Resilient communities and safeguarded livelihoods in the face of climate and health hazards

Water is the source of all life, we cannot live without it. In Tanzania, this source of life is for 90% consumed by agriculture to grow the food on our plates. But water is more and more under threat; it is becoming a scarce resource. Climate change made brought many natural hazards with it, such as unpredictable rains, floods, and droughts. Besides that, many water resources are polluted and the water is as a consequence not safe for use. Farmers in northern Tanzania are now changing their farming practices to make the community at large more resilient to climate change and covid-19.

Funded by the Natural Resources Stewardship Programme in Tanzania, Rikolto is supporting these farmers in changing their practices in the framework of a programme to improve the resilience of farming communities to natural hazards in the Usa River sub-catchment in northern Tanzania. Water and food security in both quantity and quality is a priority concern amidst a global pandemic. As part of this project, Rikolto will train 1026 smallholder farmers within the Usa and Weruweru furrows on good agricultural practices, such as pesticide and fertilizer use.

This project to enhance the resilience of farming communities to natural hazards will run from January 2022 – April 2022. It will focus on 1,026 farmers in DOMIKWA furrow (Usa River). The intervention will take place in 3 irrigation sub-canals within DOMIKWA furrow, namely Migadini, Kwaugoro and Taka.

Challenges

Farmers in the Usa and Weruweru furrows and the wider region face the following challenges:

• Climate change is changing and reducing water flows in many areas
• There is a lack of knowledge about good agricultural practices, such as safe use of pesticides and fertilisers
• Farmers lack knowledge about efficient water use and do not have access to technologies such as drip irrigation systems that limit the use of water
• Water in the Usa and Weruweru furrows is often polluted and not safe to use for irrigation
• Farmer organisations lack capacity and face many management challenges related to governance, business planning, leadership and finances
• The covid-19 pandemic adds further to the challenges that the farmers face

Our approach

To tackle these challenges, Rikolto’s interventions will focus on two main areas:

1. Increasing availability by improving water use efficiencies (reducing losses) at the farm through training smallholder farmers on water use efficiency
2. Reducing water pollution in the furrow for a healthier water source for neighbouring villages by training small-holder farmers on agricultural best-practices particularly with polluting chemicals.

Expected results

By the end of April 2022, we expect to have trained 1,026 farmers on good agricultural practices.

In the long term, building the capacity of farmers on good agricultural practices will decrease health risks facing domestic water users of the furrows as well as improve food safety of the food grown. This will have a positive impact on the quality of the produce found on the local markets and hence on the health of consumers.