UTILIZATION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS BY WALUGURU PEOPLE IN EAST ULUGURU MOUNTAINS TANZANIA

A study was done to assess utilization of medicinal plants in Nyachilo village situated in eastern Uluguru Mountains, Tanzania. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered and informal discussions conducted to traditional healers and midwives. The respondents were selected from Changa, Mselelo, Tanana, Mitamba, Kimeza, Mandani and Kibundi subvillages. Within the subvillages random sampling was used to determine the number of respondents to be interviewed. The study found that plant medicines utilized in the area can be categorized into groups for treating convulsion, pain killers, rituals and casting evil spirits, treating diseases, relieving respiratory complications, and treating skin eruptions. Many medicinal plants are collected from the forests (37.3%) and farms (37.3%). However, 16.4 % of the medicinal plants are not easily accessible. The community perceives modern medical system far advanced in comparison with traditional healing system. Both systems however, are useful in their sights. The study also revealed that in most medicinal plants, leaves are used as medicines (31.7%), followed by roots (29.6%), then barks (20.7%). The community proposed that in order to sustain conservation of medicinal plants, the traditional healers should be trained on appropriate harvesting and utilization techniques of the medicines. It is recommended that appropriate agronomic techniques that will ensure cultivation of medicinal plants should be taught to the community so as to guarantee sustainable utilization in future

Trade-offs between communal and private institutions in natural resource management along the spaces of time and space: Reflection from four case studies in Tanzania

Research articleClassic scholars Hardin and Ostrom emerged with counter-traditions to each other in favor of private and communal natural resource management institutions respectively. In these premises, Hardin argues that it is not possible for local people cooperatively to manage a common resource sustainably because individuals in the community will always be driven by the rationale of ensuring more of personal gains at the expense of others. And, according to him, because every individual is driven by the same rationality the common will ultimately collapse, the state he calls “tragedy of the commons”. On the contrary, Ostrom opposes Hardin by arguing that the community has the power of devising rules systems that enable it to manage the common sustainably. Impliedly, the two scholars portray that either communal or private institutions will prevail at specific spaces of time and place but not both. In this article, I challenge this contention using four case studies that have substantiated the use of both communal and private institutions by the same social players at different time-space, and/or co-existence of both communal and private institutions at the same spaces of time and/or place

Out-scaling of hybrid institution for socio-economic development and environmental conservation: The case of Mbinga district, Tanzania

Research articleI present a case study of institutional hybridization in Mbinga district within and across politically defined boundaries after the occurrence of stress, which purist institutions (state institutions or customary institutions independently) fail to contain. Thus, based on the experiential learning and facilitation by non-local-based players, a hybrid institution is designed in one spatial space at a certain temporal point. This seems to be successful in addressing the stress. As such, other social players at another politically defined boundary adapt the hybrid institution based on their local context. Similarly, some actions governed by the hybrid institution at specific spaces of time and place out-scale across the politically defined boundaries to other spatial and temporal spaces. As a conclusion, the implications of out-scaling and hybridization are given with reference to socio-economic development and environmental conservation

The impact of in-migrant pastoralists on livelihood outcomes of the natives in Rufiji district, Tanzania

Research articleThe concept of livelihood is about individuals, households or groups making a living or attempting to meet their various consumption and economic necessities. Livelihood in many rural areas of the world is complex, dynamic and poses a lot of human life outcomes. Perhaps it is only the dayto-day uncertainty of survival that remains to be constant. In this paper we examine the natives’ livelihood challenges as caused by in-migrant pastoralists in Rufiji District, Tanzania. Data were collected using a questionnaire which was administered to 200 respondents in five villages. Data analysis involved generation of descriptive statistics for quantitative data and use of content analysis for qualitative data. Multiple linear regression was used to determine the impact of inmigrant pastoralists’ characteristics and natives’ livelihood outcomes. The findings showed that 69.5% of the respondents reported that there were livelihood challenges which had resulted from the arrival of pastoralists in the study area. Further, from the model, out of the eight factors analysed, four of them were found to have statistically significant impact (p< 0.05) in affecting natives’ livelihood outcomes. The four factors were: newly introduced economic activities (p < 0.05), presence of investors (p < 0.05), new agricultural systems and techniques introduced after the arrival of pastoralists (p < 0.001) and change in land uses (p < 0.05). Among these, only land use change had negative influence on the livelihood of the native communities while the remaining three showed positive influence. The study concludes that the livelihood outcomes of the natives have been affected by the coming of the pastoralists. The study recommends that there is a need for relevant stakeholders, working as inter-sector teams, to strengthen the identified positive livelihood effects and take all negative effects as challenges for improvement.Moshi Cooperative Universit

