Conservation agriculture Tanzania_casestudy.pdf - Sokoine ...

12 Recommendations• While some benefit of conservation agriculture can be obtained in one totwo years, full realization requires four to five years. Interventions needto have adequate time to support farmers until a critical massof adopters has been attained. Sustainability should be built in allconservation agriculture projects to ensure continuity after the official endof the project. From the beginning, the project should seek local NGOand district government involvement and commitment to continue projectservices after the project ends.• The knowledge and culture of managing information in districtsneeds to be cultivated to identify strong or weak conservation agriculturetechniques and exchange information among all conservation agricultureparticipants.• Farmers, extension workers, agricultural NGOs and manufacturers canbenefit from additional knowledge and training in conservationagriculture to spread the knowledge beyond researchers.• Conservation agriculture benefits should be promoted to more policymakers,service providers and beneficiaries, possibly through field days, fielddemonstrations, workshops and radio and television advertisements. Clearand simple messages on conservation agriculture need to bedeveloped to train and support extension officers and farmers.• Farmers need help in acquiring relatively high-cost implementsand supplies for conservation agriculture to accelerate adoption. Providingcredit to farmer groups using group peer pressure as collateral, subsidies forwomen groups and empowering savings and credit cooperative societies toprovide credit to members are some recommended alternatives.• Awareness campaigns or passing bylaws to prevent free-rangegrazing and bush fires, to maintain soil cover, should be done by divisionsand should involve as many stakeholders as possible.Mbeya District 139