Factors that limit adaptation to alternative land fretilizing methods in Tanzania: a case study of maize growing in peri-urban Songea.

Food is among the basic necessities of life. For decades African countries have been experiencing critical food shortages which is the mainstay of rampant hunger and famine characterizing most of developing countries, Tanzania being one of them. In order to bridge the gap between food demand and output, in Tanzania, the 1970s decade experienced the promotion of utilization of industrial fertilizers and hybrid seeds to promote food production. Most of the fertilizers were imported. Drastic rise in production was realized as a result of the famous Maize project popularly known as "Mradi wa Mahindi". The project was meant to promote maize output through the increased use of synthetic fertilizers. This project did change the peasants' outlook from that of being "inward looking" to "outward" or call it "dependent mode". High price of industrial fertilizers which was highly felt by peasants especially in 1980s, i.e during Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) implementation period. Removal of subsidies on agricultural inputs made peasants to shoulder real cost of production. On this effect, the rate of rise in price of farm inputs did not correspond with the proportionate rise in maize output; hence a fall in surplus. This made poverty levels to rise. One would think of organic farming as being an ample solution to the falling social surplus caused by the hiking prices of industrial inputs which are as well said to be associated with environmental degradation. The use of organic fertilizers such as green manure, dung manure and compost manure; in conjunction with other indigenous farm practices that allow for natural nutrient recycling to take place, was expected to be applied by peasants as a response to the food crisis. This is the essence of sustainable agriculture, i.e using farming practices which are economically and technically manageable and are within the reach of poor peasants. As to why peasants of Peri-urban Songea are not adapting these low external input and sustainable agricultural practices, as a measure towards rising output and boosting the farm surplus, is the basis of this study. The methodology of this study is descriptive. It based on investigation of the predominantly used soil nutrification methods. Their extent of utilization, how they are utilized and why; are the guiding questions to the study. Data were collected from peasants living in the sample villages and organizations dealing with organic farming promotion using questionnaires and personal interviews. The study revealed, among other things, that shortage of farm yard manure, lack of `know how', labour intensity and small farm size are some of the factors that limit peasants' adoption of ALFMs. Poor extension methods that are associated with biased extension packages that emphasize on the use of agrochemicals have also limited the utilization traditional soil nutrification methods. Globalization of the economy has, also, been found to be a fetter to the adoption of organic fertilizers.