Contribution of agricultural intensification on household income and food security: the case of Njombe and Mvomero districts

Agricultural intensification is now a reality around the world. The phenomenon has been attributed to various drivers including an increased demand for feeding the growing human population, increased multiple competing land uses and therefore creating the pressure of need for enhanced production. Other factors entail the advancement of market and road infrastructures and thus creating enabling environment for agricultural transactions, and improved access to agricultural inputs and technologies. It is undoubtedly true that intensification brings diverse consequences in terms of income and food security among others. This study manifests the effects of agricultural intensification on income and food security amongst small scale farmers based on the data collected through household survey, and uses maize and paddy production in Njombe and Mvomero districts respectively as the case study. Our operational definition of intensification entails the frequent use of agro-chemical inputs such as mineral fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides; and use of improved seeds for the aim of enhancing crop productivity. We also narrow the food-security-definition by focusing on sufficient production for household consumption and having surplus for sale.Available in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Reducing Climate Change Challenges through Forestry and Other Land Use PracticesClimate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation (CCIAM) Programme funded through the Norwegian embassy in Tanzani

Critical analysis of synergies between Kilimo Kwanza resolution and sustainable Forest Management in Tanzania

Like other agricultural development efforts in Tanzania, Kilimo Kwanza which was launched in 2009 that is literary translated as “agriculture first;” recognizes that the role of agriculture is to bring about social and economic development. Pillar number three of this resolution highlights in general terms, mainstreaming environmental conservation in Kilimo Kwanza activities. However, the term ‘environment’ is used broadly. Hence, there is no guarantee that forest conservation, a key component of environmental conservation, is being given due consideration when implementing Kilimo Kwanza activities. Besides, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, which is responsible for forest conservation is not included in the core team for Kilimo Kwanza implementation. It is therefore rational to anticipate possible negative consequences to forests in the operationalisation of the Kilimo Kwanza resolution. Agricultural development and sustainable forest management can hardly be separated, for successful achievement of objectives within the two sectors successfully, which calls for a holistic Kilimo Kwanza. This entails addressing soil and water conservation while adopting intensification and landscape conservation approaches including ecoagriculture. If this is not done, agricultural transformation through Kilimo Kwanza will not be sustainable. Using an intensive review of literature, this paper critically analyzed the synergies between objectives of agricultural transformation, using Kilimo Kwanza as a case study, and those of sustainable forestry management, in order to inform an integrated agricultural policy development in the country

Heifer In-trust schemes and incomes of smallholder households in the Highland and Semiarid regions of Tanzania

Liv es to ck Research for Rural Development 2 01 5, Vol. 2 7(1)Poor household incomes are a major challenge to smallholder farming households’ expenses in most of Tanzania Njombe and Shinyanga regions inclusive. The Heifer In-trust Schemes (HIS) were introduced in these regions purposely to enable vulnerable households to improve their food and income security hence raising such households’ purchasing power. The study’s main objective was to assess the role of the HIS to smallholder households’ major expenditures in the above-mentioned areas. Specifically, the study aimed at exploring the assets and income acquired through the beneficiary household’s involvement in the HIS and at examining their ability to meet children’s educational and households' health costs. The study adopted a cross-sectional design whereby data were collected from 402 randomly selected HIS beneficiaries’ households using a structured questionnaire. In addition, nine focus group discussions involving 135 discussants were conducted to complement information collected through the questionnaire. Children’s education, assets acquisition and food accounted for 36.2, 24.3 and 10.5% of the income accrued from the HIS dairy enterprise. The benefits in Njombe (a highland area) and Shinyanga (a semi-arid area) zones were similar

Innovations dissemination approaches among government co-operative supporting organisations in Tanzania

