Conservation agriculture in Babati District, Tanzania : impacts of conservation agriculture for small-scale farmers and methods for increasing soil fertility

Abstract: People mainly rely on the agricultural sector in the poorest countries of the world. An increased agricultural production can therefore have a great impact on individuals as well as on whole communities in many countries. A majority of the Tanzanians live in rural areas and rely on the agricultural sector. Today the agricultural production in Tanzania is rather low and Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a concept that is promoted as a way forward for small-scale farmers in Tanzania. This study that was carried out in Babati District, Tanzania and was one out of several studies that were conducted on CA in Africa before the "Third World Congress on Conservation Agriculture". The aim of the studies was to improve the understanding and documentation of past and current CA experiences in Africa. This study aims to describe the CA-related practises that have been introduced in Babati District and why they had been introduced. It also aims to describe the reasons why farmers choose to adopt or not adopt CA practice in their farming and the impacts CA has had on small-scale farmers livelihood and on the environment. The last decade several new agricultural practises have been introduced in the district, of which a number can be said to be CA-practises. The introduced agriculture methods have had a positive effect on yields, work load and environment. The smallscale- farmers livelihoods have also improved in Babati District as an outcome of the new agricultural methods. The diffusion of the introduced methods was limited due to among others availability of implements, economical factors and finite dissemination of knowledge. The low soil fertility was a limiting factor of the production in the district and recycling of plant nutrients to the arable land was low. In the study, soils from three different cultivation systems have been compared to investigate how different treatments have influenced soil fertility. Farm yard manure and intercropping with legumes showed to improve the fertility and application of rock phosphate increased availability of phosphor and increased soil pH. When only rock phosphate was applied production rate were low and amount of nutrients was decreasing or showed no significant change. Intercropping under leguminous Faidherbia albida gave the highest maize yields and also showed the highest level of P and N.