Feasibility of scaling up local level rural institution for sustainable land management: The case of Lushoto Disrict, Tanzania

This study on local institutions was carried out in Lushoto District where several land management interventions took place. The interest of the study has been prompted by the recognition that local institutions are viewed as instrumental actors to farmers’ development but they face a number of problems which hinder them in performing their roles and responsibilities. Therefore it was necessary to have a systematic understanding of the roles of local institutions and how they can be scaled up to increase their impact. The study aimed to investigate the feasibility for scaling up local level rural institutions for sustainable land management in Lushoto District. It intended to explore three major objectives: To identify and characterize local institutions involved in agriculture or natural resource management that; to assess roles and capacity of local institutions in sustainable land management. Data were collected using a structured questionnaires with open ended and closed ended questions, research guide and interview checklist. A representative sample of 60 respondents from different farmers' groups and 5 key informants were drawn and interviewed. The Statistical Package for Social Science Software (SPSS) was employed for data analysis. From the findings it was observed that farmers’ groups or local institutions play a great role on management of natural resources and increase production through the use of different land management technologies. It was also observed that farmers’ groups have different roles that they perform in order to ensure the sustainability of their activities such as supporting training to the farmers, formulation of capital accumulation systems such as SACCOS etc. Different ways of scaling up these local institutions were recommended during the study by the farmers themselves, one of them being providing working equipment to farmers.