Climate-Smart Aquaculture Adoption in Rural Areas around Lake Victoria, Tanzania: Gender, Socioeconomic, and Institutional Influences

Abstract

Climate-Smart Aquaculture (CSAq) is increasingly recognized as a sustainable adaptation strategy to enhance aquaculture productivity, resource efficiency, and climate resilience. However, socioeconomic and institutional constraints continue to shape CSAq adoption patterns, particularly among smallholder farmers. This study examines the determinants of CSAq adoption in Tanzania’s Lake Zone, using a Multinomial Logit (MNL) model to analyze survey data from 384 fish farmers. The model assesses the likelihood of adopting Integrated Aquaculture-Agriculture (IAA), Polyculture, or Monoculture (baseline category) based on household characteristics, financial access, extension services, and education levels. The findings reveal that household size (p < 0.05), education level (p < 0.05), financial grants (p < 0.01), and extension services (p < 0.01) significantly influenced CSAq adoption. Larger households and better-educated farmers were more likely to adopt IAA, while financial support and extension services were associated with higher Monoculture adoption rather than CSAq. This suggests that current institutional support structures may be reinforcing conventional single-species fish farming rather than promoting climate-resilient aquaculture models. Gender was not statistically significant, indicating that CSAq adoption disparities are more closely linked to financial and institutional constraints rather than direct gender-based preferences. These findings highlight the urgent need to realign financial incentives, extension programs, and training initiatives to promote climate-smart aquaculture adoption. Policies should prioritize CSAq financing models, and integrate climate-smart training into extension services. Strengthening institutional support mechanisms and enhancing smallholder farmers' access to CSAq knowledge and resources will be critical for achieving climate resilience, food security, and rural economic development in Tanzania’s aquaculture sector.