Food systems under stress (FSUS) project FSUS/PRA workshop – Tanzania Magindu Village, Kibaha District, 23-25 August 1993.

This report is a chronological account of the Magindu Workshop, based mainly on the teams deliberations at the end of each day.Magindu village lies within the Coastal Region and is situated 25 km south of Chalinze (about 45 minutes by car along a sandy track) just beyond the intersection with the Central Railway Line. The village is inhabited by Wakwere and Kutu cultivators (90) %) and Maasai cattle keepers (10%). Magindu's history can be summed up as one of consecutive droughts and people moving in and out of the area. Al though drought occurs periodically, rainfall is not necessarily a limiting factor, and can go up to 800 mm a year. The soils, however, are not very deep. (Dodoma is much drier, but a lot of aid and research is already focused on that region). In 1990-1991 Magindu suffered terribly in the drought, which was so severe that it put Magindu on the political map. Ministers visited the area