Conservation agriculture Tanzania_casestudy.pdf - Sokoine ...

Three agricultural officers serve the 4595 households in the 12 villages ofWanging’ombe Ward, all based at the Wangin’gombe field centre. Mshewe Ward,with 2127 households in 8 villages, is served by four extension officers; three basedin specific villages and one in Mbalizi town. The extension officers respond to theofficial district directives in addition to addressing individual farmer requests andworking with external project interventions. They supervise farm conservationagriculture trials and link farmers with researchers and suppliers.Each village in Wanging’ombe Ward has a primary school. Two secondary schoolsin Ilembula and Wanging’ombe (within 8 km) are important in providing highereducation. Schools are sometimes used as trial sites for new technology.Wanging’ombe Village also has a dispensary, primary court and monthly livestockmarket, all important to the ward. The main shopping centre for Wanging’ombeDivision is Makambako town, 25 km to the east.All the Wanging’ombe Ward villages are connected by all-weather roads, which areless than 15 km away from the Tanzania Zambia (TANZAM) highway, connectingDar es Salaam with Lusaka. The railway (Utiga Station) also serves the ward. Allvillages enjoy mobile telephone connections and piped water within 400 m from eachhousehold. The electricity network is connected to Wanging’ombe village only.Mshewe Ward has a primary school for each village but no secondary school. Thenearest is in Mbalizi town, about 35 km away on a permanent gravel road. Majormarkets for the crop and livestock products are outside the village, so farmers haveto use these roads. Mbalizi town is also the most important centre for the ward; it isthe main shopping centre. It has a health centre and several private pharmacies andhas the main market for crops and livestock. A monthly livestock market at Mjele,20 km north of Mshewe, attracts many businesses from outside the district andcaters for many needs, including animal-drawn implements and hand tools. TheTANZAM highway and a railway station of the Tanzania Zambia railway servesMbalizi town. Electricity and telephone services are also available.5 Agricultural enterprisesThe livelihood of the people in Wanging’ombe and Mshewe Wards dependsalmost entirely on crop and livestock production. Over 95% of the labour forceis self-employed in agriculture. These farmers eke out a living by using their land,knowledge in selecting crops and livestock, and innovative coping strategies. Theaffordability of a newly introduced technology or its profitable use depends onthese assets.CropsThe major crops grown in Wanging’ombe Ward are maize, sunflower, cowpea,beans, groundnut, bambara nut, cassava, finger millet, sweetpotato, popcorn andvegetables. All crops are grown for food and cash, except sunflower and popcorn,which are solely for cash.Mbeya District 117