Conservation agriculture Tanzania_casestudy.pdf - Sokoine ...

Socio-economic and process aspectsWorkload and division—men and women sharing labour under conservationagriculture practicesBy adopting conservation agriculture practices, the workload and the divisionof labour between men and women have changed. The few farmers who haveadopted zero tillage simply wait for planting time as they do not plough. Men,traditionally responsible for land preparation, are no longer occupied by that task,so they have more time to do other development activities. Women and childrenwere responsible for planting. This has changed. Now men also are involved inoperating the no-till direct seeders, which takes less time, hence women have moreopportunity to do other activities. In many areas, weeding is still done by scratchingor uprooting, as the soil cover is not sufficient to suppress weeds.Employment for small-scale farmers has been well distributed throughout the year;that is, even in dry seasons they can be harvesting cover crops (lablab, pigeon pea,mucuna) used to suppress weeds. Labour requirements for peak periods have beenreduced or the work distributed to slack periods. For example, the critical need for timeand labour in the peak period of land preparation and weeding has been minimizedwhile slack time during dry seasons is used for harvesting cover crop seeds.Economic benefits to conservation agriculture adaptorsBenefits of conservation agriculture to small-scale farmers are mostly explainedagriculture technologies and practices. Comparing time and costs required forweeding in conventional fields with direct planting through cover crops on a smallscale in Arusha showed many savings in using conservation agriculture components(Kurtz and Twomlow 2003) (table 5).Large-scale farmers are more business oriented and are therefore ready to lookfor ways and means that can generate more profit and ensure that they remain inbusiness, as different from the subsistence orientation of small-scale farmers. Largescalefarms have adequate capacity in terms of finance, personnel and materials.They have assets that they can mortgage to get loans, quite the opposite for smallscalefarmers. Economically large-scale farmers have benefited from less use ofenergy and the fewer operations of conservation agriculture, with no ploughingand weeding, as compared with conventional agriculture. Yield is increased, cost ofproduction is reduced, hence farming profit increases.Table 5. Time required and weeding costs in conventional fi elds and with direct plantingthrough cover cropsConventional agricultureConservation agricultureLabour: manual TZS/ha Labour: chemical TZS/ha1st weeding: 16 workdays 8,000 Renting of sprayer 1,0002nd weeding: 16 workdays 8,000 Round–Up application: 1 workday 5,200Collecting water: 0.5 workdays 5003rd weeding 12 workdays 6,000 Uprooting weeds: 6 workdays 3,000Uprooting weeds: 6 workdays 3,000Total: 44 workdays 22,000 Total: 13.5 workdays 12,700500 TZS per workdays. TZS 1200 = USD 190 Ringo et al.