Chapter 11 - Integrated water and land management practices: demand-driven participatory research in the semiarid agricultural landscapes of Tanzania

The semi-arid agricultural landscape of Tanzania is characterized by erratic and variable rainfall. Land degradation and the absence of improved water and land management interventions pose greater challenges to the resilience and livelihoods of communities. Previously implemented practices focused much on productivity gains and followed a top-down approach. Despite the growing impact studies on increased crop yield, published data on environmental sustainability and household socio-economic dynamics of the different practices are limited. This paper presents the results of a participatory and integrated approach to water and land management employed. The Kongwa watershed was used as a case study to investigate the challenges of the farming system and to identify and implement demand-driven practices. The watershed was characterized using information derived from climate and climate risk, land use and land cover (LULC), existing production systems, and GIS tools. Gender disaggregated data on farmers’ perceptions of implemented practices and natural resource management governance were analyzed. This information, together with productivity data collected from experimental stations and the FAO database, enabled agricultural sustainability assessment. Our results revealed that both male and female farmers are concerned about the farming systems in their landscapes, highlighting that soil erosion, frequent pests and diseases, and crop fields destroyed by livestock are the most common challenges they face. It was also highlighted that service provisions from extension officers were limited in the Kongwa watershed. Data collected from experimental stations revealed that the watershed suffers from insufficient seasonal rainfall distribution, which fails to meet the minimum water requirements for major crops grown, such as sorghum and pigeon peas. In this case, implementing demand-driven and participatory water and land management practices yielded significant improvements in the agricultural sustainability indicators.