UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Government

Name of Ministry/Agency:	Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and

Country:	United Republic of Tanzania

Name of Focal Point:	Josef Kienzle, FAO-Rome, Email: Josef.Kienzle@fao.org; Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives,

Initiative Title:	Conservation Agriculture for sustainable crop production, Tanzania

Internet links:	http://\\faoext06\FTP_Waicent\SD\SDA\SDAR\sard\English GP\EN GP Africa\CA_Tanzania.pdf FAO Conservation Agriculture website http://www.fao.org/ag/ca Africa Conservation Tillage Network http://www.act.org.zw/

Scope:	National:

Status:	Ongoing

Timeframe:	Start: 2004 End:

Lead Institution:	Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Tanzania

Stakeholders/Partners:	FAO Tanzania

Relevent issues:	- Soil fertility improvement practices - Strategies for effective resource management

Objectives/Challenges:

Conservation tillage, zero or minimum tillage, is one of the practices that has proved to combat soil degradation efficiently. While millions of hectares of farm land are already under zero tillage in Latin America, in Africa conservation tillage is restricted mainly to larger estates. There are, however, enough examples demonstrating that conservation tillage can be practiced successfully by small holder farmers too. Yet much work is needed to demonstrate that the technology works in order to change the mindset of farmers who for many years were taught or learned from their parents that it is necessary to plough and maintain a weed free field for better crop production.

Lessons Learned:

The advantages of reduced and minimum tillage against conventional mechanical tillage practices are:
• Saving farm power and labour requirements due to the elimination of ploughing and the reduction of weeding efforts;
• Increased infiltration of rain and surface water, enhanced retention of soil moisture and resilience to the effects of drought. Stream flows show better regularity and improved quality;
• Increased crop yields but lower production costs, mainly due to reduced labour inputs. This time saving often allows diversification into other agricultural production or rural income-generating activities;
• Downstream benefits to the rural community such as reduced municipal water treatment costs and reduced damage to infrastructure due to runoff (for example roads, bridges).
Impacts on livelihood of the practice users;
The weather in the 2006 season was not good for crop production and most PFG plots suffered moisture stress. This was also reflected on the amount of harvest from the CA plots for the main crop (maize) and cover crop seed production. In Mvomero District, maize harvests for all groups from the CA plot were 58,444 kg, compared to 38,588 kg realised from the farmer practice plots. In villages where the rains were better the harvest from the CA
plots was also higher.
In Kilosa District, maize harvests for all groups from the CA plot were 21,691 kg, compared to 18,110 kg realised from the farmer practice plots. Cover crops harvested include also hyacinth bean (Dolichos lablab) 4,608 kg and pigeon peas (Cajanus cajan) 615 kg.
General success factors;
• Successful introduction of the CA concept to the selected villages. These include understanding the concept, associated implements and possible crop rotations for pests and disease control
• Interests of local manufacturers to produce direct seeding equipment and sell them to the farmers
• Willingness of district/local government authorities to introduce CA as an important approach to reverse land degradation. This requires a change in mindset on the part of the farmers, who have used conventional tillage as the correct approach in crop production for many years
• Links have been strengthened with local research institutions on suitable cover crops and proper crop rotation recommendations for adoption by the farmers
Technology success factors;
Increase farm production and/or stabilizes it
No adverse environment effects, preventing erosion and improving soil fertility
Institutional success factors;
Farmer’s capacity for adoption of the technology
Institutional support and outreach
Problems remaining to be resolved;
The following problems have not been resolved yet:
• Lack of adequate funding to reach more farmers
• Direct seeding implements are not readily available locally
• Inadequate awareness-creation campaigns among all stakeholders
• Poor integration of crop and livestock whereby some conflicts between pastoralists and farmers have been experienced

Policy Options:

Conservation agriculture is a concept aimed at enhancing agricultural production on a sustainable and environmentally friendly basis. The practices are as follows:
• No soil inversion and reduction or total elimination of mechanical soil disturbance;
• Maintenance of a complete soil cover consisting of crops and/or crop residues;
• Crop rotations.
The project started with sensitization of district authorities and farmers to create awareness on the CA initiative. A total of 30 Participatory Farmer Groups (PFG) of 25 individuals, ten in each district, were organized on the basis of common interests and similar constraints and were encouraged to work together. Each participating farmer was asked to set aside an area equivalent to 0.4 ha as a management training plot. The area was divided into two equal parts (of 0.2 ha each). One part was to be used for conservation agriculture practices. These include high yielding varieties of maize crop, basal and top dressing fertilizer as a soil fertility improvement measure prior to establishment of cover crops and cover crop seeds. In the other part the farmers are allowed to use the type of seeds and inputs that they normally use.
Farmers were trained on the use of the hand jab planters and direct seeders to reduce labour requirements for various agricultural operations. Training of farmers was conducted by trained Village Extension Officers.
The products from the CA plot belong to the farmers but it is anticipated that part of the produce will be kept as savings in their Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO).

Summary:

This project was based in Tanzania, in the districts of Morogoro, Kilosa and Mbeya.
This area is part of a sub-humid climatic zone.
Practice category: Managing natural resources sustainably.
Practice type: Technology for natural resource management, Technology for improving farm productivity sustainably.
Sector: Crop production system management.
The beneficiaries of the practice are smallholder farm families and their communities, equipment manufacturers, distributors and suppliers who benefit from the market opportunity generated by the project.
The users of the practice are ten groups of 25 farmers in each of the 3 districts for a total of 750 farmers.
Natural resource used or accessed: Land, vegetative soil cover crops and rainfall/water

Land degradation is a growing problem in Tanzania because of increased human activity and land demand as a result of the growing population. Deforestation, over-grazing and inappropriate tillage practices are contributing heavily to land degradation. It has been observed that the rate of soil losses in some parts of the country have increased from 1.4 tons/ha/year in 1960 to 224 tons/ha/year in 1980 (MTNRE, 1994). With the increased population pressure, the fallow periods, which were commonly practiced, have become shorter for the soils to recover, perpetuating the “soil mining” of nutrients. The replenishment of nutrients is low because of inadequate application of manure and inorganic fertilizers. This leads to a further decline in soil fertility, which is manifested in declined crop yields.
Conventional tillage, which is most commonly practiced in the country, involves the use of hand hoes, ox drawn mouldboard ploughs, tractor drawn disc ploughs and harrows combined with straw collection and burning during land preparation. During the operation the soils are cut, inverted and pulverized burying most of the residues underneath. The practice frequently causes soil compaction, affects soil physical properties, provokes biological degradation and results in declined crop yields. With fine dust on the surface and compaction below, a lot of soil is washed away with the first rains. Soil losses of up to 30 tons/ha have been reported in Kilimanjaro region in conventional flat cultivated fields at a slope of 5% (Kaihura et al., 1998).
The costs for land preparation are increasing every year due to the rising costs of fuel and tractors spare parts while the labour supply is diminishing due to the spread of the HIV/AIDS and increasing urbanization in the region.

The pilot project, Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (CA SARD) was implemented by FAO and lasted for two years from 2004 - 2006. After the end of the pilot phase, the Government of Tanzania has been supporting the project activities using a similar approach and has made initiatives to introduce CA to 10 new districts in the country.

The pilot project was financed by FAO, the second phase is supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives.