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Smallholder productivity under climatic variability: Adoption and impact of widely promoted agricultural practices in Tanzania

Author

Listed:
  • Arslan, Aslihan
  • Belotti, Federico
  • Lipper, Leslie

Abstract

Food security in Tanzania is projected to deteriorate as a result of climate change. In spite of the Government's efforts to promote agricultural practices that improve productivity and food security, adoption rates of such practices remain low. Developing a thorough understanding of the determinants of adoption and updating our understanding of the impacts of these technologies under the site-specific effects of climate change are crucial to improve adoption. This paper addresses these issues by using a novel data set that combines information from two largescale household surveys with geo-referenced historical rainfall and temperature data in order to understand the determinants of the adoption of sustainable and productivity improving practices and their impacts on maize productivity in Tanzania. The specific practices analyzed are: maize-legume intercropping, soil and water conservation practices, the use of organic fertilizers, inorganic fertilizers and high yielding maize varieties. We find that farmers located in areas where the cropping season's rainfall has been highly variable have 15 percent lower maize yields. Similarly, farmers located in areas where maximum temperatures during the growing season exceed 30 degrees Celsius have approximately 25 percent lower yields. Both rainfall variability and hotter temperatures are expected to increase under climate change, underlining the importance of policies to buffer food security from the estimated effects of climate change. Our analysis identifies policy entry points both to improve maize productivity and the adoption of practices to do so through careful empirical analysis. This paper contributes to evidence base to support policies for climate smart agriculture and underlines the importance of integrating site-specific analyses of climatic variables in policy targeting to foster adoption of appropriate practices to improve food security under climate change.

Suggested Citation

  • Arslan, Aslihan & Belotti, Federico & Lipper, Leslie, 2016. "Smallholder productivity under climatic variability: Adoption and impact of widely promoted agricultural practices in Tanzania," ESA Working Papers 288969, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:faoaes:288969
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.288969
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Arslan, Aslihan & Belotti, Federico & Lipper, Leslie, 2017. "Smallholder productivity and weather shocks: Adoption and impact of widely promoted agricultural practices in Tanzania," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 68-81.
    2. Marco d’Errico & Donato Romano & Rebecca Pietrelli, 2018. "Household resilience to food insecurity: evidence from Tanzania and Uganda," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(4), pages 1033-1054, August.
    3. Sankhulani, Linda, 2021. "Impact evaluation of conservation agriculture on smallholder farmers’ livelihood in Zambia and Tanzania," Research Theses 334762, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    4. Silvia Silvestri & Martin Macharia & Bellancile Uzayisenga, 2019. "Analysing the potential of plant clinics to boost crop protection in Rwanda through adoption of IPM: the case of maize and maize stem borers," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(2), pages 301-315, April.

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