Agroecological practices increase farmers’ well-being in an agricultural growth corridor in Tanzania

Abstract

Millions of people rely on nature-rich farming systems for their subsistence and income. The contributions of nature to these systems are varied and key to their sustainability in the long term. Yet, agricultural stakeholders are often unaware or undervalue the relevance of those contributions, which can affect decisions concerning land management. There is limited knowledge on how farming practices and especially those that build more strongly on nature, including agroecological practices, may shape farmers’ livelihoods and well-being. We aim to determine the effect that farmer perception of contributions from nature, socioeconomic conditions, and farming practices, have on outcomes related to food security and human well-being. We conducted 467 household surveys in an agricultural growth corridor in rural Tanzania, which is also essential for nature conservation due to its high biodiversity and its strategic location between several protected areas encompassing wetland, forest, and grassland habitats. Results show that implementing more agroecological practices at farm scale has a positive effect on farmer well-being in the study landscape. Results also indicate that higher awareness of benefits from nature, as well as engagement with agricultural extension services, are associated with higher number of agroecological practices applied in the farm. This research confirms the relevance of capacity-building initiatives to scale up the uptake of agroecological practices in the tropics. It also shows, using empirical evidence, that farming practices taking advantage of nature’s contributions to people can positively affect food security and human well-being, even when those practices complement conventional ones, such as the use of synthetic inputs. Understanding the impact of agroecological farming on the well-being of smallholder farmers in the tropics paves the way for policy and program development that ensures global food demands are met in a sustainable way without compromising the well-being of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

The Scaling Down of SAGCOT Public Private Partnerships

“…More effort should instead be directed to analyse the political economy of how grand policy visions "hit the ground" (Chome et al, 2020), and how development policies can learn from, and more effectively support, the variety of agricultural investments that grow from local initiatives taken by small-and medium-scale actors -by recognising the priorities, needs and challenges of diverse private and public actors (West & Haug, 2017;Woodhouse et al, 2017). A recent study, for example, shows how farmers use of agroecological practices within the SAGCOT region can contribute positively to food security and human well-being of smallholder farmers, while also emphasising the importance of effective extension services, technical training and capacity building to scale-up the implementation of sustainable farming practices (Milheiras et al, 2022). What our study highlights is thus the importance to recognise, learn from, and align national agricultural development policy to, how the SAGCOT partnering process has in practice scaled down, from the initial blue-print intention to attract new 10.1163/1821889X-bja10061 | The African Review (2023) 1-25 large-scale investors to a partnership portfolio consisting mainly of small-and medium-scale businesses that have a longer history in the region than the rolling out of SAGCOT policy.…”

Occupational and Environmental Health Hazards among Agriculture Laborers: An Evidence-Based Study from Punjab, Pakistan

“…In recent decades, the laborers working in the agriculture sector are considered more than half of the world's labor force, which is around 1.3 billion worldwide, and the majority of them are found in developing countries. Development of the agriculture sector is one of the most imperative factors for the fulfilment of basic human needs, poverty alleviation, boosting shared prosperity and becoming the major contributor to national development for most developing countries (Milheiras et al, 2022;Falconnier et al, 2023). The International Labor Organization revealed that the circumstances of the agricultural sector are significantly associated with occupational and environmental health hazards to laborers.…”

Farmers' Biodiversity Knowledge Improves Natural Enemy Conservation in Agricultural Ecosystems

“…The future of these landscapes, and the biodiversity they sustain, however, depend primarily on sustainable agricultural transformation and land management pathways (Phalan et al, 2011;Wright, Lake, and Dolman 2012b), the conservation behaviour of land managers, including their knowledge and perception of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services and disservices (Crespin and Simonetti 2020;Wilhelm-Rechmann and Cowling 2011;Gurung 2003;Gladkikh et al, 2020), and livelihood choices and wellbeing outcomes (Waldron et al, 2012;R. E. Bennett et al, 2021;Muoni et al, 2019;Milheiras et al, 2022).…”