Conservation agriculture Tanzania_casestudy.pdf - Sokoine ...

availability of agriculture credit, availability and effectiveness of agriculturalextension service, farmers’ awareness of the available technologies, farmers’ abilityto afford and apply the technologies and overall agricultural infrastructure all areissues that must be considered in promoting conservation agriculture in terms of aninnovation system. The challenges that farmers are facing in adopting conservationagriculture technologies and practices, not just obstacles to adopting and diffusingit, should be met first in one way or another. In addition, farmers believe stronglyin what they have being doing; they are hesitant to change to new things unlessthey see that immediate benefits are attached to the new practices. Conservationagriculture programmes covering different farming systems are needed rather thanuncoordinated short-term projects.Adoption and diffusion rely heavily on the district agricultural and planningoffices, as they have the mandate to plan and coordinate all agricultural activitiesin their area. They need to create awareness in their communities and identifyinterventions needed in various localized areas; that is, promoters of conservationagriculture should avoid blanket recommendations. An environment of conducivepolices and their enforcement, incentives, inputs and subsidies, credit and loans,and marketing can all serve as a good driving force to ensure adoption and upscalingof conservation agriculture.All the problems mentioned here call for comprehensive measures that will tackleseveral issues together. Given that Karatu District is one of the most agriculturallyproductive and one of the most popular tourist destinations in Tanzania,environmental conservation should be given a higher priority. Environmentalconservation integrated with agricultural development activities will lead intosustainable land husbandry practices. New appropriate agricultural and naturalresource management technologies and practices together with indigenousknowledge for environmental conservation and agriculture improvements will breakthe vicious cycle of poverty and environment in many communities and create anavenue for sustainable rural sector development in different localities, such as indifferent farming systems, or agroecological zones.13 Recommendations• Currently many projects and institutions that have been working in agriculturaldevelopment, including in promoting conservation agriculture, have notattained full participation of stakeholders. Therefore, stakeholders in Karatushould be identified and coordinated towards a common focus in achievingthe set objectives of introducing conservation agriculture technologies andgaining their adoption, diffusion and scaling up. Collaboration should bemade possible with government bodies (agricultural research, district counciland village government), like-minded international and local organizations,small-scale farmer beneficiaries, local artisans and suppliers of inputs andimplements. Preferably the district agricultural office should be empowered tocoordinate all conservation agriculture activities in their area, with informationand experience-sharing forums. This should be mandatory, not optional.94 Ringo et al.