Abstract:
Perceptions guides decision making and eventually determines the actions to be made by farmers on climate change adaptation. This study analyzed how farmers perceive cassava as climate change crop, determinants of farmer’s perception and also estimated the share of cassava to total household income in Kigoma Region. A multistage random sampling procedure was used to select a total of 140 household heads for analysis. Data were collected using structured questionnaire and key informants interview. Descriptive statistics, Likert scale items and Chi-square tests were employed to analyze data. The Heckman’s two step model was used to identify the determinants of perceptions of the sampled households. The results show that 72.7% to 98.3% of the household farmers perceived cassava as a suitable crop for climate change adaptation. Accordingly, most of the respondents considered cassava as a food security crop in the face of changing climatic conditions. Age, gender, marital status and availability of climate information were found to be basic determinants of farmer’s perception on cassava as climate change crop. The profitability of various crops produced in the study area was estimated using gross margin analysis. Among food crops grown in the study area, cassava was noted to constitute a significant share of household income, suggesting that is not only an important food crop but also a major source of income. This study concluded that, farmers perceive cassava as a climate change mitigation crop, hence recommends that the efforts by policy marker towards climate change adaptation while improving food security should target at improving and promoting cassava production.
