Conservation agriculture Tanzania_casestudy.pdf - Sokoine ...

activities. But this habit has stopped due to land scarcity, and farms are subdivided.With the advent of Ujamaa (villagization) in 1974 village governments took onthe function of allocating land. The amount given per household depends on theavailability of land in each district, but on average, it ranges from 1.2 to 2.5 hectares(3–6 acres) per household. Since 1974, most people (80%) obtain their land throughthis formal system, although a portion still inherit it. The law permits women toown land but many are not aware of their rights. Land that has been allocated to aman remains with his wife and children on his death. Due to land scarcity farmerswho feel that they do not have enough land tend to hire from neighbours withbig areas or from very poor farmers who have failed to farm. The rental cost isabout TZS 25,000 per acre per year. If the hired land is improved, two things mayhappen. The owner will want the use of it back or will raise the rent. Improvinghired land by putting in contours and planting trees means that the renter wants totake the land, forcing a change in ownership because of the investment incurred; soautomatically the contract will cease.Government policies supporting conservation agriculture adoption: TheNational Environmental Management Council (NEMC) strongly advocates anenvironmental impact assessment in various projects including agricultural ones. Thereason is to establish how to mitigate any negative external impacts. Conservationagriculture has the opportunity to be taken as one of the main technologies andpractices that can reduce environmental degradation in arable lands. Currentregulations, however, have done nothing with respect to conservation agriculture.Compatibility of introduced conservation agriculture with other technologies:Many institutions promoting conservation agriculture technologies and practices inthe study area have recognized the importance of indigenous knowledge, particularlyin relation to the traditional use of cover crops such as pigeon pea and pumpkin.Some components of conservation agriculture such as crop rotation are familiar; theuse of lablab has been likened to improved fallowing, which farmers used to practiseaa part of agroforestry. Conservation agriculture worked together with other existingsoil and water conservation measures such as contour cultivation and agroforestrytechnologies, which were measures taken towards soil conservation. While contoursplanted with multipurpose trees and Napier grass failed to control soil erosion in thealley (area between the contours), conservation agriculture technologies and practiceshave ensured full control of soil erosion and in addition have improved soil fertilityand water conservation, which link directly with increased crop yields. Conservationagriculture technologies and practices are compatible with indigenous knowledgeused in saving labour such as minimum tillage and application of herbicides.Conservation agriculture pathway‘Conservation agriculture pathway’ refers to a process of adoption reflecting the keydecisions and practices (benchmarks) that were made in the process of adoption.This embraces both the technical options and practices and the promotion of themethods.Pathways of cover crops: Although different conservation agriculture practicessuch as subsoiling and cover crops were introduced at the same time in Karatu,Karatu District 83