Conservation agriculture Tanzania_casestudy.pdf - Sokoine ...

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conservation agriculture technology was based on animal traction, requiring goodand confident draught animal handlers—youths; wealthy female household headswere not among them. Their participation was limited to buying draught-animalimplements, mainly rippers and ox cultivators, since they expected their sons orneighbouring youths to operate them.Land tenure system and adopting conservation agricultureAmost 70% of the land is owned, through inheritance or purchase, by the concernedfarmers; the remaining 30% is rented. Around Njelenje village, land rent variedfrom TZS 15,000/ha in the lowlands to TZS 30,000/ha in the highlands. Thestudy found that farmers were hesitant to plant beans or cover crops in rentedplots. Planting beans risked the owner revoking the rent contract to benefit from theresidual nutrients. If they planted beans, they strove to rent it the following seasonto plant maize, if the owner did not revoke the contract. Dry weather, low soilfertility and family land ownership drove farmers to adopt conservation agriculture.Therefore, conservation agriculture encouraged land ownership.Entry points and pathwaysFrequent drought offered a challenge for conservation agriculture in Wanging’ombeWard. Most land, over 80%, was ploughed by oxen, presenting an opportunity tointroduce animal-drawn water-harvesting rippers and subsoilers. Presently, morethan 200 households are involved in conservation agriculture in the study area.Most belong to farmer field schools, which build household and group capacity.They attempt to empower farmers to demand, adopt and scale up conservationagriculture and disseminate it.Government policies affecting conservation agricultureThe government started promoting conservation agriculture through interventions,including two villages by NAEP/SOFRAIP, 12 villages under the Soil FertilityInitiative (2001–2003) and nine villages under the Technical Cooperation Project(2004–2006) (table 4).Government regulations also influenced conservation agriculture. Free and liberalizedsupply and produce markets have resulted in more expensive chemical fertilizers andother supplies. At the same time, tractors and animal-drawn implements are tax exempt,making them more affordable. At this early stage, it is difficult to determine what impact,if any, government policies have had on conservation agriculture.Conservation agriculture equipment was expensive for the poor and very poorhouseholds. Although loans for equipment were available, some poor farmers wereafraid they might not be able to repay them. Poor farmers were not likely to buyequipment on credit without high government financial support to groups. In thiscase, government policies negatively affected conservation agriculture adoption.Also, when the government has no control over agricultural product prices andthey are lower than supply prices, the adoption of conservation agriculture will benegative. The income expected from crops grown using conservation agricultureequipment will be insufficient to pay off the equipment.136 Mkomwa et al.
10 Gaps and challengesDespite the several benefits, conservation agriculture practices in the study area stillface challenges, which include policies, knowledge and affordability.Skills gapConservation agriculture was new to most extension staff, farmers, researchers andprivate agribusiness. As most service providers had inadequate knowledge and skillsrelated to it, they needed training. Furthermore, conservation agriculture projectsneed to be linked with their results to build an institutional and technical memoryof Mbeya.AffordabilityFarmers who used conservation agriculture equipment with research and extensionappreciate and liked the benefits. However, few were able to afford the direct seedersand rippers, let alone the herbicides that demanded frequent cash outlays.Technology spontaneously adopted by farmersFarmer Michael Mwatukambo of Njelenje village decided to plant a traditionalsorghum, which is very tall and has high biomass but low grain yield, to generatemore biomass on his badly degraded fi eld. The sorghum, intercropped withmucuna, produced a high volume of slowly decomposing biomass, which coveredthe soil for the whole year.Farmers in Mshewe Ward individually tested different indigenous lablab andmucuna to determine establishment, grain yield and insect tolerance. Mucunaseed stockpiles induced a farmer in Njelenje village to experiment with using itas an additive to dairy concentrate. He said he realized a 30% increase in milkand attributed this to mucuna.Land tenureScarce land holdings coupled with inadequate entitlement caused few farmers toallocate fields for cover crops and maintain the biomass over a long time to improvesoil fertility.Low awareness of benefitsLow awareness of conservation agriculture benefits delayed adoption and investment.Information and knowledge flow and local networking need to be improved.Institutional challengeLocal implement manufacturers appear to be more responsive to farmers andfacilitate product development. Local manufacturing needs support. User groupsneed help to purchase conservation agriculture equipment.Mbeya District 137
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ContentsPreface ...................
