The Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture and Health Sectors in Tanzania: A review

The impact of climate change in Tanzania is dynamic and differs among regions as they are impacted in different ways. While other regions experience normal rainfall and temperature patterns, others have continued to experience temperature extremes, severe droughts, decline in crops production coupled with food insecurity, extreme weather episodes of heavy rainfall associated with floods, loss of lives and infectious disease outbreaks. Despite the effects of climate change being recognized in the country, awareness is limited among local people, in particular the vulnerable communities. Thus, this review aims to raise awareness by giving a broader picture of impacts of climate change on agriculture and health sector. It reveals that in many parts of Tanzania, agriculture and health sectors may continue to suffer from the effects of climate change aggregated with limited awareness among communities. It is expected, that outbreaks of infectious diseases including malaria and cholera may increase as they correlate positively with high temperatures and rainfall. As a result, health problems and deaths of people, and reduced crops production will continue. Therefore, it is recommended that, the best way to overcome climate change is to invest effectively on the irrigation agriculture; and the health sector's budget should be enough to improve health care services and prepare for outbreaks of climate change sensitive diseases. Most importantly, provision of climate change awareness to the vulnerable communities must be seriously considered. About 50 peer-reviewed articles, government and international reports published between 2000 and 2017 were reviewed.