Expansion of cropland and changes in agricultural practice in the mountainous area of Tanzania: A case study in the northern slope areas of the Uluguru mountains

Mountain our regions in East Africa receive a relatively abundant precipitation and display a potential for agricultural production. However due to the increasing population attracted by such environment at conditions, settlements and croplands have expounded toward lands with less favorable conditions at lower elevations. In the present study, the migration of the villager to foothills of the northern slope area of the Uluguru Mountains in Tanzania and the process of cropland expansion and subsequent changes in agricultural practices were examined. Shifting of settlements to the foothills of the mountain is a recent comparatively phenomenon in the study area that took place over a thirty-year period. Cultivated lands also spread in the foothills during the same period. While lower- and midslope areas had been partially used for surplus food production even before the highlands were exhausted, due to the increase of the number of inhabitants in the slope areas cultivation was expanded and accounted for lager part Along with the spread of population and cultivation over the entire slope area, land shortage has emerged, resulting in more intensive use of the land. Most fields became continuously cultivated without fallow, leading to the acceleration of laud degradation and diversification of the cropping patterns due to the favorable conditions associated with the altitudinal differences of the agro-environment Such changes were brought about by the knowledge and experience of frontier farmers pushed off from their original habitat Recent observations show that fertilizers are seldom applied in the fields on the foothills or in the plains, while farmers spend cash for hiring labor. Due to the erratic rainfall in the lowlands, extension of croplands appears to be a better strategy for avoiding risks of low harvests. Strong awareness of food security has result in the trend for extensive cultivation and diversification of the cropping patterns in this area.