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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). |
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