AUTHOR=Bongole Abiud J. , Hella Joseph P. , Bengesi Kenneth M. K. 

TITLE=Combining Climate Smart Agriculture Practises Pays Off: Evidence on Food Security From Southern Highland Zone of Tanzania

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

VOLUME=Volume 6 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2022.541798

DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2022.541798

ISSN=2571-581X

ABSTRACT=This study analyses the factors affecting adoption of climate smart agriculture technologies (in particular chemical fertilizers, pesticides and improve maize seeds) and the impact of the adoption of household food security. Cross-sectional data were collected from farming households in the southern highlands of Tanzania (Mbeya and Songwe regions). A multinomial endogenous treatment effect model was used to understand the impact of combination CSA technologies on household food security. A counterfactual analysis was conducted to compare the impacts from different combination of climate smart agriculture technologies considered.  The findings show that household characteristics, plot characteristics and institutional characteristics have significant effects on the adoption of a different combination of climate smart agriculture technologies. The study also found that the highest payoff of food security is achieved when climate smart agriculture technologies are adopted in combination rather than in isolation. The impact of a combination of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and improved maize seeds on food variety score per adult equivalent has the best payoff among the technologies considered in this study. The study suggests that based on the technologies considered in this study adoption of combination of various technologies result into better food security compare to the adoption of these technologies individually. This implies that policymakers and other stakeholders promoting a combination of technologies can enhance household food security.