The impacts of climate change and variability on crop farming systems in Semi-Arid Central Tanzania: The case of Manyoni District in Singida Region

This paper focuses on the impacts of climate change and variability on crop farming. The main objective of this paper is to assess the impacts of climate change and variability on crop farming systems in Manyoni district, Tanzania. This paper used mixed research design with both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. The research used different methods in collecting information concerning the impacts of climate change and variability on crop farming systems such as key informants interviews, focus group discussions and observations methods. Secondary data were collected through documentary review. Questionnaires were administered to 362 heads of households from four study villages namely Lusilile, Udimaa, Makanda and Magasai. Findings of the research revealed that majority of the farming households acknowledged occurrences of climate change and variability in their localities for the past 30 years. Heads of households perceived that rainfall has decreased while temperature has been increasing. This findings are in collaboration with that from the Tanzania meteorological data. Moreover, the findings revealed that climate change and variability have impacted crop farming system in different ways such as, damaging of crops and persistent low yields, reduction of crop varieties and species, decreasing soil fertility, increasing crop pests and diseases and drying of water sources. Therefore, this paper recommends that, collective efforts from government and other stakeholders should be harnessed and implemented in order to respond to these impacts so as to improve households’ food security in the stuyy area.   Key words: Climate change, climate variability, crop farming systems, Manyoni district.