A presentation made at the WCCA 2011 event in Brisbane, Australia.

1. Mariki W L1, Marietha Z O1, Kassam A2, Kienzle J2,
Friedrich T2
1 FAO CA SARD Project, SARI, P. O. BOX 6024, Arusha,
Tanzania
Corresponding author: wlmariki@yahoo.com
2 Agriculture Department, FAO, Rome, Italy

2. INTRODUCTION
 Agriculture in the economy of Tanzania accounts
for 60% of the export earnings and 84%
employment of the rural population.
 It provides food crops, at 55% of the total
agricultural GDP, livestock at 30%, and
traditional export crops at 8%
 In Karatu district, crop and livestock production
are by far the most important economic sectors
employing over 90% of the labour force

3.  However, it is a common practice for farmers in
Tanzania to graze or remove all crop residues
from their fields after harvest.
 It is followed by conventional tillage for land
preparation using hand hoe, oxen or tractor plow.
 This practice leaves the soil bare and susceptible
to water and wind erosion, leaving unfertile and
degraded soil which results to poor crop
production.

4. Degraded soils resulting from conventional
tillage in Arusha Tanzania.
Conventional oxen plowing
Soil erosion
Degraded Soils (Left with
poor soil and huge gulleys)
Poor crop production

5. Intervention & approach used
 In view of the above problems, in 2004 CA
SARD (Conservation Agriculture - Sustainable
Agriculture and Rural Development) project
intervened in the Rhotia village in Karatu
district.
Karatu district is one of the five districts in the
Arusha Region, located in the northern part of
Tanzania with 102,573 ha of arable land.
 The administrative headquarters is in Karatu
town, approximately 150 km west of Arusha
town.

6. Fig 1: Case study site Karatu district
in Arusha Region in Tanzania

7. Intervention cont……..
 Farmers in Farmer Field Schools (FFS) were
taught about Conservation Agriculture (CA) as a
sustainable way of growing crops and managing
soil health that conserves the soil and maintains
or enhances soil fertility and productive capacity.
CA comprises three principles applied
simultaneously, namely:
 Minimum mechanical soil disturbance,
 Permanent soil organic matter cover,
 Rotation/crop association /diversification

8. Participatory.FFS farmers learning in CA

9. Methodology
 The 1st phase (2004-2006) of the project covered
three districts -- Arumeru, Karatu and Bukoba.
The dissemination approach was based on
Farmer Field Schools (FFS).
 In the 2nd phase (2007-2010), the project
continued with up-scaling of CA as a Sustainable
Land Management tool with CA-FFS groups.
 The project extended to Babati, Hanang, Moshi
districts and Meru council in Arumeru district.

10. Methodology cont.....
 The project provided training on CA concepts
and FFS methodology to extension workers who
became facilitators of the FFS groups.
 Training was also provided to farmers on how to
apply CA practices which included the use and
maintenance of CA implements, running FFS
groups etc.

11. Methodology cont.....
 The FFS groups were assisted with the start up
CA equipment which included sub-soilers,
rippers, jab planters, Direct Animal Planter
(DAP), zam-wipes etc.
 During the first season FFS groups received
10 kg of maize seed, 8 kg of Dolichoas lablab
seed, 1 litre bottle of glyphosate herbicide, and
stationery (note books, pens, pencils, erasers,
flip charts and maker pens).

12. Methodology cont.....
Oxen ripper Oxen direct planter
Oxen sub-soiler
Maize and lablab Maize crop matures Maize crop is harvested
cover crop
Residue management Lablab cover crop 100 % lablab cover
Re- start by ripping/rollerchopping/slashing/herbicide followed by
seeding maize and cover crop

13. Methodology cont...
 To facilitate the promotion process the project
enhanced the supply and availability of CA
equipment to FFS groups, by stimulating private
sector participation in the manufacturing,
retailing and hiring of appropriate equipment
including jab planters, rippers, sub-soilers, DAP
and zam wipes.
 Each group tested various CA options depending
on their priority problems. Mwangaza B FFS
tested five practices, namely:

14. Farmers CA Technologies tested
 Ripped plot, planted with maize intercropped
with lablab
 Ripped plot, planted with maize intercropped
with pigeon pea
 Non ripping plot, planted with maize
intercropped with lablab
 Non ripping plot, planted with maize
intercropped with pigeon pea
 Farmer’s normal practice; ploughing twice, then
planting maize intercropped with pigeon pea,
beans and pumpkins
 Each plot was 0.2 ha in size.

