Welcome to SUAIRE
Sokoine University of Agriculture Institutional Repository (SUA IR). This repository was built and is maintained by the university library (Sokoine National Agricultural Library-SNAL) , in order to collect, preserve and disseminate scholarly output generated by University research community (staff and students) members.
This repository hosts a variety of openly accessible materials including: scholarly articles and books, theses and dissertations, conference proceedings and technical reports. For assistance about depositing your research output in the repository click here. SUA IR Policy click here or any queries contact us at snal@sua.ac.tz.
Communities in SUAIRE
Select a community to browse its collections.
- The Agroforesty Community is a collaborative network dedicated to advancing sustainable land-use practices that integrate trees, crops, and livestock. It serves as a platform for knowledge exchange, research dissemination, and practical innovations in Agroforestry. By fostering connections among researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and local communities, the Agroforestry Community promotes environmental conservation, enhanced agricultural productivity, and resilient livelihoods.
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Recent Submissions
Antiretroviral therapy programme on control of hiv transmission in Morogoro municipality
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2010) Wimbo, Owen Jailos
Increase in HIV-related risky sexual behaviours among persons on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is of worldwide concern. While the issue of prevention has received greater attention in developed countries, little is known about the extent to which persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) might continue to engage in high-risk sexual behaviors in sub-Saharan Africa. This study was conducted to examine the role of antiretroviral therapy (ART) programme on control of HIV transmission in order to inform and assist policy makers to design and implement effective ART programmes to combat HIV/AIDS. The study was conducted in Morogroro Municipality. A cross sectional design was adopted and ninety-three PLWHA participated in the study. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics, likert and index scales were used to gauge levels of risky sexual behaviour, awareness and attitude of PLWHA on the role of ART. F-test was used to measure the relationship at 5% (0.05) level of significance. The study found high level of knowledge and awareness among PLWHA on the role of ARV, and respondents had positive attitude towards ARV in prolonging their life. It was also found that PLWHA were sexually active; however, more than half of the respondents were categorized to fall under high risk sexual behaviour group. The relationship between age and risk sexual behaviour was statistically significant (p = 0.006). Risk sexual behaviour was highest in 18-35 years age group and lowest in the 50-64 years age group. The study recommends that communication campaigns should target PLWHA, encouraging them to talk openly to their partners and impart correct knowledge, communicate the availability of HIV and STI testing and stress the importance of knowing one’s HIV status. The government should as well improve access to ART
services to enable many PLWHA to access the services.
Impact of indigenous based interventions on land conservation: a case study of soil conservation and agroforestry project, Arumeru district, Arusha,Tanzania.
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2002) Fanuel, Julius
ABSTRACT
Land degradation lias been identified as a serious problem in Tanzania since the 1920s. A number of factors do contribute to land degradation, some being important in one area than in another. Among the factors normally cited include deforestation, overgrazing and inappropriate farming practices. Several attempts by the government of Tanzania to arrest the problem have been mostly directed towards land conservation through externally sponsored interventions based on lop- down approaches. Indigenous based interventions are among the alternatives practices adopted by the Soil Conservation and Agroforcstry Project in Arusha for land conservation to restore soil fertility and increase agricultural productivity in Arumeru Districts. The main purpose of the study was to assess the impact of indigenous based interventions on land conservation. More specifically the study intended, first to assess farmers' perception on land degradation; secondly, assessing the adoption
of indigenous based interventions: thirdly assessing the impact of those interventions: and lastly assessing the sustainability of those interventions. Data for the study were collected under two phases. Phase one of the study involved reconnaissance survey together with a Participatory Rural
Appraisal (PRA) techniques in Manyire village. Other tools used were checklist and participant
observation. The second phase Questionnaire survey was done was in mainly based on questionnaire survey. Oldonyosapuk. Olchorovus. Manyire and Ekenywa Villages. PRA data were analyzed with the help of the local communities and the results were communicated back to them for verification. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to analyze quantitative data whereas Content and Structural-Functional analysis was used for analyzing qualitative data. Findings of the study suggest that the rate of land degradation was perceived by respondents to
be rather severe. Results of the study also showed that interventions, which require minimal labour or minimal capital, have been highly adopted by many farmers while labour/capital intensive ones have been taken up by few farmers. In the overall, the intervehtions are said to have cased-up farm operation and contributed towards increased crop yield, improved soil conservation and increased income. Success in some of the interventions warrants wider promotion of the practices (sustainability) beyond the project area. Farmers are aware of the issues related to land degradation
and problems of declining soil fertility. Land conservation measures are in- built into many of the cultural practices in the survey area. Logistic model showed that extension service was the most important factor, which influenced the probability of adoption of indigenous based interventions on land conservation. Other factors included: farmers’ age. education level and land ownership.. The results also suggest that the most important factors influencing the yield of maize and beans were: land size, farmers' age. frequency of extension contacts, climatic factors, land 'management practices (intercropping) and accessibility to markets. The results imply that increased application of farmyard manure, restricting animal movements on conserved land and more training on improved pastures would increase the impact of indigenous based interventions. The results of this study provide a strong case for the promotion of indigenous based interventions as an appropriate solution for land conservation and as a means of increasing agricultural production on a sustainable
basis.
