IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE INDUCED COPING AND ADAPTATION STRATEGIES ON SEAWEED PRODUCTION IN TANZANIA: A CASE OF JAMBIANI VILLAGE, UNGUJA ISLAND

Climate change remains to be the biggest challenge of 21st century threatening to negatively impacts seaweed production levels in Tanzania. Seaweed farmers have coped and adapted to the impacts of the changes for several years but the implication of their efforts measured by the level of seaweed production is still not documented. The study investigated implications of various coping and adaptation strategies employed by farmers on seaweed production. A cross sectional study was adopted to collection information’s September-November, 2016. Primary data collection tools includes Questionnaires and Focus Group Discussion from 100 seaweed farmers and analyzed by means of descriptive statistics, measures of central tendency and variation, and liner regression model at 5% confidence level. The results indicated that, seaweed farmers continued to employ documented and have recently developed new undocumented coping and adaptation strategies, documented for the first time by this study which include, setting seaweed plot in partially drilled area and tying of big sized seedling as well as planting plenty of seaweeds during cooler months. Nevertheless, production level declined from 80 to 130 sacks per harvest before notable environmental changes to 20 sacks per harvest in a situation of weather and climate changes. It was shown that only planting plenty of seaweeds during cooler months slightly improved seaweed production and others, none at all. The study recommends initiation of ceased extension services to offer technical education and services to seaweed farmers on the best ways to integrate available coping and adaptation strategies on seaweed production as well as developing the best alternative coping and adaptation strategies.