Abstract:
Although the agriculture sector plays a crucial role in providing 90% of the world's food and employment
opportunities, it is increasingly affected by climate change, resulting in decline in productivity and food
insecurity. To address these challenges, Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) has been adopted globally, with
many places using co-operatives to assist smallholder farmers. However, there is a lack of scholarly
research on the potential of Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Societies (AMCOS) to adopt CSA in
Bukoba District, Tanzania. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate Agricultural Marketing Co-operative
Societies’ existing potential in adopting Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) among smallholder farmers in
Bukoba District-Tanzania. A total of 384 smallholder farmers members of co-operatives were used to
collect using semi-structured questionnaires while personal interview was also used to collect qualitative
data from key informants. The analysis involved both descriptive statistics for quantitative data and
thematic analysis of qualitative data. The findings from the descriptive analysis showed that smallholder
farmers were generally neutral and disagreed with the idea that AMCOS were instrumental in facilitating
the adoption of these practices. Specifically, they expressed neutral and disagree views on access to
agricultural credits, availability of training/ capacity building, access to extension services, and access to
improved crop varieties through AMCOS. In particular, a total 362(94%) of the farmers disagreed and
strongly disagreed with the assertion that they had access to fertilizer through AMCOS.
