Description

Executive Summary: The Irrigation Section of Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture is increasingly adopting participatory methods in projects to rehabilitate traditional irrigation schemes. This report presents the results of a collaborative research project involving Irrigation Section staff, the Economic and Social Research Foundation of Dar es Salaam, and villagers in three research sites: Kikavu Chini village in Kilimanjaro Region and Mtandika and Msosa villages in Iringa Region. The research aimed at learning how government and NGOs can better support community participation in the rehabilitation projects and in the formation of irrigators’ organizations.

The rehabilitation of Kikavu Chini’s irrigation scheme used relatively conventional methods that did not involve villagers in planning or decision-making, whereas the rehabilitation projects in Mtandika and Msosa villages in Iringa Rural District included a variety of participatory approaches.