*5.1. The Nature and Drivers of Farm Production Diversity*

Typical to smallholder farming systems, our results showed that households' farm production is rather diverse, constituting of a variety of crops and livestock species. Farm production diversity was substantially higher in Chamwino district which has a semi-arid agro-ecology with less agricultural potential and market access compared to Kilosa district. The agro-ecology of Chamwino district supports a 'pastoralist/agro-pastoralist' farming system [42]. This partly contributed to the observed higher levels of farm production diversity. In addition, unlike in Kilosa, the semi-arid nature of Chamwino implies that households may experience more frequent periods of food insecurity and other shocks such as drought. In areas with fragile agro-ecologies farm production diversity has been argued to be an important strategy. Thus, smallholders may diversify their agricultural production as a risk mitigation strategy from the negative effects of weather shocks and other agro-ecological conditions [5].

Regarding determinants of farm production diversity within the two agro-ecological regions, results suggest that households' socio-economic characteristics and endowments in terms of land and labor play an important role. These results were also in line with the results of Benin et al. [21] and Di Falco et al. [22]. In addition to age and education, households' preparedness to undertake risk was correlated with increased farm production diversity especially in Chamwino district which has a relatively fragile agro-ecology. Farm production diversity was also significantly associated with access to land and labor, together with other agricultural assets. Interestingly, occurrence of agricultural shocks was associated with decreased diversity of farm production. As noted, this may be particularly the case for resource-constrained households. Porter [43], for example, argued that when households lack access to assets or credit markets, shifting labor resources to other non-agricultural activities may be the only coping strategy at their disposal in the event of agricultural shocks. Similar to observations by Benin et al. [21], our results also underscored the role of location, particularly with respect to agro-ecological conditions and proximity to markets. Fundamentally, ecological characteristics of different locations—such as soil, climate, water availability and altitude—are instrumental in enhancing or diminishing diversity in farms, villages and agro-ecological zones [13]. Also, in line with the findings of Sibhatu et al. [9], market access equally played an important role in influencing farm production diversity. Households in villages which were least accessible to markets have higher farm production diversity, even within the same agro-ecological region signaling increased self-provisioning of food through increased diversity of farm production.
