Integrating Vegetables Into Maize Based-Farming
Systems in Babati District, Tanzania
Victor Afari-Sefa, Inviolate Dominick, Philipo Joseph
(AVRDC), Danny Coyne (IITA), Ben Lukuyu,
Leonard Marwa (ILRI)
Africa RISING East and Southern Africa Review and Planning Meeting,
Malawi, 14-16 July 2015

Synopsis
 Introduction
 Achievements on technology development during the 2015-2016
production season
 Key technologies
Economic Cost-benefit analysis of introduced technologies
Environmental impact caused by use of technology
Target activities to mature the technology
Tools produced
Conclusion

WHY “Integration of vegetables into
maize/legume - based farming systems of
Babati
 To optimize productivity and diversifying household diets and
income through promotion of increased consumption of nutrient
dense vegetables
 Evaluate diverse options for sustainable intensification of
vegetables into crop and poultry enterprises and apply innovations
that sustainably increase output from the same land area, while
reducing negative environmental impacts.

Vegetable maize intercropping
HOW?

Vegetable maize Intercropping

Vegetable, maize, legume, rotation

Vegetable, maize, legume, rotation

WHAT are the Technology introduced?
1. Quality Seeds of Elite Varieties Year Introduced
Tomato (Tengeru 2010) 2013- 2015
Amaranths (Madiira 1) 2013-2015
African Egg plant (Tengeru white) 2013- 2015
Amaranths (Madiira 11) 2013 -2015
Tomato (Tanya) 2014-2015
Sweet pepper (Yolo wonder) 2014-2015
Ethiopian mustard (Rungwe) 2014-2015
Night shade (Nduruma 2014-2015

Technology cont….,
2. Healthy seedlings

3. Good Agricultural Practice (GAP)
Items Practices
1. Nursery establishment Use of good quality seeds, healthy seedlings, soil,
treatment , good management
2. Field and land Management
(cultural practices)
Timely planting base on cropping calendar, irrigation
3. Integrated Pest Management
(IPM)
(Physical, chemical and biological methods)
4. Crop production Follow recommended demo protocols
5. Crop protection Health seedlings, good quality seeds, fencing,
minimal pesticide application
6. Postharvest handling practices Maturity index, Proper harvest, sorting and grading,
packaging, storage and cooling, recipe preparation,
preparations for marketing
7. Records Keeping track of what is happening on the farm

GAP- Practices
• Manure
application
•IPM
•Mulching
• Proper spacing
• Stalking
• Irrigation

Use of empty water bottles for drip irrigation

Farmers use A. Marygold to control nematode

4. Vegetable –poultry integration
 Use of vegetable and vegetable residues as
poultry feed to reduce pre and post harvest loss
 Poultry droppings as manure in integrated
vegetable farming systems to enhance nutrient
recycling

Poultry–house preparation in progress

5. Mobile vegetable garden
Benefits
 Perfect solution for those with limited land
 Vegetables are easy to access for human consumption and
poultry feed
 Easy to manage
 Plants get good air circulation, decreased potential for fungal
diseases attack
 Keeps produce off the ground, preventing rotten on the
bottom or being chewed by mice or slugs
 Encourage more women to engage in vegetable production
and consumption

Mobile garden at Matufa village farmers home
Pigeon pea residues for fencing mobile
gardens and scavengers (poultry)

Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation
africa-rising.net
Profit margin variation btn treatments
(expressed in % of the base-FSFPs )
Treatment impact Tomato African Eggplant Amaranths
Effect of HS+GAPs 130.58 119.45 109.72
Effect of HS only 47.98 29.59 106.66
Diff* 82.60 89.86 3.05
* Effect of Good Agronomic Practices (GAPs) only
Our findings

Economic:Production Increase
 Production technologies involved the use of health seedlings and good agricultural practices
(researched against farmers seedlings farmer practices) in growing tomato, African eggplant
and Amaranth. The study shows that, tomato production increased by 49.87%, eggplant
production by 64.37% and Amaranths by 34.91% as follows
 Increased tomato production from 35.6 t/ha (FS-FPs) to 58.0 t/ha (HS-GAPs
 African eggplant production from 35.9 t/ha (FS-FPs) to 69.5 t/ha (HS-GAPs)
 Amaranth production from 51.5 t/ha (FS-FPs) to 72.2 t/ha (HS-GAPs)
 The average price for each crop at
the time of data collection in October
2014 was as shown
Crops Av. Price (TZS)/kg
Tomato 2,171.83
Amaranths 1,296.25
African eggplant 8,49.59

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Amaranths African eggplant Tomato
Totalquantityproducedint/ha
TOTAL QUANTITY PRODUCED IN T/HA
HS-GAPs
HS-FPs
FS-FPs
Quantity
consumed, quantity
given as gifts and
losses after harvest
are included in the
data, losses after
harvest(caused by
pest and diseases,
bird eaters) were
deducted

