Conservation agriculture Tanzania_casestudy.pdf - Sokoine ...

Overemphasis on field-scale, technical issues?Many projects and teams tend to focus on technical issues such as tillage, covercrops, weed control and implements at the field scale. This focus often implies lessattention is given to non-technical issues, for example rural finance, marketing andvalue chain development, organizational or policy issues.Farmer groupsThe role of government institutions and publicly funded projects is essential. Casestudies in northern Tanzania and Kenya emphasize participatory approaches, inparticular farmer field schools. Early indications are that these field schools area cost-effective way of participatory training. Groups of 10–30 farmers engagein collective and individual experimentation and learn conservation agricultureprinciples and practices. Beyond the issue of groups, projects and institutions canpotentially develop more participatory and responsive approaches, with farmersmore clearly in control.Indigenous knowledge and innovative technologyIndigenous knowledge compatible with the principles of conservation agriculture iswidespread across case study sites. Such is the case for the ‘proka’ slash-and-mulchsystem in Ghana, and for the farmers who are knowledgeable about the benefits ofcereal–legume intercrops.Ongoing projects tend to undervalue indigenous knowledge. One reason may bethat conservation agriculture champions are keen to transfer external knowledgeand innovative technology packages as a means of replicating the success stories thatevolved in southern Brazil over a period of decades. Another reason is the tendencyto perceive more the negatives of local traditions and farmer practices, such asgrazing rules, without trying to understand the reasons for them. Tapping intoindigenous knowledge and farmer innovation combined with imported innovativetechnology could well prove important in the long run.♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦This booklet now focuses on the situation of conservation agriculture in Arumeru,Karatu and Mbeya districts, Tanzania. It illustrates precisely some of the successes,and some of the challenges, that farmers and conservation agriculture projects alikeface in their efforts to understand and implement conservation agriculture.ReferencesBaudron F, Mwanza HM, Triomphe B, Bwalya M, Gumbo D. 2005. Challenges for theadoption of conservation agriculture by smallholders in semi-arid Zambia. Proceedings,Third World Congress on Conservation Agriculture, Nairobi, Kenya, 3–7 October 2005. CD availablethrough ACT.Biamah E, Rockström J, Okwach GE. 2000. Conservation tillage for dryland farming: technologicaloptions and experiences in eastern and southern Africa. Nairobi: RELMA. 151 p.Boahen P, Addo Dartey B, Delali Dogbe G, Asare Boadi E, Triomphe B, Ashburner J,Damgaard-Larsen S. 2005. Experiences with the development and diffusion of conservationagriculture in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions of Ghana. Proceedings, Third World Congresson Conservation Agriculture, Nairobi, Kenya, 3–7 October 2005. CD available through ACT.Conservation agriculture as practised in Tanzaniaxvii