Stories featured in the book - Agriculture and food security

In the book we have included positive stories about how people around Tanzania can adapt to climate change rather than just focus on the problems they face.

Overcoming drought in Dodoma

Dodoma has experienced decreased rainfall and ensuing famine in recent years. This cycle is likely to be repeated in the future. however, despite their recent hardship, locals are creating their own solutions to their challenging circumstances.

Christopher Modula, farmer, Muugano Village

“When I was born and grew up in this village, the environment and land was very good. We had good rains the surrounding hills had many trees and we harvested a lot of food.”

Christopher explains that one day the area became de- stocked of cattle as the herds were too big which was leading to erosion. This in turn led to many problems; when people lost manure from their cows, they also lost fertiliser for their crops. As a result crops failed and people began to cut down trees in the hills in order to make and sell charcoal from the wood. This in turn led to desertification, reduced rainfall, drought and then desperate famine.

“I thought of what I could do. …I started to dig trenches for my crops. I put organic matter such as crop remains and manure into the trenches. In this way I tried to restore the soil’s fertility and to keep moisture in the ground. It worked! As a result I have increased my yield of tomatoes and I don’t need to irrigate, as the rainwater is harvested in this trench.

During the first trial I started with 10 trenches. I saw very big changes with this and I got a good price for my tomatoes. After harvesting a good crop from these, I bought a machine that shelled groundnuts. Then I dug more trenches, and I bought a flour-mill with the money. I started a small shop and bought eight oxen and two dairy cattle. This innovation has helped me and has rescued me from many problems. Many other farmers in this village are having to apply for food aid but thankfully I don’t need it, I have my own solution to my problems..”

Christopher’s success was partly achieved with the help of INADES, a Pan-African NGO that works with rural people, encouraging them to devise their own solutions to local problems, and linking them up with markets. Christopher is now selling his tomatoes at Kariakoo Market in Dar es Salaam.