Paper short abstract:

Our paper assesses the extent to which traditional agricultural practices (including intercropping, crop-livestock systems, integration of fruit trees), as well as local tenure regimes (access to common land) increase food security of farmer’s exposed to extreme weather events in Tanzania.

Paper long abstract:

Around one in four people can be considered moderately or severely food insecure around the globe. By impacting on agricultural and food production, climate change is likely to increase nutritional insecurity and the vulnerability of local livelihood, particularly in sub-Saharan African states. Scholars and policymakers alike have identified particular adaptation and coping strategies based on agroecological practices that may have the potential to mitigate the negative effects of extreme weather events on local populations. So far, however, we lack systematic evidence on whether some of these proposed strategies indeed reduce smallholders’ vulnerability and ensures nutritional security. Focusing on Tanzania, a country that experienced severe draughts in the past years and is characterized by small-scale farming, our paper assesses the extent to which particular traditional agricultural practices that encourage diversification (including intercropping, crop-livestock systems, integration of fruit trees in smallholder farming), as well as local tenure regimes (in particular individuals’ access to common land) increase food resilience of farmer’s exposed to extreme weather events. Empirically, we combine temperature and rain data with measures of crop diversification and food security provided by the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) for more than 25,000 individuals. Our research design relies on a combination of coarsened exact matching and a differences-in-means approach.