JOURNAL OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION OF TANZANIA

The Smallholder Farmers Adaptation to Climate Change

Fredy Maro — 2023-12-01

Climate change is one of the major threats to agricultural production worldwide, including many parts of Tanzania. However, different rural agricultural systems are affected differently and differ in their adaptive capacities. This paper assessed the adaptive capacity to climate change by farmers engaged in ndiwa and chamazi traditional irrigation farming systems in West Usambara Highlands , Tanzania. The study leading to this paper was conducted in four villages: Shashui, Nkukai, Lunguza and Kivingo in Lushoto District; and it adopted a cross-sectional research design involving a sample of 380 households. Data were collected through household survey, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), observations and documentary reviews. Undeniably, farmers are not poor of what and how to adapt with climate change: they have some knowledge on what they can do to reduce and contain the adverse impacts of climate change. The results show that whereas ndiwa farmers have moderate adaptive capacity (41.6%), chamazi farmers have low adaptive capacity (23.6%) to climate change impacts. Despite this difference in capacities, both farmers are affected by low financing (ndiwa (14.36%), and chamazi (8.48%) as grants or credits hardly reach small-scale farmers; low access to technical information (ndiwa (15.08%), and chamazi (5.17%)); relative low access to physical infrastructure (ndiwa (5.02%), and chamazi (3.02%)); relative low level of diversity of livelihood (ndiwa (4.56%), and chamazi (4.49%)); and relative low level of human resources (ndiwa (2.51%), and chamazi (2.35%)). The paper recommends that strategies for enabling farmers to become change agents of climate change should build capacity in areas of physical resources such as equipment and infrastructure for irrigation, access to climate information, access to financing opportunities, livelihood diversification, and storage.

Institutionalisation of Community Participation And Sustainability in Governance of Community Forests

Mohamed Said — 2023-12-01

Tanzania, like many other tropical countries, has streamlined its environmental policies to institutionalise community participation and improve governance of community forests. The question is: to what extent has the governance of these forests improved as a result of the specified measures? The aim of this paper is to understand whether the institutionalisation of community participation through Community Forest Management Agreements (CoFMAs) guarantees sustainability in the governance of community forests in Zanzibar. Data for this paper were collected through structured interviews from 323 respondents in selected households, and complemented with in-depth interviews with 27 key informants (government officials, elders from the communities, local leaders and leaders of community conservation groups). The results show that the establishment of CoFMAs followed existing legislative frameworks to formalize community participation to ensure governance sustainability of community forests. However, the established conservation initiatives such as community participation in decision-making processes, benefit-sharing of forest resources, technological transfer, and community monitoring of forest resources have remained elusive as most of those initiatives have not been sustained overtime. Although CoFMAs have slightly improved community forest areas, illegal hunting of wildlife in and out of the conserved forests still remains a challenge. As such, the institutionalization of community participation under CoFMA cannot guarantee sustainability in the governance of community forest resources, unless it is community-led, and has access to reliable sources of income. Communities should, therefore, be facilitated with income-generating conservation projects, and/or establish reliable alternative sources of income to meet their needs to ensure sustainable governance of resources.

The Application of Drone Technology in Micro-Watershed Evaluation

JANET ATIENO AUMA — 2023-12-01

The application of drone technology in micro-watershed evaluation in Sub- Saharan Africa may potentially attract sustainable management of watersheds and limit practices that encourage pollution, erosion, flooding, deforestation and afforestation, among others. This paper employs data from literature sources to establish the significance of adopting drone application technology in the evaluation of micro-watersheds in Kenya to discourage the alteration of the specified ecosystems and enhance their general functioning. Of the reviewed literature, 80% sources were from developed nations; and 20% were from developing countries. The results suggest that the application of drones in micro-watershed evaluation has a wide range of benefits; including the provision of real time assessment, offering comprehensive visual information, enhancing agricultural productivity, enhancing decision-making capabilities; promoting optimal and sustainable utilization of resources; promoting improved food security and socio-economic wellbeing; attracting cost effectiveness; fostering innovation; promoting efficient data collection; reducing crop and environmental damages; ensuring controlled utilization of agricultural inputs; and the provision of accurate data, large amount of data, and real-time data. Moreover, the application of drones in micro-watersheds ensures unlimited coverage, high accuracy and speed; endurance and controlled range; and replicability and availability. The results conclude that drones are useful, reliable and effective in the evaluation of micro-watersheds, and may thus protect watersheds from being altered.

