Assessment of the impact of conseCrvation agriculture technology on improving food security in Dodoma city

The study assessed the impact of conservation agriculture technology on improving food security by small holder farmers. The study involved 80 individual respondents selected from four villages. The study used questionnaires, interviews, FGDs, field observation and physiochemical analysis of the soil to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis and quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS (Version 20), excel and Genstat (15th edition). The results indicated that 66.5% of respondents adopted and implemented CA technology while 33.5% did not adopt. The perceptions of respondents on CA were that 36.9% appreciated CA as a technology for increasing crop production, 28.5% thought it was good for adapting to drought, 23.1% for adapting to low soil fertility while 11.5% agreed that CA is for adapting to land shortages. Analysis of the data proved that CA increased crop yields as FGD's justified that there was an increase in yield from below 2 Sacks (200 kg) to 7 Sacks (700 kg) of Pearl Millet and from below 3 sacks (300 kg) to 8 Sacks (800 kg) of Sorghum per acre. The test statistics of Physiochemical analysis proved that there was a statistical difference in soil parameters between CA and in Non CA plots including pH, bulk density, percent organic carbon, total nitrogen, available soil phosphorus and soil potassium ions that justified the yields increase in CA compared to Non CA plots. In addition, soil structures based on type, size and grade were improved in CA plots compared to non CA plots. On the other hand lack of access on CA knowledge, guidance and labour intensive during its initial stage limited CA increased adoption among small holder farmers in the study area. The identified CA benefits encouraged the rest of semi arid regions of Dodoma and Singida to adopt the technology associated with short-term training, using farmer's lesson farms on CA, farmer's exchange visits and producing brochures and leaflets on CA. Furthermore, inputs had provided to policy makers and decision-making organs to formulate initiatives and policies that would make conservation agriculture to be adopted for raising food production in most areas where there are challenges of low soil fertility and rainfall variability. Further studies on chemical and physical characteristics of the soil in both CA and non CA plots in different seasons should be done to determine the seasonality differences of soil properties.