Tanzania: communicating local farming knowledge

This paper explains the participatory process used in the development of communication material to promote local knowledge and practices on natural crop protection. Researchers from the Uluguru Mountains Agricultural Development Project (UMADEP) in Morogoro, Tanzania, collaborated with local farmers in the Mgeta area to develop posters that were used in farmer-to-farmer training to communicate farmers' knowledge and practices. The effort was funded by the LinKS project, a regional FAO project in Southern Africa that assists organisations to better understand how the local knowledge of men and women can promote the conservation of biodiversity and enhance food security.Lessons learned included:Testing of the posters or training materials permits crucial and valuable feedback from audiences for improving the materials before final production.Involvement of the target audience from the initial planning of educational materials builds a sense of ownership of the materials. The end-user then values the educational material more and is therefore more likely to use the information and share it.Farmers are much more interested in issues that they immediately recognise as being part of their local situation. Therefore, the use of local artists is crucial as well as using drawings that fully reflect local people, images, tools, activities, responses and environment.Dissemination of the local knowledge about indigenous plants using modern methods such as printed posters added value to the knowledge and indigenous plants involved. Consequently, it promotes the conservation and multiplication of indigenous plants. It also stimulates farmers to research and develop other local knowledge related to agricultural production.The partnership of farmers with UMADEP helped the farmers to obtain quantitative proof of the economic viability of their Natural Crop Protection practices. It also improved their skills in carrying out experiments designed to develop a farming system that is adapted to their conditions, needs and objectives. Further, farmers participating in farmer to farmer dissemination workshops are able to develop their communication skills and abilities.