If you always do what you have always done, you WON'T always get what you have always got

For three generations, Mwinyikambi’s family have farmed the same four acres of land in rural Tanzania. But despite reduced rainfall and yields they continue to farm as they always have.

It was a privilege to be a guest in the village of Zinga over the past two days.  Zinga is a village in the region of Bagamoyo, 50 kilometres north of Dar es Salaam. As outsiders our group was welcomed into the home of a local elected government official, Mwinyikambi. He is a leader in the community, a solver of local problems, a mediator in local disputes, a husband to two wives, father of six and an incredibly hospitable host.

After serving us lunch, we take a thirty minute walk to Mwinyikambi’s farm.  One of our group quietly described what we saw as chaos cropping - a random planting of cashew trees, cassava, coconut palms and rice. There are signs of soil degradation, over cropping and top soil erosion.

A morning walk through the village on our second day leads us to a small compound surrounded by decrepit thatch. Past the outdoor cooking fire we crouch to enter a darkened room, the stale and stifled air reminds me of the old people’s home where I visit my Granny. Bebe is Mwinyikambi’s 94 year old grandmother. I too have a 94 year old grandmother.

Mwinyikambi now farms the land that Bebe farmed for decades before old age and frailty prevented her from going to the field. He still grows the same crops and uses the same methods that have been practised since his grandmother was young. Over the past five years he has noticed a distinct change in the amount of rain.

As I perched on the side of her rickety bed Bebe told me the same thing.

The rains do not come like they used to.

Despite this change I don’t get the feeling there is an urgency to adapt to the changes.  Mwinyikambi tells me there is a bore hole in the planning but I don’t see any signs of it happening in the near future.

Would land management education, irrigation techniques and catchment strategies improve the productivity of this land? I feel sure it would.

Would access to credit for seeds, fertilizers and extension services improve the productivity of this land? I feel sure it would.

Is this what the farmers like Mwinyikambi want? Mwinyikambi was quite adamant that his soils were still fertile. There was no science behind his assertion and the productivity would indicate that this is not quite the case.

I am left wondering whether Mwinyikambi is simply happy with his lot, making enough to live from the bore at his home where he charges his neighbours 50 Tanzanian shillings (about 4 Australian cents) for 20 litres.

But even if he doesn’t feel the need to change, what is obvious is that there does need to be change. For a village to sustain itself there must be productivity on what is arable land and doing what you have always done will not achieve that.

The question is then how this should be done?

Next week I am off to Uganda. I wonder if what I see there will provide examples of how farmers are adapting to a changing climate and how that might be applied in Zinga.