International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Policy, 2019 Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 91-108.Efficient governments do encourage, support and promote innovations. Such realisation has necessitated some governments to establish strategic organisations to facilitate some of its innovation mandates. Some innovations have been developed by government co-operative supporting organisations (GCSOs) in Tanzania but only a few have been disseminated to end users. This has prompted questioning of the appropriateness of the innovations dissemination approaches used by such GCSOs. Research Method: The case study research design was used whereby five cases were picked. Primary data were collected using key informants‟ (KIs) interviews, focus groups discussion (FGDs) and documentary review. A qualitative research approach was adopted. Data were analysed using content analysis. The Atlas.ti computer software facilitated analysis of the data. The results show that albeit the existence of several innovations dissemination approaches, there were no mechanisms to institutionalise the effective ones. Concurrently, the approaches applied largely left out the primary co-operative societies (PCSos) treating them as submissive receivers of innovations. Moreover, numerous setbacks including perceived unwillingness by GCSOs executives to prioritise and allocate available resources for innovations, inadequate incentives and resources deficit were constraining inclusive innovations dissemination efforts. The study covered GCSOs only as they have been receiving direct government resources to support among other things innovation activities unlike other member-based and private organisations operating in Tanzania

Critical analysis of synergies between Kilimo Kwanza resolution and sustainable Forest Management in Tanzania

Like other agricultural development efforts in Tanzania, Kilimo Kwanza which was launched in 2009 that is literary translated as “agriculture first;” recognizes that the role of agriculture is to bring about social and economic development. Pillar number three of this resolution highlights in general terms, mainstreaming environmental conservation in Kilimo Kwanza activities. However, the term ‘environment’ is used broadly. Hence, there is no guarantee that forest conservation, a key component of environmental conservation, is being given due consideration when implementing Kilimo Kwanza activities. Besides, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, which is responsible for forest conservation is not included in the core team for Kilimo Kwanza implementation. It is therefore rational to anticipate possible negative consequences to forests in the operationalisation of the Kilimo Kwanza resolution. Agricultural development and sustainable forest management can hardly be separated, for successful achievement of objectives within the two sectors successfully, which calls for a holistic Kilimo Kwanza. This entails addressing soil and water conservation while adopting intensification and landscape conservation approaches including ecoagriculture. If this is not done, agricultural transformation through Kilimo Kwanza will not be sustainable. Using an intensive review of literature, this paper critically analyzed the synergies between objectives of agricultural transformation, using Kilimo Kwanza as a case study, and those of sustainable forestry management, in order to inform an integrated agricultural policy development in the country

Capabilities of government co-operative supporting organisations in dissemination of innovations to primary co-operative societies in Tanzania

International Journal of Knowledge, Innovation and Entrepreneurship V. 7, No. 3, 2019, pp. 67—84Purpose: This paper assesses the capabilities of GCSOs in dissemination of innova- tions to primary co-operative societies (PCSos) in Tanzania. Design/Methodology: The study adopted a case study research design whereby five cases were picked. Primary data were collected using key informants (KIs) interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), documentary review and direct observation. Docu- mented data were analysed using content analysis. The Atlas.ti computer software was used in analysing data from KIs and FGDs. Findings: The study revealed that most GCSOs have important resources but were unutilised for innovation activities. There were also lack of incentives to support inno- vation activities amongst GCSOs executives and personnel and lack of formal and comprehensive systems to reward innovation activities. Moreover, the study estab- lished weak innovations progression from lower node of innovation chains to higher ones. This scenario was coupled with neither institutionalised nor user-oriented ap- proaches regarding innovations dissemination. The study recommends that GCSOs executives should work to mobilise more internal resources to enable more innova- tions dissemination activities. They should also work to strengthen their innovation value chains by ensuring resources commitment and work to ensure deliberate inclu- sive efforts in engaging innovations users (PCSos) at all stages of the innovation chain activities. Limitations: The study covered GCSOs only as they have been receiving direct gov- ernment resources to support among other things innovation activities unlike other member-based and private organisations operating in Tanzania. Similarly, the study captured the GCSOs capabilities aspects within the key innovation value chain pro- cesses only. Originality/value: The paper assessed GCSOs capabilities in innovations dissemina- tion and proposes strategic measures necessary to ensure more innovations dissemina- tion to end-users