“Now my husband and I no longer
have to borrow the money from friends and relatives” says Mrs Lawliano, a
43 years old woman from Kisongwe village. Instead, we are adopting
C3S(Climate Smart small scale) agriculture technologies to earn a
living. We began adopting climate change small scale agriculture last
year after ActionAid in collaboration with other partners launched a C3S
agriculture project in my village. Agricultural extension officers came
to our fields to guide us on how to adopt climate change small scale
agriculture. We were also provided with early maturing local seeds,
trained on use of contour ploughing, field cover using leguminous
plants, spacing and low tillage, use of manures and pesticide for
growing plants on ¼ ha of land in the first year. Now we have varieties
of leguminous plants such as tomatoes, groundnuts, rice, cabbage, beans
and maize which we produce per year and we earn about 85,000 to 170
Tanzania shillings from selling per year. We are very happy that we can
earn a stable income to support our family.”
30 farmers from Faraja group in Kisongwe village were trained in adopting C3S agriculture technologies.
They learned new techniques, like using organic compost and soil
conservation. These skills help them to increase production while also
conserving the environment. The farmers now share what they have learned
with other villagers and wider communities nearby Kisongwa.
Climate
smart agriculture has produced much better crops than the traditional
leguminous plants that have been planted in Kisongwa community for many
years. The climate smart agriculture using leguminous plants is very
suitable with the local land. They are ready for harvest after only four
months, instead of more than five months like the traditional species
of leguminous plants. Their yields reach 280 kg per 1 ha of land (about
32% higher than the yield of traditional leguminous plants).
Mrs Lawliano added: “Before,
we adopt the technology, rice and maize were our major crops. However,
we had to stop growing maize after many years of repeated crop failures.
There was no reliable seed provider in the region, so we could only
re-use the type of maize from the previous seasons for the next ones.
The old species of maize is no longer suitable with our poor land. As a
result, my family had to live with a yearly income of only about 50,000
Tanzania shillings from selling rice''.
The
amount of money was not enough to cover our daily expenses on
necessities such as food and clothes. We have one son and two daughters,
but we can afford to send only one youngest daughter to school. The
other one daughter and one son had to leave school before class 5 to
help with farm work. After harvesting rice in March and October, the
money we get after sell was not enough to run our life. Hence, we are
obliged to borrow money from friends and relatives and we had to go to
work as hired worker in a factory in the district centre. We had to work
very hard all day until 7pm to pay back the borrowed money. We earned
just enough to buy basic food and most of the time, we hardly had enough
money to pay our transportation back home.”
“Now
we can earn our living from home. We no longer have to worry about
shortage of food in our family. With C3S agriculture, we minimized our
farm from 1 ha to ¼ ha and we earn about 85,000 to 170,000 anzania
shillings from selling leguminous plants by end of the year. I will grow
more leguminous plants and if everything goes well like this, I will
have enough money to send all my children to school. I want to thank
ActionAid and all other CCAP project partners, for their kind help,” concluded by Mrs Lawliano with a happy voice.
As mentioned by Mrs Lawliano, ActionAid jointly with four national partners (The Community Forest Conservation Network of Tanzania (MJUMITA), the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG), the National Network of Small-Scale Farmers Groups in Tanzania (MVIWATA) and the Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement (TOAM) started working in
October 2012 closely in partnership with CSOs and CBOs based in
district for C3S agricultural development to pilot a C3S agriculture
project in Kisongwe community and other two villages from the district.
AATz
focus in the project is policy analysis in relation to climate change
adaptation, mitigation agriculture and REDD, documenting and
share best practice for small scale climate smart agriculture,
develope, adapt and distribute information on C3S agriculture to
farmers.
It has been
more than one year since the project started and we are happy to tell
you that the leguminous plants and vegetable are very suitable for
communities like Kisongwe village. The yield of leguminous plants and
vegetable increased from 280 to 350 kg per 1/4 of land. Each of the
families earned up to 85,000 to 170,000 Tanzania shillings per year from
selling leguminous plants and vegetable, increasing the overall income
by an average of 21%.
‘’We will grow more leguminous plants and vegetable next year’’, says Mrs Lawliano.
For more information contact
Amri Lutera: Impact assessment and shared learning Officer
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