Declining soil fertility due toinadequate farming practices, deforestation and overgrazingare among the primary impediments to increased agriculturalproductivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. These causal factors,driven by social, economic and political forces, manifestthemselves in market, policy and institutional failures,inappropriate technologies and practices. This is also thecase in Tanzania where over 90 percent of the population isrural and depends on land resources for its livelihood. Thisstudy examines the most significant issues affecting levelsof productivity and land quality at the community andvillage level, where local land users take decisions oncropping and livestock management. The specific objectivesof the study were to examine farmers' perceptions,particularly their understanding and interpretation offactors and indicators which they link to soil erosion andfertility decline, the level of degradation of crop andpastureland, and the institutional capacity to implementsoil conservation and fertility measures with particularregard to land tenure policies, local organizations andextension service. The investigators also sought to identifythe technologies, best practices and indigenous knowledgeused by households to control erosion, enhance soilfertility, and increase crop and livestock productivityamong smallholders.
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