Conservation agriculture Tanzania_casestudy.pdf - Sokoine ...

11 Challenges in KaratuThe challenges are drawn from the projects, which have tried to work on conservationagriculture technologies in Karatu so as to be a lesson and a model for new projectinterventions. The challenges are two: to promote conservation agriculture tofarmers and to get them to adopt it. These challenges are so intermingled that it isnot possible to separate them entirely.Project sustainability not ensured in many projectsProject sustainability, through the beneficiary’s ownership and capacity building inconservation agriculture technologies, has not been properly observed; consequentlymany project activities have ceased immediately after donor support phases out. Thiscessation can be attributed to several factors: failure to observe participation properly or tobuild community-based expertise, donor withdrawal premature, inadequate governmentor community support, inadequate marketing of cover crops, etc. Most projects weredesigned, implemented and analysed by external facilitators, such as researchers, withminimal involvement of farmers; hence they lacked smooth continuity.Inadequate coordination at the district levelThe different conservation agriculture stakeholders in Karatu are not well identifiedor coordinated towards achieving the set goals through tackling different objectives,such as introducing conservation agriculture technologies, following through toensure adoption, diffusion and scaling up, assuring proper documentation, includinga database of conservation agriculture activities. It is difficult to tell who did what,when and where, and what has been achieved.Too much focus on individual farmers and lack of properanalysisMost of the previous efforts focused on individual, innovative farmers, and thisto some extent hindered the fast spread of the technology. Except for the farmerfield school approach, which has started only recently, community sensitizationto create awareness and readiness to participate fully in conservation agriculturetechnologies was lacking or has been minimal. However, it seems that even thefield schools did not properly carry out SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunitiesand threats) analysis of conservation agriculture technologies as an intervention toimprove crop production. This probably explains why inputs, implements and localcapacities were not properly considered.Limited extension staff and knowledge of how conservationagriculture can best fit in different systemsVariations in biophysical and socio-economic or sociocultural contexts have placeda significant burden on conservation agriculture facilitators in terms of keepingKaratu District 91