Impact of Management on Soil Fertility and Rice Yields in Smallholder Farms in Tanzania

Presently, food security in Sub-Saharan Africa is threatened by an inadequate and unsustainable food system.Within the last 40 years, farmers have been negatively affected by the current system and people find themselves in a dire situation.Some farmers have shifted their field management to a system that is more sustainable and suitable for long-term use.Sustainable agricultural production recycles nutrients, maintains productivity, and reduces vulnerabilities to abiotic and biotic stressors.As a response to agronomic constraints present in a particular irrigation scheme of Tanzania, farmers, as part of a cooperative, turned to a local university professor seeking alternative technology to improve soil fertility and crop yields by using sustainable agriculture methods.An experiment was funded by USAID as part of the Feed the Future Initiative, to evaluate two sustainable agriculture systems and the suitability of Moshi, Tanzania for Conservation Agriculture (CA) and the System of Rice Intensification (SRI).One is a Conservation Agriculture system involving reduced tillage, residue retention, and crop rotation on a field growing rice (Oryza sativa L.) and maize (Zea mays L.).The second is SRI and used in the CA field when rice is being produced, as well as in a neighboring continuous rice field.The System of Rice Intensification