Ambindwile, George Katoto2020-05-162020-05-162017Ambindwile, G. K. (2017) Rice farming and environmental change in the Usangu plains, Tanzania, 1920s–2000, Doctoral dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam.http://41.86.178.5:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/11155Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class mark (THS EAF GN799.A4T34A572)Agricultural practices in Africa have changed enormously in rcent decades with varied outcomes on human development and the environment. This thesis explored the ways and patterns in which irrigated rice farming practices caused environmental changes in Tanzania from the 1920s to 2000, using the Usangu Plains as a case study. It examined the relationship between these changes and the political and socio-economic situation, technology, livelihood and the environment over a period of eight decades. Political ecology and historical ecology formed the theorectical frameworks of this study. Drawing on a wide range of colonial and post-colonial archival records, oral reminiscences and secondary sources, the thesis argues that the changing historical circumstances which were associated with rice farming such as colonialism, the adoption of the Chinese Green Revolution and economic liberalization affected the way in which the people utilized water and land, thus causing environmental problems such as the scarcity of water, pollution, deforestation, wild rice invasion and reduction of soil fertility. It also presents various coping strategies which the peasants in the plains intelligently adopted to minimize the impact of environmental change wrought by rice farming. The strategies included rice transplanting; the adoption of a double-field system; and the decomposition of rice stalks, green grass and husks to produce manure. By exploring peasant coping strategies, this thesis makes an important contribution by going beyond the studies that have privileged the active role of the state, corporations and large-scale capital intensive schemes in the development of agriculture as well as in the management of the environment. It does so by demonstrating that the peasants in the Usangu Plains were agents who made their own history by transforming their circumstances, including the environment, through their own material production and ideas.enAgricultureHistoryRice farmingUsangu PlainsTanzaniaThesis