Small farmers' adaptive efforts to rainfall variability and soil erosion problems in semiarid Tanzania

Rural lívelihood in semiarid Tanzania is centred on subsistence agricultural production under conditions of a stochastic rainfall pattern and highly erodible soils. This paper draws data from 499 smallholder farmers in Dodoma region-central Tanzania, to study their adaptive efforts and the influences on agricultural productivity in this agro-ecological zone. Results show a significant relationship (p = 0.05 and p = 0.01) between variables explaining adaptive efforts and soil erosion. However, most of the variables were not significant in explaining variability in agricultural productivity. Therefore, the paper concludes that smallholders' livelihood strategies in semiarid Tanzania are not sustainable, as they tend to increase environmental decay through erosion without subsequent increase in agriculture productivity. © 2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.