Conservation agriculture Tanzania_casestudy.pdf - Sokoine ...

The group at the Manyire Farmer Field School harvested a good crop in 2005.The landowner has been observing the conservation agriculture practices beingcarried out on the plot he has rented to the school. He has seen the differencebetween those crops and the crops on his farm. Now he is reluctant to rent tothe farm school the next season. According to Nill et al. (1996), the traditionalheritage system favours extensive land fragmentation, which obstructs adoptingconservation practices. Land owned by the parent is divided among the children,especially the male children, affecting long-term conservation practices. The headof the household decides how to manage the two acres and who lives on it.However, a few farmers do practise conservation agriculture on rented farms. HildaChondo ripped her rented land a second time in two seasons, while Pastor Humphreyadded acreage by renting and planting two more acres under a pure lablab stand.Economic benefitsIn Manyire, lablab was initially shunned. It was a new crop and farmers did not valueit. However, after one year, the whole village sought lablab seeds for the 2005sowing season. Lablab was profi table. It increased incomes. Farmers who plantedlablab in 2003 fetched up to TZS 100,000 per bag. In 2005, lablab was plantedin abundance. Nelson Martin, a pastor in Manyire Village, said, ‘I planted 10 kg oflablab as a cover crop with maize. I harvested 300 kg and all was sold. I got TZS300,000 and used it to fi nish building the family house.’ In 2006, he planted 13more acres of lablab. Other farmers were expecting to reap similar benefi ts.8 Gaps and challengesLow adoptionConservation agriculture was mainly promoted through a few farmers in selectedvillages, principally as minimum tillage. Most projects lacked continuity and werephased out without sustainable strategies. Conservation agriculture is mainlypractised where conservation agriculture organizations had projects in place.Instead of the practices spreading to other areas, they are done on a minimal scale.Projects and organizations preferred to use similar sites, leading to duplicatingtechniques on an area with little spreading to other parts of the district.AffordabilitySome farmers see the initial cost of practising conservation agriculture—newimplements, cover crop seed and herbicides—as expensive, despite the benefits.Conservation agriculture increased demand for animal power. Those withoutdraught animals will have to rent or acquire them. They are a main source of powerfor most of the implements. Poverty is exacerbated by diseases, such as malaria andHIV and AIDS, which render able people helpless and cost them their meagreresources to try to sustain their health.Arumeru District 37