Conservation agriculture Tanzania_casestudy.pdf - Sokoine ...

It has shown increase in yields, reduction in labour, benefits on gender issues andimproved livelihoods. It can ensure food and a harvest even in drought.However, labour for weeding was not greatly reduced when only soil cover wasused; those who used herbicides reduced weedings to two. Managing crop residuewas a major challenge because most pastoralists grazed on harvested farms.Challenges and gaps included low adoption of conservation agriculture, inability toafford inputs, unfavourable land-tenure systems, inadequate supply of implements,lack of follow-up and coordination, inadequate skills in conservation agriculture,enforcement of unfavourable village bylaws, labour migration, inadequate soilcover, insufficient weeding, and the need to diversify crops.Conservation agriculture is a promising technology but to make it sustainable, itmust be adopted faster and more widely. It is vital to involve farmers in developingit to create their sense of ownership.8 Maguzu et al.