Browsing by Author "Kimaro, Anthony"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Expert-based ex-ante assessments of potential social, ecological, and economic impacts of upgrading strategies for improving food security in rural Tanzania using the ScalA-FS approach
    (Springer, 2017) Graef, Frieder; Uckert, Götz; Schindler, Jana; König, Hannes Jochen; Mbwana, Hadijah A.; Fasse, Anja; Mwinuka, Lutengano; Mahoo, Henry; Kaburire, Laurent N.; Saidia, Paul; Yustas, Yusto Mugisha; Silayo, Valerian; Makoko, Bashir; Kissoly, Luitfred; Lambert, Christine; Kimaro, Anthony; Sieber, Stefan; Hoffmann, Harry; Kahimba, Frederick C.; Mutabazi, Khamaldin D.
    Subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are highly vulnerable to food insecurity given their low adaptive capacity against ecological and socio-economic shocks. Therefore, food security is one of their main challenges. Participatory action research across food value chains (FVCs) can help stabilize and enhance food security by developing upgrading strategies (UPS) that enhance specific aspects of crop production, post-harvest processing, marketing, income generation, and consumption. However, prior to their widespread adoption or upscaling, UPS need holistic understandings of their potential social, ecological, economic, and institutional challenges and opportunities in target areas. This article reports the application of the “ScalA-FS” tool, which assessed the potential success of selected UPS using assessment criteria developed by agricultural scientists and local farmers in a participatory process in Tanzania. This work is embedded in a larger participatory research project conducted in semi-arid and sub-humid ecological settings of the Dodoma and Morogoro regions of Tanzania. Results from the assessment of the potential impact of the UPS differed strongly between the UPS and the social, economic and environmental assessment criteria, but only slightly between semi-arid and sub-humid regions. The positive impacts of food-securing UPS centre on productivity and income generation. Rain water harvesting, fertilizer micro-dosing, optimized weeding, and promotion of kitchen gardens were expected to have the highest impacts after implementation. The ScalA-FS ex-ante assessments provide a knowledge base about potential impacts, as well as the potential bottlenecks to address during the implementation of UPS.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Simulated willingness of farmers to adopt fertilizer micro-dosing and rainwater harvesting technologies in semi-arid and sub-humid farming systems in Tanzania
    (Springer, 2017) Mwinuka, Lutengano; Mutabazi, Khamaldin Daud; Graef, Frieder; Sieber, Stefan; Makindara, Jeremia; Kimaro, Anthony; Uckert, Götz
    Productivity of African agriculture falls below the global average due mainly to limited use of productivity-enhancing technologies. In Tanzania, smallholders farm without fertilizer on fragile soils in rain-fed areas. Inadequate soil nutrients, nutrient mining, and soil-moisture stress are the main factors limiting crop productivity. Fertilizer micro-dosing (MD) and rainwater harvesting (RWH) through tied ridges appear to be appropriate technologies to help replenish soil nutrients and improve soil moisture for increased crop production. It nonetheless remains unclear whether these technologies can be adopted by smallholder farmers in Tanzania. There have been limited efforts to predict adoption and diffusion of new technologies in Tanzanian agriculture. This paper assesses the willingness of farmers to adopt fertilizer MD with and without tied ridges. Data were obtained from a household baseline study, participatory ex-ante impact assessments, and simulation exercises. Our cross-section analysis used integrated ex-ante assessment tools to understand sustainability and to prioritize and sequence technology adoption and diffusion. Simulation predicted the ex-ante impact of selected technologies, the adoption rate peaks, the likelihood for reaching peaks, and the possible time required to reach peak adoption. Our findings suggest the best paths that technology users should take, while considering factors which affect adoption during research planning, implementation, and testing of the farm level technologies.