Determinants of Farmers’ Adoption of Drought Resistant Crops in Adapting to Drought Impacts on Crop Production in Same District, Kilimanjaro Region

Abstract

Droughts’ intensity, duration, spatial coverage and frequency have been increasing with current climate change. Th is has been especially the case with arid and semi-arid tropical areas. Yet, farmers in such areas have persistently growing water intensive crops like maize, leading to poor production. Consequently, food insecurity and unsustainable livelihoods have been rampant. Th ere is a broad scientifi c and political consensus that growing drought resistant crops (DRCs) is a sustainable drought adaptation strategy. Th e crops have anatomical and physiological characteristics enabling drought toleration, hence, improve water productivity (increase crop output per water input). Besides, adoption of DRCs is simple, cheap, easy and feasible for farmers to adopt compared to other strategies. Studies have shown that adoption of DRCs, even in drought prone areas, is very low. However, causes of low adoption of these crops are not adequately understood. Th is study aimed at analyzing determinants of farmers’ adoption of DRCs as an adaptation strategy to drought impacts. Data were collected from 281 farmers from four villages in Same district (a semi-arid and drought prone district in Tanzania). Th e study deployed logistic regression analysis and descriptive statistics to analyze such determinants. It was observed that adoption of DRCs is determined by a number of factors, including, access to climate information, access to agricultural extension services, food preference, location, sex of head of the household and farm size. Besides, adoption of DRCs is hampered by various barriers, including, cultural constraints, lack of knowledge, unpredictable rainfall, lack of access to climate information and lack of market. Other barriers were lack of seeds, lack of capital, destructive birds and forceful motivation approaches.