Tomato harvesting near Kirume Bridge, Tanzania.
Ana Lemos © 2016.
The SELVA team observed and discussed agricultural practices with locals throughout the Lower Mara River Basin in Tanzania. We were visiting at the tale end of the dry season (March) and talked with farmers harvesting fruit and vegetables to consume and sell in the market. Locals told us that the crops grow year round and fetch different prices at different times of the year, depending on the food availability in the market. Many locals use manual irrigation practices, hauling buckets of water up from the shores of Lake Victoria, from the Mara River, or one of its seasonal tributaries. Some locals had water pumps hooked up to a diesel generator allowing for water to distribute in a field without hauling the buckets. Women, men, and children were observed in the fields and in some cases the harvesting, planting, or irrigating was accomplished through cooperative efforts of family members or other farmers with adjacent fields.Near North Mara Mines in the Tarime District (discussed in a previous post) was the only exception to locals engaged in farming. This was reportedly due to contamination of the soils from mining activities. In some communities people help one another in the manual labor, sometimes for money, sometimes in exchange for help in their own fields at a later date.
Agriculture is seasonally driven and practiced by most of the families we spoke to throughout the basin. Different crops are grown depending on the rains – there are four seasons in Tanzania two have rain and two are dry. The SELVA team is in the process of creating a resources calendar that includes these activities. Some people we spoke with practice flood recession agriculture, planting in the nutrient rich soils of the flood plains. This type of agriculture is practiced in much of the world’s river systems, especially in areas where tropical rivers fluctuate greatly with monsoon rains. Maize and sweet potatoes are two of the crops grown in these conditions. Tomatoes and onions are grown in drier soil with the benefit of irrigation. The Tanzanian government prohibits development of the land 60 meters from the river and though in some areas this is enforced, in parts of the basin the SELVA team did not see this in practice. The 60m regulation reduces the amount of erosion and subsequent sedimentation that enters the river during rain events. It also encourages local wildlife and plants to thrive in the riparian zone.
Plans to develop the Mara River Basin from the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program locally known as NELSAP (aka World Bank) include irrigation and damming schemes that would impound and divert the river’s flow for storage and irrigation. The plans as described to the SELVA team are to grow cash crops to contribute to the country’s GDP and help with local economies. Due to these upcoming changes on the Mara hydrologic system, some of the current traditional methods of farming may become obsolete. This has been witnessed in other parts of the greater Nile Basin in countries such as Egypt, and the result is that many people are rendered landless and/or loss of access to previously available water and land resources.
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