Conservation agriculture Tanzania_casestudy.pdf - Sokoine ...

moisture, increasing soil organic matter, improving water infiltration, protecting soilstructure, and for providing fodder, fuel, handicrafts, thatching and fencing. Themost controversial use of residue is for livestock fodder during dry periods. Mostfarmers agreed that during the dry season, one has to balance between the soil andthe livestock, obviously giving livestock priority. However, farmers who conservesoil grow fodder along contours, and it can be used as feed.Maize stover and bean residue are usually slashed, stored on the homestead, andfed gradually to animals. The stover not eaten by the animals and the manure aretaken to the nearest farm, not necessarily the farm from which the residue wasremoved. Soil cover has had minimal impact on managing weeds because farmersfed it to animals. Farmers who were able to maintain soil cover saw soil moistureretained, soil organic matter increased and water infiltrated.Pastor Humphrey adopted conservation agriculture and planted fodder crops forhis cattle. In 2005, he ripped his two acres and planted maize intercropped withlablab. During this season he had to untangle the lablab from the maize. Afterharvesting the maize, he left the maize and lablab residue on the ground. Later inthe year he ripped in the same furrows and planted maize, but, due to the heavyrains, he was not able to plant lablab on time. The maize plants shaded the lablab.Therefore, to attain good soil cover from cover crops timing is still critical.Socio-economicsGenderWomen have requested land as they want to practie conservation agriculture. Inmost cases they have succeeded and are supported by men in getting oxen andin ripping. Women can borrow oxen during the dry season and because theimplements are lighter, they can prepare and rip land—formerly mainly a man’stask—well before the rains (Mwalley and Rockstrom 2002).With the growing urbanization in Arusha, young people still prefer to look for jobsin town, buying and selling merchandise, rather than staying home and farming.This limits labour during cropping season.Relationships between farmersEarly adopters were not well understood by the community, especially when preparingland. The community worked hard ploughing and cleaning land for sowing, whileconservation agriculture adopters either sprayed herbicides or slashed weeds to plantin unploughed land. The most controversial issue is controlling livestock grazing. AsThomas, an early conservation agriculture adopter, put it, ‘They did not understandus when we refused to give out the crop residue and left it on the fields and, at the sametime, refused to let animals come into the farms after harvest.’ This led to hostility.Neighbouring farmers grazed the farms at night. The conservation agriculture farmershad to guard their farms to maintain soil cover. Gradually, after Thomas managedArumeru District 35