Farmers’ adaptation strategies to combat the impacts of climate change on grapevine production in Dodoma, Tanzania

Abstract

The grapevine is regarded as a drought-resistant crop, although in recent years it has been observed to be threatened by climate change (CC). This compelled an investigation into the adaptation strategies used by grapevine farmers to lessen the impacts of climate change in Dodoma, Tanzania. The impacts of CC on grapevine farming were explored, and the adopted adaptation strategies were examined. About 248 grapevine farmers, and 64 key informants and members of focus group discussions were involved in the study. Data were collected through surveys, discussions, interviews, observations, and reviews. Quantitative data were analysed through descriptive statistics while qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings indicate that the major impacts of CC on grapevine production include the outbreak of grapevine diseases (76.2%), occurrence of pests and insects (67.6%), drought (26.9%), and extreme temperatures (10%). To moderate these impacts, grapevine farmers have adopted several adaptation strategies, such as applying pesticides (63.2%), implementing irrigation (21.3%), paroling to prevent birds (6.8%), and using manure (5.6%) to improve soil fertility. These findings inform that CC has a direct detrimental impact on grapevine production including uncertainties which affect grapevine markets, and the adaptation strategies for the CC impacts in the study areas are in place. It is recommended that the Tanzania government and other grapevine stakeholders should help grapevine farmers to improve and take on board existing adaptation strategies against CC through agricultural extension services, and enable farmers’ access to financial capital. This could improve grapevine farmers’ adaptive capacity to CC.