Zacharia Katambara

Integrated agricultural landscape management: Case study on inclusive innovation processes, monitoring and evaluation in the Mbeya Region, Tanzania:

Integrated landscape management is a process for achieving multiple objectives related to agricultural production, ecosystem conservation, and sustainable natural resource management. These multiple livelihood functions are important features of an agricultural landscape in Mbeya, Tanzania. Due to environmental damage caused by agricultural expansion and charcoal burning, a process called integrated agricultural landscape management (IALM) was implemented to address this problem. This encompassed the identification and involvement of a range of key landscape actors and processes like awareness creation and joint problem analysis, solution framing, learning, planning and implementation of actions, and monitoring and evaluation. A multistakeholder innovation platform was formed for creating a coordination mechanism, common understanding, vision and goals, and networking. Fifty IALM ideas were identified and six selected by the stakeholders. Outcomes of using the IALM process included policy recommendations, joint learning, and innovative actions and were codeveloped, implemented, monitored, and evaluated with the local communities.

OPTIMIZING SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION PARAMETERS USING AQUACROP MODEL FOR INCREASING WATER PRODUCTIVITY AND WATER USE EFFICIENCY IN RICE PRODUCTION

Producing more rice while using less water is among the calls in water scarce regions so as to feed the growing population and cope with the changing climate. Among the suitable techniques towards this achievement is the use of system of rice intensification (SRI), which has been reported as an approach that uses less water and has high water productivity and water use efficiency. Despite its promising results, the use of SRI practice in Tanzania is limited due to less knowledge with regard to the transplanting age, plant spacing, and minimum soil moisture to be allowed for irrigation, and alternate wetting and drying interval for various geographical locations. The AquaCrop crop water productivity model, which is capable of simulating crop water requirements and yield for a given parameter set, was used to identify suitable SRI parameters for Mkindo area in Morogoro region, Tanzania. Using no stress in soil fertility, plant spacings ranging from 5 cm to 50 cm were evaluated. Results suggest that the yield and biomass produced per ha increase with decreasing spacing from 50 cm to 20 cm. Preliminary field results suggest that the optimum spacing is round 25 cm. However, the model structure does not take into consideration number of tillers produced. As such, the study calls for incorporation of the tillering processes into AquaCrop model.