Climate and Socio-economic Factors Affecting the Adoption of Irrigation Practices for Improved Rice Yield in Mbeya Region, Tanzania

Abstract

Rural farmers are facing different challenges, resulting from climate change and weather variability, which pose threats in crop production and productivity. Small scale farmers try to cope with the prevailing situations by adjusting to different mechanisms including adopting irrigation services. This study seeks to determine the factors influencing rice farmers’ decision to adopt irrigation technology and find out the significant contribution of irrigation to rice yields in the Mbeya Region of Tanzania. Data were collected through structured questionnaires, interviews, and focus group discussions. Data analyses were performed by using descriptive statistics, logistic regression, and ordinary least square (OLS) regression by STATA (v13). The descriptive statistics characterized households’ socio-demographic and economic characteristics. Logistic regression results affirmed that households’ education, labor size, meteorological information, access to financial services, extension services and previous farm outputs significantly influenced irrigation adoption by farmers. Results from OLS regression confirmed that irrigation significantly contributed about 3.2 % to rice yield at P>0.05 level. The study recommends the adoption of irrigation technology in Tanzania as means of coping strategy to the negative impact of climate change and weather variations.