Economic:Undiscounted Benefit CostRatio(BCR)
 The undiscounted BCR was computed from the data collected whereby Tomato had
BCR of 7.7 for HS-GAPs, 6.0 for FS-FPs; African eggplant had BCR of 3.73 and
Amaranths had BCR of 2.43 each obtained from an area of 0.0012ha
 The BCR greater than 1 shows that adopting the use of health seedlings (HS)
developed from good quality elite seeds in combination with other GAPs make
vegetables a more profitable farming business though contribution of GAPs is more
evident by the profit margin variation between treatments as shown in the next
slide

Economic:Undiscounted Benefit CostRatio(BCR)
UNDISCOUNTED BCR
Treatments N Tomato BCR AEP BCR Amaranths BCR
HS-GAPs 16 7.7 5.2 3.2
HS-FPs 16 7.4 3.9 2.0
FS-FPs 16 6.0 3.8 1.7
Total 48 7.0 4.3 2.3
Diff* (HSGAPs-FSFPs) 1.7 1.4 1.5

Economic:cont....,
 In addition, the results show the possibility of the family to generate
for:
 Tomato: An average income of US$ 59.40 per 0.0012 ha per season
 African eggplant: An average income of US$ 21.03 per 0.0012 ha per
season
 Amaranths: An average income US$ 8.30 per 0.0012 ha per season

Environmental impact caused byuse of technology
Good quality seeds , Health seedling & GAP (+VE))
1. Incidence of pest and diseases reduction
2. Reduce amount of artificial fertilizer application & pesticide
3. Recycling – poultry droppings as manure , water bottles for irrigation and local containers,
mulch, crop residues for livestock feeds e.g. poultry )
4. Postharvest handling practices
Proper harvest, grading, cleaning, sorting, packaging and storage

Pest incidence on tomato
 TREATMENTS
 1. Healthy seedlings, GAP
 2. Healthy seedlings farmer practice
 3. Farmer seedlings, farmer practice

Pest incidence on tomato
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
1 2 3
Incidence
Treatment
Leaf minor
American boll worm
 TREATMENTS
 1. Healthy seedlings, GAP
 2. Healthy seedlings farmer practice
 3. Farmer seedlings, farmer practice

Target activities to mature the technology
Capacity building through:
Training of extension agents and farmer trainers
(Farming as a business, postharvest handling and
processing, pest management and pesticide use)
Practical training in demonstration plots stage by stage
crop-wise

Vegetable/maize/legume integration
Sensitization meetings in AR project sites
Facilitation and establishment of demonstration plots
categorized best practices (HS/GAP) and normal
practices
Joint field visit (feedback and improvement)
 Preparation of farmer friendly training materials
(pamphlets, brochures, posters)
Target activities cont…...,

Target activities cont…...,
Assess the costs and returns of each
promoted technology & data sharing
 Compare results of new technologies with
farmer standard practices
Graduation and provision of certificates
Scaling out technologies to neighboring
community and other areas/ villages

Target activities cont…,
At least 300 additional farmers become aware of and are
engaged in additional elite AVRDC vegetable variety
evaluation for adaptation in target communities
 Appropriate ICPM of vegetable pest and diseases
developed to realize the opportunity for vegetables
integrated into existing farming systems
 At least 2 community seedling units established within two
target project villages following initial mobilization, training
and set-up.

Target activities cont…,
 Market information and/linkages for farm households
to access vegetables markets established
 At least 1 best-bet technology for optimizing water
harvesting and/or water use efficiency for vegetables
identified for subsequent dissemination to beneficiary
farmers

Target activities cont…,
 At least 1 best-bet technology for enhanced optimal
nutrient recycling of vegetable-poultry integration in
the farming system conservation method for poultry
feed and poultry dropping as organic manure of the
project area identified and evaluated (in collaboration
with livestock and feed research theme).

Target activities to cont…,
 At least two M.Sc. studies on the (i) economic cost benefit
analysis of best-bet technological packages, (ii) vegetable poultry
integration, (iii) ICPM analysis and policy recommendations
completed.
 Effective technological dissemination approaches for increased
demand creation and promotion of selected elite vegetable
varieties and scaling-up for increased vegetable consumption
within maize-based cropping systems evaluated.

Tools produced
 Demonstration protocols for Tomato, A. Eggplant,
Amaranths, S. pepper, E. mustard and Nightshade
 Extension training materials and Farmer learning
materials (pamphlets, brochures, posters hand outs
with regard to GAP, postharvest handling
technologies, farming as a business, vegetable
preparation and consumption

Tools produced cont....,
 Vegetable crops integration production guide
 Quality Seeds of Elite Varieties & Health seedlings
 Demos as farmer schools
 Recipe preparation guide
 Monitoring and record keeping forms and farmer record
book in local languge

Tools produced cont....,
Vegetable - poultry integration
 One scientific report and poster on preliminary
survey produced
 Location and set up of poultry structure for manure
collection
 Trained Extension agent & Farmers to facilitate
technology adoption

Farmers using the guide during recipe preparation practical
training

Extensionagentare role
modelsintechnology
adoption

Conclusion
 Document good practice/technologies
 Data sharing
 Communicate research to stakeholders to make
technology work
 Gender integration
Come up with strategies/technology to increase more
female in project

END
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