The role of women in adopting maize-legume intercropping amongsmallholder farming households in Tanzania

Asela Miho, Aloyce Hepelwa, & Onesmo Slejio

Abstract
In responding to agricultural uncertainties from climate change in Tanzania, intercropping remains among the suitable mitigation technologies. Concurrently, deciding what to intercrop remains a challenge. This study employed a multinomial probit model to examine the effects of involving women in household farming decisions on the adoption of maize-legume intercropping (MLI) by using 5 689 farming households (1 347 in 2010, 1 735 in 2012, 1 234 in 2014 and 1 373 in 2020) from the Tanzania National Panel Surveys. The adoption of MLI dominates across survey years but remains low, averaging around 50%. Household joint farming decisions declined from 64% in 2010 to 53% in 2020. Women’s decisions solely/jointly with their partners strongly increased the adoption of MLI and weakly increased the adoption of intercropping with maize and other crops. Therefore, women’s involvement in household decision-making should be promoted to increase MLI adoption and improve smallholders’ livelihoods amid climate change and variability.