Evaluation of the fertility status of the soils and maize response to N and P in Nkasi district, Tanzania
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2012) Chang’a, Clarence Vitus
ABSTRACT
A Study was conducted to evaluate the fertility status of the soils and maize response to N and P in Nkasi District, Tanzania. The objectives of the study were to: determine and characterize the fertility status of the soils, assess the response of maize to N and P. suggest possible N and P fertilizers rates for optimum maize yield and appraise the economics of N and P fertilizer use in maize production. Ten composite soil samples were collected at a depth of 0-30 cm from Mkole. Nkomolo 1. Mashete. Chala. Swaila, Milundikwa, Nkomanchindo, Myula. Ntatumbila and Isale villages. The soil analytical results showed that the soils were sandy loam, moderately acidic, low in some macronutrients and micronutrients, SOM. CEC and PBS. hence from the soils analytical data three villages Ntatumbila, Mashete and Nkomolo 1 with the low N (%) and P (mg P kg'1) were selected for field experiments to determine the response of maize to different levels of N (0, 50, 100, 150 kg N ha'1) and P (0. 25, 50, 75 kg P ha'1). A 42 factorial experiment in CRBD with four replicates was used. The sources of N and P were urea and TSP, respectively and 100 kg K ha'1 was applied to all plots as KC1. NiooPsoand N150P75 significantly increased N and P contents of maize whole plant and maize grain yields compared to the control. Nitrogen contents in the maize plants were rated as low and ranged from 1.42 to 3.41% while P contents were rated as adequate for the NP combinations and ranged from 0.19 to 0.65%. Maize grain yield increased from 1.31 to 6.31 t ha'1. From the maize grain yields economic analysis and agronomic judgments the treatments N100P50 and N100P75 would be the most profitable fertilizer rates in Nkasi district.
Economic analysis of medium scale agricultural enterprises in a predominantly smallholder agriculture sector
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2001) Philip,Damas
Sub Saharan African countries are faced with lagging food production and pervasive poverty. Most of these countries, including Tanzania, depend heavily on agriculture for their economic development and meet their food requirements from domestic production, imports and food aid. Increasing agriculture production is thus a high priority topic in Sub Saharan Africa, including Tanzania. This study is motivated by the failure of the efforts, by the Tanzanian government and international and non governmental organisations, to support smallholder farmers to achieve the expected targets and hence the need to seek for a more responsive alternative target for support that will lead to the achievement of the desired improved production in the Tanzanian agriculture sector. The study tests the hypothesis that there is an unexploited potential for modernizing the Tanzanian agriculture sector through promotion of medium scale farming. To test this hypothesis the study investigates the profitability of medium scale agricultural enterprises in Tanzania using 233 dairy and sugarcane farms located in Morogoro as a case study. In this study profitability was measured by Economic Farm Surplus (EFS) and Gross Margin Analysis (GMA) for the dairy and sugarcane/paddy farms respectively. Literature on previous studies in this area focused on small-scale enterprises and has highlighted the importance ofthe size ofthe agricultural enterprise on productivity of agro-based enterprises. Thus the present study aimed at observingthe trend of profitability of agro-based enterprises with increasing farm size. In order to capture the effect of the changing farm size on profitability, the selected dairy and sugarcane/paddy enterprises were grouped into seven and nine categories for daily and sugarcane respectively. Prior to the estimation of multiple regression models for the two types of enterprises i.e. dairy and sugarcane, a simple comparison of mean EFS and GM analyses for the different size categories was conducted deploying the analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique. The ANOVA indicated the existence of significant differences in the levels of the EFS and GM for the different farm size categories. Three multiple regression models were estimated to establish the relationship between size and profitability. The results revealed that the productivity of an enterprise was positively influenced by the size, access to credit facilities, access to extension services and farmer’s level of education. The results from this study suggest that Tanzanian medium scale agro-based enterprises have a very high potential for growth ifsupplied with a favourable environment. In order to stimulate the growth of medium scale enterprises in the country drastic policy changes that will make sure that the needs of medium scale farmers take a central part in the agriculture policy are required.
Farmer’s climate-related production risks and resilience in the semi-arid areas of Meatu and Iramba districts of Tanzania
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2014) Ntengo,Revocatus Kayaga
This study was conducted in Meatu and Iramba Districts which are part of the semi arid regions of Simiyu and Singida Regions. The purpose of the study was to assess the farmer’s climate-related production risks and resilience in the semi-arid areas. The study addressed the following specific objectives: i) to characterise climate risks associated with different sources of farmer’s income, ii) to evaluate climate risk resilience ofsmallholder farmers from major income subsector, and iii) To determine the effect of climate change on farm income from major crops. The study design was cross sectional. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from a random sample of 100 smallholder farmers. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the climate risks associated with the different sources of a farmer’s income, Multi-Criteria approach was used to evaluate the incomc-bascd resilience of fanners’ with respect to major climatic risks and a distributed lag model was used to determine the effect of climate change on income from major crops. The results indicate that on characterization of the risks it was found that most of the climate risks affected income sources differently; crops by 98%, livestock by 64% and off-farm sources by 43% only. Over three quarters of the respondents (96%) were found to be not resilient to climate risks and majority (96%) of them laid in the medium and high risk categories. The results also indicate that maize was highly affected by rainfall related climate risks by producing 0.88 tonnes/ha compared to other crops such as sorghum (1.09 tonnes/ha) and cotton (0.94 tonnes/ha). Based on the findings the study draws the following policy-relevant recommendations: the government and other
agricultural stakeholders should enhance smallholder farmers to diversify their income generating activities through off-farm activities, promote a good agronomic practice among farmers, open a room for a reliable market by intervening and setting up the favorable and stable price for farmers through improving market infrastructures and market information.