Climate change adaptation in the Morogoro Region of Tanzania: women's decision-making participation in small-scale farm households

Abstract

This article estimates factors influencing the adoption of 18 household and individual-level adaptation practices among small-scale farmers in the Morogoro Region of Tanzania. Using a unique dataset of 343 married women, logistic regression analysis is used to examine adaptation practices ranging from agricultural to coping and livelihood diversification strategies. Specifically, we investigate the role of wives’ intrahousehold decision-making participation in adaptation decisions. Drawing on the literatures of intrahousehold bargaining and agricultural technology adoption, we argue that although extrahousehold factors are important determinants of households’ adaptation behaviour, adaptation outcomes can also be different when decided by husbands or by wives. We find that when wives are more involved in intrahousehold adaptation decision-making, they are also more likely to choose to be engaged in non-farm income-earning activities, and their households are more likely to plant cover crops and drought-resistant crops. We argue that in general Tanzanian smallholders’ adaptation options are limited and their intrahousehold bargaining sets relatively narrow, leaving little room for differing intrahousehold adaptation preferences, especially in the case of quasi-public household goods.