cases from tanzania - Sustainet

3 Cases from Tanzania
Receiving mentality Karagwe District borders Rwanda and is close to Burundi. Refugees
from these two countries flooded into the area in the mid-1990s, and many NGOs and government
services provided services for free. Local people got used to getting free food and
services such as training. Participants were sometimes even paid allowances to attend training.
They came to feel entitled to such services without any contribution from their side. Times
have now changed, but this mentality has not. It continues to hamper people’s willingness
to become active and to use the opportunities open to them.
Organic pest and disease management Many farmers find it difficult to imagine managing
pests without applying chemicals. That is especially true for tomatoes (against fungus and
blight diseases), coffee (berry disease) and sweet bananas (Panama disease). Organic farming
avoids artificial chemicals, using instead biological measures, the use of resistant varieties,
diversified cropping, intercropping and companion planting. Nevertheless, farmers fear they
will lose a major part of their harvest if they stop using pesticides.
scaling up
CHEMA has undertaken various measures to scale up its organic farming work in Rulenge
diocese:
• It expanded its training from the initial 110 farmers in two wards to over 1000 farmers
in the three districts.
• After the export market link was established, CHEMA encouraged farmers to produce
more pineapples and diversify to other fruits such as papayas and sweet bananas, which
could be processed to fetch a better price.
• CHEMA is in the process of establishing a training centre where farmers and extension
staff will be trained in natural resources management and sustainable agriculture.
• It has acquired communication equipment: computers and an internet connection.
• Before starting work in a new village, CHEMA involves the village administration in
identifying local needs and priorities.
• CHEMA encourages the enforcement of existing by-laws on the use of natural resources,
including discouraging uncontrolled bush fires.
To overcome the various challenges, CHEMA needs to:
• Establish an internal inspection unit for organically produced crops to support and
encourage farmers to practise organic farming.
• Support the establishment and strengthening of local institutions that will be able to
complement its village-level training efforts.
• Provide training for CHEMA’s own staff in marketing so they can help farmers to exploit
market opportunities.
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More information: CHEMA, chema@satconet.net
The work of Community Habitat Environmental Management is supported by Misereor.
www.misereor.org