It is widely acknowledged that past rural development strategies have signally failed to raise rural living standards in Tanzania. For many years, the government of Tanzania and development assistance agencies tried different approaches and strategies, however, the efforts were not always able to effect the intended results. One of the key reasons stems from central driven top-down approaches which were lacking in comprehending the dynamics of rural life and appreciating the skills of rural communities. More specifically, these approaches did not stand on the understanding of the complexities of the agro- ecological, socioeconomic and cultural contexts in which indigenous livelihood and production systems function. The problems currently facing the rural areas in Tanzania include lack of income sources, degradation of environment and natural resources, limited infrastructure, poor extension services, insufficient marketing integration and rural-to-urban migration. Among those, the depreciation of environment and natural resources proceeds severely due to ever increasing land use pressure underlined by the immediate needs of rural community for survival. One of the central issues to solve the problems is re-appraisal of rural development approaches based on the peoples’ participation with available local resources. This study stands on the hypotheses i) there are untapped/ forgotten resources and knowledge in most rural areas of the Uluguru Mountains, ii) farmers may have some potentials being utilized for rural development, and iii) feasible rural development model can be derived based on the farmers’ potentiality and available local resources (refer page 14). In this thesis the identification of the agro-ecological and socio-economics characteristics of the Uluguru Mountains area was the first step towards achieving the above objectives. These characteristics are based on the diversity of farming systems, spatial and temporal diversity of land uses and farming plots, diversified cropping calendar, diversity in home­ garden agroforestry (EGA) components, diverse market places, inherent risk reduction mechanisms and different roles of farming systems. These characteristics have been reflected in the planning of rural development activities. Based on the identified characteristics, an attempt was made by SUA Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SCSRD) from (1999 - 2004) by designing the community based activities aimed at involving the rural community using locally available materials and resources. This thesis has investigated the background, process and outcome of “SCSRD” project. The results show different processes such as preliminary field studies, participatory village survey and baseline surveys. Different options of activities such as beekeeping, vanilla, temperate and tropical fruits cultivation trials were planned, designed and implemented jointly by rural community and outsiders. Ways of community participation in these trial activities were suggested in order to encourage forms of learning, wider participation, knowledge exchange, strengthening of social interaction and networking among rural communities. The overall effectiveness of participatory approaches are documented in terms of i) community empowerment, ii) interactive learning and innovation, iii) information transfer, iv) active participation of local community, and v) changes of farmers’ attitudes and behaviours. The thesis has also presented an evaluation of the effectiveness of the participatory approaches using a case of vanilla cultivation trial. The results showed the impact of vanilla cultivation trial in terms of i) expansion of the vanilla cultivation, ii) farmer-to- farmer dissemination, iii) partnership among stakeholders, iv) farmers’ innovativeness, and v) co-existence of vanilla with other crops. The thesis also has identified achievements and constraints concerning vanilla cultivation in the Uluguru Mountains based on i) vanilla management, ii) looping, iii) vanilla processing, iv) theft of planting materials, and v) extension services. Based on the identified obstacles, the thesis has suggested the following i) affordable means of supplying planting materials, ii) vanilla marketing, iii) training of farmers and extension workers, iv) cost-effective knowledge dissemination methods, and v) support from different stakeholders. Finally, based on the overall discussion in this thesis, approaches for supporting community based activities has been summarised (refer page 90). Various steps and methods to be followed have been highlighted and the expected outcomes per each step and is guided by requisite features such as i) understanding of local realities, ii) incentives to motives peoples’ participation, iii) community involvement, and iv) innovative approach. Keyword: agro-ecological diversity, community based activities, farmers’ networking, indigenous farming systems, information dissemination, land uses, marketing behavior, participation, risk-reduction, rural development, socio-economic characteristics, Uluguru Mountains, vanilla cultivation. “Sustainable wealth creation without local knowledge and participation does not lead to sustainable development, but rather to mass poverty and environmental degradation (Ojo and Ashton-Jones J 998).Ministry of Education, Government of Japan