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Full conservation agriculture, howe
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February 2005, which made possible
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Table B. Key characteristics of cas
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Overemphasis on field-scale, techni
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Arumeru DistrictCatherine W. Maguzu
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8 Gaps and challenges .............
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Executive summaryA case study of co
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It has shown increase in yields, re
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The case study teamThe local team w
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NgorongoroKageraMaraMonduliArumeruM
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MarketsThe urban centres are Kikati
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middle-aged, who migrate to towns t
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4 Conservation agriculture historyI
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maize, pigeon pea, and lablab seeds
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herbicide was completely abandoned
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Most of the implements, except the
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6 Adapting and diffusing conservati
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villages with eight farmers (Mwalle
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ecognition and enforcement of the b
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Table 3. Labour for conservation ag
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Timeliness in irrigating a farm is
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to rehabilitate his land by constru
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Land tenureSmall-scale farmers will
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and handling herbicides should be d
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Appendix 1Conservation agriculture
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Organization Activities Methods to
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Appendix 3Lablab and mucuna seed di
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Karatu DistrictDominick E. Ringo, C
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10 Benefi ts and effects of conserv
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Karatu acknowledgementsWe are very
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Forces driving for adoption of cons
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Despite the soundness of conservati
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NgorongoroKageraMaraMonduliArumeruM
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TemperatureTemperature decreases wi
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Most of the surface and underground
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crop does not store well. But when
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used to attend to AIDS sufferers an
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Erosion is now considered responsib
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Traditional methods of soil conserv
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Tanzania Association of ForestersAc
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Tanganyika Farmers AssociationAchie
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History of conservation agriculture
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what is feasible is to intercrop, w
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to connect experiences from differe
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mainly cover crop practices were ad
Page 110 and 111: Alfred’s neighbour Cornel has bee
Page 112 and 113: study tours, organizing farmer fiel
Page 114 and 115: Socio-economic and process aspectsW
Page 116 and 117: abreast of information. Information
Page 118 and 119: availability of agriculture credit,
Page 120 and 121: package being introduced should con
Page 122 and 123: of a planning workshop on conservat
Page 124 and 125: Organiza tionRIDEP (1980-1984)Natio
Page 126 and 127: Organiza tionMazingira BoraKaratu (
Page 128 and 129: Appendix 3 Estates in Karatu Distri
Page 131 and 132: ContentsAbbreviations .............
Page 133 and 134: AbbreviationsARIAgricultural Resear
Page 135 and 136: 1 IntroductionOver 80% of the peopl
Page 137 and 138: 3 MethodMbeya was selected as a cas
Page 139 and 140: Table 1. Agricultural characteristi
Page 141 and 142: Three agricultural officers serve t
Page 143 and 144: egin until the first rains. Maize y
Page 145 and 146: Table 4. Conservation agriculture r
Page 147 and 148: slasher, machete and billhook (nyen
Page 149 and 150: Farmers were advised to slash the c
Page 151 and 152: technical support. Trial treatments
Page 153 and 154: In the latest FARM Africa project,
Page 155 and 156: Crop yieldsNineteen farmers in Wang
Page 157 and 158: Changes in costs and incomeThe aver
Page 159: • Farmers proposed that to improv
Page 163 and 164: 12 Recommendations• While some be
Page 165 and 166: Appendix 1 Selected farmer profiles
Page 167 and 168: No. Farmer name M/F Age(yrs)Fam ily
Page 169 and 170: Appendix 3Intervention detailsIniti
Page 171 and 172: Conservation agriculture technology
Page 173 and 174: Land degradation due to soil erosio
Page 175 and 176: Banana crop with mucuna as a cover
Page 177 and 178: Types of soil cover: lablab plus ma
Page 179 and 180: The pigeon pea crop has been left o
Page 181 and 182: Demonstrating conservation agricult
Page 183: Transferring crop residue for lives
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