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Abstract Background Agriculture is important for economic growth and development in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania. However, agricultural production and productivity remain relatively low, with significant yield gaps attributed to factors such as limited access to and low adoption of appropriate agricultural technologies, and climate-related risks resulting from climate variability and change. This paper explores the drivers of adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) technologies and practices, taking into account the complementarity among agricultural technologies and heterogeneity of the farm households, using data from Lushoto in Tanzania. Methods We use a Multivariate Probit analysis of cross-sectional data collected from 264 smallholder farmers in Lushoto—a climate hotspot in Tanzania—to understand the drivers of household decisions to adopt CSA technologies and practices. The technologies included diversification of multiple stress (drought, floods, pests, diseases)-tolerant crop varieties, use of fertilizers, and application of herbicides and pesticides. The Multivariate Probit model was preferred as it takes into account the inter-relationships of the technologies as well as heterogeneity of the smallholder farmers for more robust estimates. The independent variables used in the analysis included household socio-economic factors such as the relative importance of crop and livestock enterprises, household land size, social capital, access to agricultural credit and weather information, previous experience with fertilizer use and household characteristics (age, education and gender of household head, and household size). Results About 63% of the households diversified their crop enterprises, shifting to improved resilient crops and crop varieties. Another 37% adopted fertilizers, while 38% applied pesticides and herbicides. Conditional on the unobservable heterogeneity effects, the results show that household adoption decisions on diversification of multiple stress-tolerant crops and crop varieties, fertilizer, and pesticides and herbicides are complementary. In addition, the results confirm existence of unobserved heterogeneity effects leading to varying impact of the explanatory variables on adoption decisions among farmers with similar observable characteristics. Conclusions The findings indicate that any effective CSA technology adoption and diffusion strategies and policies should take into account the complementarity of the technologies and heterogeneity of the smallholder farmers. Therefore, inter-related technologies should be promoted as a package or bundled while taking into consideration household and farm-level constraints to adoption.

Abstract Background Land degradation through soil erosion by water is severe in the highlands of Ethiopia. In order to curb this problem, the government initiated sustainable land management interventions in different parts of the country since 2008, and in Geda watershed since 2012. However, the impacts of the interventions on soil properties were not assessed so far. Thus, this study investigated the impacts of sustainable land management interventions on selected soil properties in Geda watershed. Soil samples were collected from treated and untreated sub-watersheds at the upper and lower landscape positions, from cropland and grazing lands at two soil depths (0–15 cm and 15–30 cm). Selected soil physicochemical properties were assessed with respect to landscape position, land-use type, and soil depth in both treated and untreated sub-watersheds. Results Generally, most of the soil physicochemical properties differed greatly across sub-watersheds, land-use types, and soil depths. Clay, electrical conductivity, total N, available P, exchangeable K, and organic carbon were higher in the treated sub-watershed, whereas sand, silt, bulk density, and pH were higher in the untreated sub-watershed. The higher sand, silt, and bulk density could be attributed to erosion, while the higher pH could be due to the higher exchangeable Na in the untreated sub-watershed. Most of the selected soil chemical properties were not affected by landscape position, but land-use type affected available P and organic carbon with higher mean values at croplands than at grazing lands, which could be ascribed to the conservation structure and tillage of the soils in that conservation structures trap and accumulate transported organic materials from the upper slope, while tillage facilitates aeration and decomposition processes. Conclusion Sustainable land management interventions improved soil physicochemical properties and brought a positive restoration of the soil ecosystem. Maintaining the soil conservation measures and enhancing community awareness about the benefits, coupled with management of livestock grazing are required to sustain best practices.

Increasing weather risks threaten agricultural production systems and food security across the world. Maintaining agricultural growth while minimizing climate shocks is crucial to building a resilient food production system and meeting developmental goals in vulnerable countries. Experts have proposed several technological, institutional, and policy interventions to help farmers adapt to current and future weather variability and to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper presents the climate-smart village (CSV) approach as a means of performing agricultural research for development that robustly tests technological and institutional options for dealing with climatic variability and climate change in agriculture using participatory methods. It aims to scale up and scale out the appropriate options and draw out lessons for policy makers from local to global levels. The approach incorporates evaluation of climate-smart technologies, practices, services, and processes relevant to local climatic risk management and identifies opportunities for maximizing adaptation gains from synergies across different interventions and recognizing potential maladaptation and trade-offs. It ensures that these are aligned with local knowledge and link into development plans. This paper describes early results in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to illustrate different examples of the CSV approach in diverse agroecological settings. Results from initial studies indicate that the CSV approach has a high potential for scaling out promising climate-smart agricultural technologies, practices, and services. Climate analog studies indicate that the lessons learned at the CSV sites would be relevant to adaptation planning in a large part of global agricultural land even under scenarios of climate change. Key barriers and opportunities for further work are also discussed.