| dc.description |
The study to investigate farmer's adaptation technologies to climate change in Pangani
river basin, Tanzania focused on two central themes mainly yield risks and the efficiency
of adopted farm technologies to climate change adaptation. A total of 420 randomly
selected smallholder farmers from twelve villages were included in the study. Data were
collected by questionnaire survey in a survey, farm observations, and focus group
discussions. Three approaches were employed to address the above themes. The first
approach was the multinomial endogenous switching regression model of climate change
adaptation and crop yield to determmine analyze factors that influence farm technology
adoption and the effects of adopted farm technologies on the smallholder farmers
productivity. Secondly, the method of Just and Pope's Production function to determine
the risk implications of the different technologies and lastly, a stochastic frontier approach
was used to analyze farm technical efficiency of adopted farm technologies. Results
showed that adoption decisions on related technologies were influenced by fanner
characteristics, plot-level factors and weather variables. Adoption of farm technologies
increases maize yield and the highest payoff was achieved when farm technologies are
adopted in combination rather than in isolation. However adopted farm technologies
perform differently along the Pangani river basin underscoring the importance of careful
geographical targeting when promoting and scaling up farm technologies. The
smallholders were found to be technically inefficient, producing only 59.9 per cent of the
potential output. Great inter-household variations in technical efficiency existed.
influenced by farmer characteristics, production environment and production risks. The
results have the following implications. First, a one-size-fits-all approach is not an
advisable approach for developing and promoting technologies. It is important to
disseminate farm technologies that are appropriately tailored to a specific area instead ofiii
making blanket recommendations that promote similar technologies to all farmers.
Secondly, there is a need for the government, and development partners to provide
incentives to accelerate complete adoption of these technologies. Thirdly, there is a need
to address the constraints reducing farmer efficiency. Viable alternatives should include
improving transport and marketing infrastructure, encouraging the smallholders to
supplement inorganic fertilizer with manure, and use of soil and water conservation
measure. |
|