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cultivation practices, which are based on broadcasting seed, as opposed to direct
seeding or making a nursery and then transplanting rice. According to KPL
personnel and extension staff, the additional costs of planting, and of weeding,
due to wider plant spacing, should be offset by the higher yields that farmers
can obtain using SRI methods. However, it is not clear whether farmers adopt
SRI as an entire 'package', or instead select elements that suit their farming
systems and circumstances - as observed by other studies of rice technology
adoption in Tanzania (Mwaseba et al. 2006). One of the central tenets of the
SRI principles as originally conceived is farmer adaptation and experimentation
(Stoop et al. 2002). However, the author's observations of and participation in
SRI trainings at KPL indicate that SRI is promoted as a 'package' to be adopted,
rather than adapted, by smallholder farmers. For example, both rice seed and
fertilizer are supplied to farmers as part of the production loan extended under
the SRI scheme, the latter through a partnership with the fertilizer company,
YARA. However, discussions with farmers and extension staff indicated that soil
fertility is generally high in the area, raising the question of whether inorganic
fertilizer is actually needed.
At MSE, no formal system of providing farmers with access to inputs such as
seed and fertilizers exists, even though the estate is well connected to national
and international sugar research activities, and produces certified cane seed.
Until 2012, OG and non-OG farmers in both schemes could access fertilizer
through a government-sponsored seed and fertilizer subsidy for rice and maize.
However, the scheme required farmers to contribute a minimum amount of
cash, which limited the possibility for poorer households to participate. Many
farmers and key informants also noted that these inputs often arrived too late,
and several farmers in Lungo emphasized that fertilizing cane fields would lead
to destruction of the soils in their area. OG farmers in Lungo reported that
difficulties in accessing good seed cane and in securing loans for production
in the absence of timely cane payments constrained their ability to invest in
their cane farms, which in turn directly contributed to poor cane harvests. While
farmers can acquire cane seed 'on loan' from MSE, they explained that the
process is bureaucratically cumbersome, and the cost of seed cane is deducted
from farmers' cane profits. Fear of losing a seed crop to drought or flooding
leads farmers in Lungo to prefer sourcing seed from their own farms or from
their neighbours.
At Mtibwa, government extension officers trained and financed under a joint
European Union (EU)-Tanzania sugarcane cooperative initiative are tasked with
helping smallholders improve their cane production through the establishment
of farmer field schools and block farms linked to the donor-funded extension
and share production costs and profits - this initiative has been lobbying for the
economic feasibility and social acceptability of block farming and smallholder
irrigation schemes for cane are not clear. During a focus group discussion with
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