15. Results and discussions
 31 FFS groups comprised 765 farmers were
formed. Together with some spontaneous FFS
founded by farmers themselves the total number
reached 44 FFS at the end of the 1st phase.
 During the 2nd phase, 85 new FFS were
established, making a total of 129 FFS.
 By 2009, the project reached more than 3,600
farmers .

16. Results and discussions cont...
 For the case of Mwangaza FFS, the most
preferred option was: ripped plot direct seeded
with maize and intercropped with Dolichos
lablab.
 It gave the highest maize yields, conserved
moisture, and controlled soil erosion.
 The 2nd most preferred option was: ripped plot
planted with maize intercropped with pigeon-
pea which also gave high maize yield, controlled
erosion, high litters from dropping leaves,
improved soil fertility.

17. Results and discussions cont ...
 The 3rd most preferred option was: non-ripped plot,
planted with maize intercropped with Dolichos.
 The farmer practice was the least preferred option due to
its low yields, high cost and time of managing the crop.
 Control of insects in Dolichos and pigeonpea was done
through the use of mixture of different herbs prepared
by farmers themselves. Due to good management of soil,
currently farmers of Mwangaza B are no longer using
inorganic fertilizers. This has been replaced by the use of
Dolichos and/ or pigeon pea which fixes significant
amount of nitrogen (200 kg N per ha).

18. Results and discussions cont ...
 Weeds were well managed by ensuring that the soil is
continuously covered by crop residues and/or cover
crops as well as slashing and /or hand pulling of the
weeds; no herbicide is used.
 Dolichos as cover crop softened the soil and changed it
into darkish colour due to increase in soil organic
matter.
 Good water infiltration, increase in earthworm
population, reduction in evaporation and soil fertility
improvement were observed. Farmers also reported
that pigeonpea successfully breaks soil hard pans.

19. Results and discussions cont ...
 Table 1 and Figure 2 indicate that maize yields under
CA increased from 2.05 t/ha in 2004 and 7.22t/ha in
2006 to 14.0 t/ha in 2009.
 Farmers experienced reduction in labour by 40% and
time requirement in farm operations by 50% after one
season of CA.
This was brought about by reducing number of
operations during land preparation (using rippers),
planting (using direct planters), weeding (using cover
crop + roughing ) etc. Table 2: shows reduction of
labour and time for farm operations in Mwangaza B
Marera sub-village.

20. Results and discussions cont ...
 CA technologies have been adopted on
7,000 acre (2,857 ha) in the northern
zone of which 600 acres are within and
outside Rhotia village in Karatu district.
 The adopted practices include pigeonpea,
90% of adopters, Dolichos 30%, ripping
30%, crop rotation 60% (CA SARD,
2009).

21. Conclusion and recommendation
 CA as practised by Mwangaza B FFS and other
farmers in Tanzania indicates positive elements
that can help reduce the problems of drought,
low soil fertility, poor yields and labour, resulting
into higher yields, income and improved
livelihood.
 Partners are encouraged to join hands with CA
SARD project to promote CA.
 This would make a major contribution towards
combating climate change, and fighting
hunger and poverty, hence reaching the
Millennium Goal of halving hunger by 2015.

22. Fig 2 Yield trends in Mwangaza B CAFFS
Average maize yield in T/ha
16
14
12
10
8
6 Average T/ha
4
2
0
2004 2006 2009

23. Operation/acre Conventional tillage Conservation Agriculture
Time Labour Time Labour
Land 8 hours 4 persons 3 hours 2 persons
preparation
Seeding using 7 hours 6 persons 2 hours 2 persons
DAP Weeding 2 days @ 9 4 persons 1 day @ 8 2 persons
hrs hrs

24. THANKS FOR
LISTENING
THE END “MWISHO”