Adoption of conservation agricultural practices among smallholder farmers: A case study of Uluguru mountains, Morogoro district

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE. MOROGORO, TANZANIA.Adoption of Conservation Agricultural Practices (CAPs) is fundamental for ensuring improved agricultural productivity. This study was conducted among Smallholder farmers to assess factors associated with adoption of CAPs for Land Management in Uluguru Mountains in Morogoro district. A purposive sampling was employed to select three villages where different CAPs are promoted and a sample size of 100 smallholder farmers was selected. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to obtain frequencies to describe knowledge level and attitude of farmers towards adopting CAPs. Chi-square test was used to determine the relationship of adopting CAPs to socio-economic attributes of the respondents. Multiple Regression analysis was used to determine the influence of socio-economic on adoption of CAPs. Findings show that smallholder farmers have adopted CAPs that include contour strip cropping, crop rotations, direct planting of crop seeds on the rip line, mulching, intercropping, crop rotation, cover crops, minimum tillage, no burning of crop residues and agro-forestry. Some CAPs were not adopted by smallholder farmers because they were never taught and some being not well understood, difficult to use, consume more time in application, and some CAPs were thought not beneficial. Sex, age, education, farm size, income, farming experience, availability of extension services, land ownership, plot site and presence of land use bylaws were highly associated with adoption of CAPs among smallholder farmers. Again, findings from multiple linear regression show that age, family size, income, farm size, availability of extension services and presence of bylaws highly influenced adoption of CAPs among smallholder farmers were statistically significant at p≤ 0.05. Therefore, adoption of CAPs should be enhanced through strengthening extension services, promoting CAPs targeting specific land sites, and those which yield more positive income to smallholder farmers