Conservation agriculture Tanzania_casestudy.pdf - Sokoine ...

Crop yieldsNineteen farmers in Wanging’ombe village were introduced to ripping andimproved soil cover with mucuna in 2001. Five doubled maize yield and increasedsunflower production 360%, compared with conventional mouldboard ploughing(table 6). However, the variables were not only tilling technique and cover crop butalso commercial fertilizers. The other 14 farmers did not get similar yields becausethey could not afford these fertilizers.Farmers in Mayale village reported that crops and yields were more stable sinceadopting conservation agriculture technology. They were able to harvest a maizecrop from ripped plots in 2001 when rainfall was merely 560 mm and savedsubstantial labour, 67.2% (table 7). Ripping captured rainwater, along with localstorage. Cover crops, especially mucuna, provided mulch to hold moisture andincrease crop stability against drought.Table 6. Mean maize and sunfl ower yields using ripping and mucuna inWanging’ombe and Mshewe Wards aWard Crop yield Conventionalcultivation bYield (kg/ha)Conservationagriculture cIncrease(%)Wanging’ombe maize 1125 2250 100sunfl ower 750 2700 360Mshewe maize 1500 2900 93sunfl ower 625 1500 140Source: Field dataaMeans of 5 farmer fi eld school members in Wanging’ombe and 8 in MshewebPlanting behind the plough at the start of the rains followed by two hand hoe weedingscOpening planting furrows with ox-drawn ripper on unploughed fi elds before or at onset of rains,hand planting seeds, two weedings with ox cultivatorTable 7. Mean maize yield on farmer trial plots at Mayale in 2001 (7 farmers)TreatmentField capacity(ha/hr) aLabour(workdays/ha) bMaize grain yield(kg/ha)Ox ripper 0.0719 a 31.6 b 1344 aOx ripper planter 0.0721 a 29.6 b 1059 bOx tied ridges 0.0194 b 102.6 a 1021 bOx plough 0.0211 b 96.2 a 1066 bGrand mean 0.0461 65.0 1122Variation (%) 29 11 22Source: Mkomwa 2002ahectares worked in one hour by the ox team, two operators and a pair of oxenBlabour for planting, opening a furrow, placing seed, fertilizer and covering seedMore labour would be saved if the full ripper and planter attachment were used.It is possible for one person to open up the soil and plant seeds. The ripper planter,TZS 190,000, was not the choice of farmers because it was more expensive than theripper, TZS 120,000, and seed metering, with ungraded farmer seeds, was uneven.Mbeya District 131