Investigation of Temporal Trends and Spatial Patterns of Extreme Temperatures and Their Relationship to Climate Circulation Indices in Tanzania

Paul Limbu — 2023-12-29

This paper examined the spatial and temporal patterns of selected temperature extreme indices using the Mann-Kendall method (MK), the standard t-test, and the Pearson correlation analysis method. The relationship between extreme temperature events and climate circulation indices was analysed in Tanzania between 1983 and 2016 using data from 1961 to 2018. The results uncover a rise in the frequency and intensity of balmy days and nights across Tanzania. It suggests a significant increase in trends and the frequency of mild temperature index days and warm nights. It also indicates an increase in the trends for warm temperature indices (hottest days (TXx), coldest days (TNx), warm days (TX90p), tropical night (TR20), and Warm Spell Duration Indicator (WSDI); and a decrease in cold temperature indices (cold days (TX10p), cold nights (TN10p), cold days (TXn), and Cold Spell Duration Indicator (CSDI); which imply that the lower temperature was gradually decreasing more than in the past. The results further suggest that warm days and nights are significantly correlated with the Tropical Northern Atlantic Index (TNA), the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), and the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The circulation indices, which were found to be substantially associated with temperature extreme indices, can aid in forecasting, and may potentially serve as a foundation for future studies, particularly in the dynamics and physical mechanisms related to temperature extremes. The results presented in this paper are also vital for developing proper mitigation and adaptation measures to reduce future risks associated with extremely high-temperature events.

An Evaluation of the Impact of Urban Growth on Runoff in Abeokuta, Southwestern Nigeria

T. E. Ologunorisa — 2023-12-31

Abeokuta is one of the urban areas in Nigeria with high cases of runoff fatalities in recent times, indicating the need for a proper understanding of prominent runoff-generating mechanisms, as well as the causative factors. Consequently, this paper, which is focused on flood-prone settlements, is aimed at providing information on the impact of change in urban land use on runoff in the study area. The specific objectives were to determine the change in average runoff in terms of the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCN-CN), and to assess the impact of urban growth on runoff in the area. The SCN-CN was derived from the 30m spatial Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Digital Elevation Model (SRTM DEM). At the same time, land cover change was estimated using Landsat TM+ from 2000 and Landsat 8 OLI from 2018. Data were analysed using the Hydrologic Engineering Centre’s Hydrologic Modelling System (HEC-HMS) and ArcGIS (version 10.1). The results showed a 14% increase (from 39% in 2000 to 53% in 2018) in urban areas of selected catchments; and a relative increase in average CN from 76.9 units in 2000 to 79.9 units in 2018, suggesting an increase in runoff potential relative to the increase in urban/impermeable space in the catchment. Annual discharge depth increased from 891.84mm to 956.9mm, while peak discharge increased from 161.9m3 /s to 196.2m3 /s. Runoff in the study area tends to exhibit spatial variability that is similar to the pattern exhibited by built-up areas across the study area, suggesting that the development of built-up areas can explain runoff exacerbation in part of the area. The use of SCN-CN and satellite images makes the approach reproducible, and the mixed methods of geographic information system and hydrological model revealed the spatial variability typically hidden in stand-alone hydrological models. The paper recommends further studies with the use of less coarse datasets, as well as the implementation of policies that focus on sustainable urban growth in the region, and other cities.

Divisive Discourse on the 2019–2020 Climate Change Effects among Tanzanian Stakeholders

Antoni Keya — 2023-12-31

Promoting climate change discourses may potentially create a useful space for addressing the effects of climate change in Tanzania. During disasters such as floods, everyone obfuscates their agency and blames the other for causing climate change effects. This paper examines the discourse of climate change among scientists, government officials, and the non-scientific Tanzanian stakeholders on climate change and adaptation strategies after the 2019-2020 effects. These actors obfuscate responsibilities and attribute blame on the other for accelerating climate change effects. This paper examines how these attributions contribute to enhancing resilience and adaptation strategies. The paper was theoretically guided by the divided subject and positioning theories. Data for this paper were gathered from YouTube covering the subject. The results suggest that while none of the actors accepts responsibility for accelerating climate change; “what is happening and what should be done” gradually turn into “who is responsible for the mess”. Divisive discourse like this is likely to keep Tanzania wobbling to create a resilient society to confront the challenges of climate change. The paper raises the need for the facilitation of a better communication between climate change science and the non-scientific audience.