LIVESTOCK
The Maasai Pastoralists in Kiteto depend largely on pastoralism as their means of livelihood. Livestock services including dipping points and veterinary shops; few livestock extension workers, shortage of resources such as water points and grazing lands. Availability of friendly legal and policy environment and secured land for grazing is essential for the wellbeing of the livestock and hence the survival of pastoralists. In recent years, grazing land has been gradually reduced to user uses such as farming, wildlife conservation and human settlement. Lack of good governance, functional land use plans, legal protection of village land have increased pressure on vulnerability of grazing land by encroachers.
Climatic characteristics of the district compel nomadic kind of pastoralism of which during drought season pastoralists move with livestock from their village to other distant places in search for water and pastures. During this time, land encroachers invade the left-behind grazing land and start farms. When pastoralists move back to their villages during wet season, they find themselves having no land for grazing. Sometimes, this encroachment ends in stiff conflicts between farmers and pastoralists. Poverty, deaths and instability reduce economic productivity and therefore marked as major causes of pastoralist land insecurity.
KINNAPA has been carrying out advocacy and service provision activities to influence improvement in livestock services, ensure availability of friendly legal and policy environment and improved budget for livestock sector development.
SUSTAINABLE RANGELANDS MANAGEMENT
In collaboration with CARE International, Kiteto District Council, Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, National Land Use Planning Commission and Tanzania Natural Resources Forum (TNRF), KINNAPA participated in facilitating the Joint Land Use Management Plan that enables livestock resources to be shared in the three villages of Olkitikiti, Lerug and Ngapapa. The area has a total of about 20,727ha. and has been surveyed, mapped and registered as OLENGAPA Livestock Keepers Association. The reason for its establishment is to guarantee for freedom of access of Livestock resources by pastoralists in the three villages (mobility) without political boundary limitations. OLENGAPA Livestock keepers Association is now modal to be replicated in other parts of the country and elsewhere in the world.
WATCH OLENGAPA VIDEO HERE
LOBBYING AND ADVOCACY
Kiteto Pastoralists Resources Access and Pastoralism for Improved Economy and advocacy projects implemented by KINNAPA in collaboration with other stakeholders to address issues of (i) Insufficient budget allocations for pastoralism development (ii) Insecurity of land for grazing and (iii) Unfriendly policy environment and Legal frameworks.
Pastoralism for Improved Economy Project is implemented at National Level to bring about Actors to address pastoralism challenges. However, six (6) District Councils are directly benefiting from the national level advocacy project. The district councils include Kiteto, Simanjiro, Kilindi, Mvomero, Bunda and Serengeti as focal points for the advocacy work.
AGRICULTURE
Kiteto District is inhabited by Population whose major means of livelihood is pastoralism and crop cultivation. About 90% of farmers in Kiteto are small scale farmers cultivating less than 2 acres using poor farming methods. Most farmers have not yet recognized the tangible profit from agriculture due to such factors as use of poor farming methods (during farm preparation, growing, harvesting and storage), income poverty that hinders their access to farm inputs, little access to good markets due to low quality of products and disunity among smallholder farmers and little or no access to financial services from financial institutions. KINNAPA in partnership with ACD/VOCA-NAFAKA project under Feed the Future Program facilitated Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) trainings to farmers from farm preparation, growing, harvesting and transportation to storage in 25 villages in Kiteto. KINNAPA/NAFAKA partnership aims at i). Developing and strengthening smallholder farmer groups and associations, ii). Increase maize productivity per unit hector, iii). Enhancing access of smallholder farmers to financial services, iv). Improve access of farmers to reliable markets.
The intervention has enabled the formation of twenty-five (25) smallholder Farmer Associations with 4,543 people, (1,700 females 2,843 males). Various activities have been done to ensure increase in productivity, economic strengthening and access markets. As a result, there is reasonable increase in productivity per unit area.
Thus, farmers could then have food for household consumption and surplus for selling. Farmers in their associations joined and established the Saving and Internal Landing Community (SILC) through which they have been able to have their cash savings and credits hence able to access farm inputs. KINNAPA facilitated link between farmer associations and potential maize buyers such as National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) which is now the prospective potential maize buyer of Farmer Associations for coming seasons.
Training participants on record keeping and leadership skills in April 2015, Also facilitated learning visits to Nane Nane grounds in Morogoro and Kondoa in August 2014.
