforestry farmland. Key
informant interviews were carried out with government officials, and focus group
discussions involved people who had stayed in the study area for a long time and who had
the best history of climate change trends. A biophysical survey was conducted on theiii
farmland where the diameter and height of trees were measured. The collected data were
analyzed through descriptive analysis, one-way ANOVA and multinomial logistic
regression. Data from biophysical survey were subjected to allometric model for biomass
and then carbon stock computation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics to
identify different agroforestry systems and practices in Kilombero, one-way ANOVA to
show the influence of different agroforestry systems and practices on increasing the
adaptive capacity through contribution of household income, multinomial logistic
regression was used to determine the determinants factor influencing the adoption of
agroforestry, and quantitative data from biophysical survey were subjected to an
allometric model for carbon stock computation.
The results revealed that the major agroforestry systems in Kilombero District are
agrosilvopasture, agrosilviculture and silvopasture, while the agroforestry practices are
home garden, boundary planting, mixed intercropping and parkland. The diversification
of the systems and practices through agroforestry ensures multiple and diverse products
from the land such as fruits, timber, fodder, and wood fuel. These were significant in
sustaining production all the seasons thus enhancing resilience to climate change
variability. Agroforestry practices had no statistically significant differences in increasing
adaptive capacity through contribution of household’s income. On the other hand,
agroforestry systems showed to be statistically significant differences in increasing the
adaptive capacity through their contribution to household income, P<0.05. The most
significance systems in income generation were agrosilvopasture and agrosilviculture.
The results on determinant factors influencing the adoption of agroforestry, using
Multinomial logistic regression showed that time for staying in the village, residence
type, extension services, and sex had statistically significant differences in determining
the adoption of agroforestry practices while sex and residence status had statisticallyiv
significant
differences
in
determining
the
adoption
of
agroforestry
systems
(P<0.05).According to the findings of an ecological survey, Mangifera indica sequestered
higher carbon 70.57 Mg C ha -1 than other species encountered in the agroforestry systems
and practices. Home gardens, mixed intercropping, parkland, and boundaries planting
sequestered 185.79 MgCha -1 , 17.79 MgCha -1 , 26.75 MgCha -1 , and 23.22 MgCha -1 ,
respectively. With respect to agroforestry systems agrosilvopasture sequestered the
highest amount of carbon (115.3MgCha -1 ) followed by silvopasture (81.5 MgCha -1 ). and
agrosilviculture (55.7 Mg C ha -1 ). The study concluded that agroforestry contributes
significantly in increasing the resilience to climate change mitigation through carbon
sequestration as well as climate change adaptation through the use of different
agroforestry products. Therefore, agroforestry should be taken into consideration in the
agriculture value chain of Kilombero cluster.