A prospective method for overcoming challenges of rehabilitating degraded semi-arid rangelands of Tanzania: a case of Gairo district

Most semi-arid rangelands of Tanzania are highly degraded due to high land use pressures including shifting cultivation and overgrazing. The presence of large patches of bare ground, pronounced soil erosion features such as rills and gullies and high encroachment of both invasive plant species and dense thorny bushes, as well as damaged surface water resources are amongst easily noticeable signs of rangeland degradation. For decades bush clearing, water spreading and reseeding using improved pasture seeds (grass and legumes) have been amongst the proposed rangeland improvement practices to reduce the scarcity of feed during the dry season in communal semi-arid grazing lands. However, these technologies have not been adopted by a wider part of agro-pastoralists in the country. The low adoption rate is attributed to a number of barriers including culture, land tenure, methods used to transfer proven technology and practices, contradictory agricultural policies and unavailability of pasture seeds. In other words, the problem may not be the absence of the relevant technologies for the rehabilitation of these degraded semi-arid rangelands, but rather processes that are used to foster adoption and wise use of these technologies by the wider part of the targeted communities. Home pasture nursery (HPN) is a new innovative approach that was developed and tested in the communal semi-arid rangelands of Gairo district that has indicated high potential for enhancing adoption of pasture production technologies under communal semi-arid grazing systems. Herein, a field experience on HPN is expounded.The Tanzania Norwegian Embassy under the Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation (CCIAM) Programme

Socio-economic and ecological dimensions of climate variability and change for agropastoral communities in central Tanzania

A study was conducted in 2012 in Gairo district, central Tanzania with aim to assess the socio-economic and ecological factors influencing the agro-pastoral communities in responding to the prevailing climate variability and change. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a combination of methods including structured interviews, focused group discussions and personal observations. Quantitative data were analyzed by means of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) IBM 20 computer program whilst qualitative data were subjected to content analysis. A multiple regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between socio-economic factors as independent variables and perceptions on variability and change of rainfall as a dependent variable. Climate variability and change was found to increase death of animals due to inadequate pasture and water especially during dry season. It was further unfolded that human conflicts due to grazing in unauthorized areas and decreased crop yield and failure incidences are increasing. Women were seen in many ways to be more vulnerable to climate variability and change than men due to their household roles and dominancy of male in decision making regarding household assets at times of famine. A number of adaption and coping strategies were spontaneously practiced across the study area to cope with water related stresses in crop and livestock production. The coping strategies include shifting cultivation, vegetable gardens, pasture trekking, digging boreholes in sand rivers, mixed cropping including earlier maturing crops (groundnuts) and drought resistant crops such as sorghum. Therefore, there is a need to undertake capacity building activities to agro-pastoral communities for increased awareness of the effects of climate changes, and improved capacity to understand and deal with climatic change impacts. Also, training in agro-ecological technologies and practices for the conservation of soil and water resources in order to improve their adaptation and mitigation capacity.CCIAM Programm

Vegetation Composition, Forage Biomass and Soil Seed Bank of a Continuously Grazed Rangeland Site in Tropical Sub-Humid Environment, Tanzania

Most rangelands along the agro-pastoral villages of Tanzania are yearlong grazed and at various states of degradation. These rangelands contribute to over 60% of the meat and milk production in the country. An inventory was conducted to assess the status of grazing resources in a typical agro-pastoral village of Tanzania having communal rangelands. Systematic random sampling techniques were employed whereby line transects and quadrat frame were used following standard procedures to collect samples and undertake field measurements for both vegetation and soil parameters. The vegetation cover for desirable pasture species, undesirable pasture species and litter were 67.7%, 10.5% and 9.4%, respectively. The soil bare patches covered 12.3 % of the surveyed rangeland site. The most dominant grass species were Enteropogon macrostachyus, Bothriochloa insculpta and Heteropogon contortus. Forage dry matter (DM) yield was 806.8 kg DM/ha. Tree density was 1500 trees/ha and the total canopy cover was 63.49%. Combretum collinum was the most dominant tree species. Soil bulk density, pH, organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were 1.4 g/cm3, 6.3%, 1.14%, 0.09%, 0.89 mg/kg and 0.33 g/kg, respectively. A total of 11 dicotyledonous species mainly forbs and 9 monocotyledonous species including two perennial grasses were revealed from the incubated soil samples. The findings of this study demonstrate that the communal grazing areas have low pasture productivity, poor soil seed-bank and high cover of woody plants mainly bushes. In order, to improve forage biomass at the study site and elsewhere with similar environments selective bush clearing and re-seeding should be considered

The effects of a deferred grazing system on rangeland vegetation in a north-western, semi-arid region of Tanzania

The present study assessed the effects of deferred grazing management on rangeland condition using aboveground biomass, vegetation cover and species composition as indicators of range condition. The experiment was based on traditionally conserved exclosures (ngitili). Data were collected in Shinyanga rural and Meatu districts, Tanzania, from October to November 2011. Five grazing strategies were compared: old private ngitili, young private ngitili, old communal ngitili, young communal ngitili and continuously grazed land. Aboveground biomass was significantly higher in old private ngitili than continuously grazed land, but there was no significant difference in amount of biomass between communal ngitili and continuously grazed land. The mean percentage basal cover was significantly higher in ngitili than continuously grazed land. The duration of protection (old ngitili compared with young ngitili) was not found to have any significant influence on both aboveground herbaceous biomass production and basal cover. The Shannon–Wiener index and Simpson index of diversity revealed no significant differences in species diversity among the different strategies. Both the continuously grazed land and communal ngitili were generally in poor condition and a special rehabilitation programme for improvement of these fragile grazing lands should be investigated.Keywords: biomass, grazing management, ngitili, species diversity, vegetation coverAfrican Journal of Range & Forage Science 2013, 30(3): 141–14