Agricultural practices for rural development and environmental conservation under chagga home garden production systems: a case of Moshi district, Tanzania
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Date
2022
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Journal of Development and Sustainability
Abstract
The paper shares experience from a research and development project that attempted to address the low productivity
and deterioration of the Chagga home gardens farming system. A cross-sectional research design was used whereby
primary data was collected from 82 households, eight focus group discussions and ten key informants. In addition,
project documents and district agricultural reports were reviewed to complement the primary data. Key findings show
that adoption of improved banana varieties was high by 84.1% followed with 73.2%, 72% and 69.5% which were
Orange fleshed sweet potatoes, Village Savings and Loans Association and conservation agriculture respectively. The
high adoption of improved banana varieties and recruitment of community-based experts familiar with complexity of
the home gardens are among the notable project outcomes. Nonetheless, improvement of traditional irrigation and
rainwater harvesting was deemed necessary in counteracting hazards of climate change and its variability. It is
concluded that improvement of the Chagga home gardens is inevitable given their current low productivity and the
impact of climate change. In addition, there is need to commercialize agriculture in the study area to match the ever increasing population but in a way that is sustainable with the existing farming system. It is hereby recommended that
further studies be conducted for a better understanding of the complexity and livelihood potential of the Chagga home
gardens
Description
Journal Article
Keywords
Chagga home gardens, RIPAT Approach, Livelihoods improvement, Farmer groups, Biodiversity