Africa RISING Tanzania- Simulating Adoption Study

Sustainable intensification represents one of the best options for enhanced crop productivity in many fragile ecosystems. However, limited uses of sustainable production intensification technologies such as Integrated Soil Fertility Management technologies to address challenges to crop and livestock productivity including soil fertility challenge is strongly associated with declining agricultural productivity and increasing rural poverty. The Africa RISING project is being implemented in Kongwa and Kiteto districts of Tanzania to respond to challenges that hamper agricultural productivity in semi-arid of selected two districts of Tanzania using three sets of technologies. These are: (i) Integrated Soil Fertility Management technologies, (ii) physical and biological barriers for erosion control through adoption of tie ridges locally known as ’fanya juu’/ ‘fanya chini’; iii) physical barriers for erosion control (ripping and tied-ridging) and enhancing range, lands and livestock productivity.It has been known for long time that the success of any project depends, in part, on whether farmers adopt the offered technologies and, if they do, whether those farmers adopt the technologies in an ideal combination, and for the prescribed length of time needed to produce designed results. While studying the adoption of technologies after a project has ended has been a common practice, the well-established adoption theory and literature explain the importance of studying and predicting adoption in the early stage of the project in fostering a more complete understanding of the attributes of technologies and how they influence adoption and diffusion which in turn helps to allow the attributes of the technologies or the extension strategy to be modified so that levels of adoption and diffusion can be improved. Therefore, the adoption study was conducted to simulate adoption peak level of technologies to guide scaling up decisions and implementation strategy. About the project Project title: Africa RISING Project abstract

The aim of the Africa RISING project in Kongwa and Kiteto Districts, Tanzania is to provide a scientific basis for sustainable intensifying agricultural production in semi-arid areas of central Tanzania. The project activities are falls under 4 thematic areas that address three critical elements of sustainable intensification (SI), i.e. genetic, ecological and socio-economic intensification technologies. The scope of activities being implemented include: packaging of new legume and cereal varieties with over 120% yield advantage, packaging and validation of integrated productivity enhancing technologies for cereals, legumes, legume trees and soil health technologies, food safety primarily to reduce aflatoxin contamination and integration of livestock into the cropping systems. The innovation platform is used to set R4D priority in the action sites. In the 2013-2014 season, we reached out to about 1217 farmers Kongwa and Kiteto districts. In 2014 we plan to reach out to about 1500 new farmers. The project team is comprised of national partners (e.g. ARI-Hombolo, District Agricultural Officers, SUA and UDOM) and CG Partners (CIMMYT and ICRAF) under the leadership of ICRISAT. Project website: http://africa-rising.net Project start date: 05/01/2012 Project end date : 09/30/2016