Land degradation is a major serious problem in Tanzania that contributes greatly to decline in productivity and poses a threat to rural livelihood and the economy at large given the importance of agriculture in the country
Despite the efforts of the government to put in place different measures and policies orprograms, such as soil and water conservation programs, destocking measures, and tree planting or afforestation, in order to land degradation, the adoption or implementation of the measures and programs has been low and in most cases with little impact. The concrete information on factors that influences rural households to adopt or not to adopt land conservation technologies and the extent of their impact on productivity and production efficiency is also lacking. Absence of this important information leadsto formulation of inappropriate conservation policies and low adoption of land conservation technologies.
This study therefore aims at providing information on socio-economic factors that influence rural households to adopt different conservation technologies and the economics of this investment in the slopes of Uluguru and Usambara mountainswith intensive farming system in Tanzania. Specifically, the study will identify the determinants of rural household adoption of land conservation technologies, the impact of adoption on productivity and production efficiency.
The project will be carried out in Mvomero (Mgeta and Mlali Divisions located at Uluguru mountain) and Kilosa (divisions located at Ukaguru Mountains) Districts in Morogoro Region. The areas or Divisions under the study are selected purposely since they have similar climate and farming systems and there are many land conservation initiatives in the areas for a long time from both government and NGOs e.g. UMADEP.
The farmers’ adoption of land conservation technologies will be modeled using a multivariate probit (MVP) model which captures the multivariate nature of farmer’s choices or decisions while the Random utility model and Stochastic Frontier method will be used to estimate the impact of adoption of conservation technologies on agricultural productivity and production technical efficiency respectively for the selected crop(s) within the study areas. Survey data will be collected in the field using structured and non structured questionnaires from households and Focus Group Discussion respectively. Interviews with some officials in the region and at national level and Secondary information will supplement and complement the survey data.
