CliFT — Climate-smart Futures in Rural Tanzania

Project summary

African countries are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change as they are more dependent on rainfed agriculture, already face dry conditions, and have lower adaptive capacity. However, current climate change adaptation and coping strategies remain limited, which puts at risk livelihoods of the fast-growing rural population, especially women and young farmers who face financial and resource limitations, discrimination and exclusion from extension services. While it has been suggested that farmer organizations (FOs) could promote climate adaptation of their members, particularly the youth and women, very little is known about the impacts and mechanisms through which FOs affect climate adaptation of their members, particularly the youth and women. Our project aims to generate new knowledge on the role of FOs in climate adaptation and the underlying mechanisms linking FOs to climate adaptation (social capital, FO governance, and knowledge on climate smart agricultural techniques) using state-of-the-art social science methods. We will co-design and test three strategies, namely (i) women leadership, (ii) knowledge on climate smart agricultural techniques, and (iii) a combination of the two, to promote climate adaptation among FOs by using randomized controlled trial (RCT). The project is jointly implemented by the University of Copenhagen, Technical University of Denmark and Mzumbe University, with private sector partners and agricultural supporting institutions, including Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA), and Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Africa (SANREM) Tanzania. These partnerships are crucial for achieving successful collection of unique qualitative, quantitative and experimental data; implementing and monitoring the RCT interventions; strong capacity building, including education of 4 PhD students and at least 6 MSc students; and dissemination and uptake of the project findings in climate adaptation and food security policies and strategies. Anticipated scientific outputs of the project include at least 12 journal articles, at least 12 working papers, at least 6 conference papers, and 5 policy briefs, 5 newspaper articles, jointly written by project participants from Tanzania and Denmark. Other outputs include 4 PhD dissertations and at least 6 MSc theses.