Influence of social capital on adaptation to climate variability and vulnerability in farming households in Chamwino District, Tanzania

Abstract

Adaptation to climate variability results from an interplay of livelihood capitals. These capitals (social, financial, physical, human and natural) prevail within climatic and non-climatic conditions. Vulnerability to climate variability intensifies when people are socially disadvantaged. The study assessed the influence of social capital on farming households’ adaptation to climate variability and vulnerability using two villages in Chamwino District, Dodoma Region. A cross-sectional research design was employed, whereby data was collected from 160 randomly selected households using a questionnaire. In addition, data was collected from 32 focus group participants and 5 key informants. Findings show that a farmer's adaptation strategy can influence the accumulation or depletion of capital to adapt to climate variability. In addition, poor farming households (23.12%) have limited livelihood capitals thus, creating adaptation failure and reliance on less paid agricultural adaptation-based contracts to adapt to climate variability. A chi-square test results show no association between poor households’ adaptation strategies and their income (p>0.05). Therefore, it is concluded that adaptation is not one size fits all; availability of livelihood capital within the household defines the context of adaptation. Therefore, it is recommended that to absorb the vulnerability in adaptation to climate variability, there should be an active and sustained engagement of public and private stakeholders with the local community in prioritizing the adaptation needs of all socio-economic groups to enable them adapt to climate variability.