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Empowering Pastoralists in Tanzania with a Free Gift of Nature

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Fadhili Terri, via www.foodwatershelter.org.au

Farming is a truly rewarding activity for those who are in love with nature. Being close to the land, watching your crops and animals grow, living off the fruits of your labour , this seems to be the dream of more and more people out there as they are not ready to lose opportunities, running around and of the experiencing daily stress.

As any person knows every year, month, day, or even hour, there are always changes that occur to our surroundings that we are used to. This short commentary explains a way that might appropriately help the nomads/pastoralists in Tanzania to avoid cattle starvation, reducing soil erosion, increase their animal produce in good quantities and in good qualities by planting of Sunnhemp in their grazing fields and also help to return the environment to it normal condition.

The Plant:

Please allow me to introduce you to Sunnhemp (Crotalaria juncea), Sunnhemp is a fast growing nitrogen fixing legume. Sunnhemp is used for green manure forage, organic soil building and cover crop applications. Sunnhemp grows very well in the African climate and it can empower people’s lives to a more wealthy ,healthy and yet sustainable life if well used. Sunnhemp provides as much as 20 tons per acre of green tonnage with a maximum of 150 units of Nitrogen fixation per acre in as little as 90 days.

This natural plant also combats pests such as nematodes, help to control weeds and liven up soil microbes amongst many other benefits.
Personally I think inserting a new way life to the pastoralists in Tanzania, will highly impact their daily lives, their health, their economy and the environment in general, I have explained here below as to how this precious plant can do the effort.

Flowered-Sunnhemp-Plant

A field planted with Sunhemp at 50Kg/Ha in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

To Animals:

As we now experience conflicts between nomads and farmers in most of African pastoral communities, this plant can be used to reduce and maybe mark an end to this trouble. I do believe this conflicts are due to the lack of resources and differences in perceptions, for this case this plant can be utilized as fodder to solve the problem for the pastoralists. Pastoralists raid their cattle right into farmers land just because they can’t find sufficient green pastures anywhere due to the changing weathers that we are experiencing now. Buying of foods for their cattle is also an expense which they either can’t afford, or maybe is a way which they are not ready to adopt.

Rather than campaigning for pastoralists to adopt using of modern breeds of heifers, we can use this method in the meantime and I do believe they will aim for better breeds in the near future because they will now have a glance on the profitability of cattle, on the other hand, this may also convert them from doing pastoralism to a semi-transhumance way while keeping their settlements as they are and benefiting more.

Using this plant to feed their cattle, will lead to more healthy herds of cattle which will be a big transformation, currently in most nomadic societies, they do believe in quantity of the cattle and not the quality of their cattle, keeping the ribs of most cows are mostly visible even from a distance due to starvation. If the pastoralists will use the fodder from the sunnhemp, the development of health’s of their cattle will also increase and thus increase the value of their livestock possessions. As they will now be receiving more milk and more meat from their cattle.

This plant will also be high sustainable to the pastoralists in nomad areas as the plant can sustain harsh conditions, it is also said that their stems persist as long as eight to nine months, and will develop new leaves when cut one foot above the ground or when eaten by animals, this means that they grow when eaten ,if the pastoral communities are helped with the seeds, it will transform their practices in livestock keeping to a higher level.

To the Soil:

As outlined before, this plant is a leguminous plant, legumes do transfer nitrogen from the air into the ground. This process brings about soil fertility ,I have experienced to see bare lands reviving into productive lands when this plant was planted. The soils will be enriched and it will be easier to re-introduce the native species which were there before destruction of nature commenced at that particular place.

The soil will also be enriched by organisms which will contribute to make the soil structure well, and thus increase the number of living organisms in the soil.

Me-taking-Soil-Samples-after-harvesting-Sunnhemp

Taking Soil Samples after harvesting of Sunhemp to test for nutrients left in the soil.

Erosion will be highly controlled by having this plant scattered over grazing fields, with another positive effect of achieving minimum tillage as the plant will re-grow from season to season.

To the People:

The sunnhemp plant is also blessed to have very beautiful flowers, this may create other economical activities for the pastoralists rather than relying on milk and meat. They can adopt beekeeping by taking advantage of the yellow eye-catching flowers which are bee pollinated. The honey produced will be used for medicinal purposes and to improve the nutrition of the pastoralists. The pastoralists can also keep chicken who eat any part of this crop, the chicken will be healthy as they are getting some nutrients from the plant, the eggs laid by these chicken will have a genuine yellowish yolk, which will be another good healthy source of food for them.

bee-nectar-sunnhemp-plant

A bee sucking nectar from a Sunhemp plant, TPC, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

More fresh air, we all know as photosynthesis takes place, carbon dioxide is used by the plant and oxygen is released, also due to the nice smelling flowers, the land will flourish with nice scents, the tall stems of the plant will also play a part for controlling the wind speed which occur due to the lacking of tree habitats in nomadic areas.

The good thing that I have always liked about the pastoralists ,especially the Maasai, they have always sticked to using of natural building methods, their houses are made out of mud, sticks and hay. Luckily the plant is also full of fibre, and can be used in the building too, either as a roofing material or mixed with mud for better compaction for the walls.

To the Environment:

As the plants create a habitat, more insects will reproduce, more birds will dwell in the area and thus fulfill a food chain, which in the long run will create a new ecosystem in the bare lands.

The plants will also control soil erosion, improves soil texture, and add more nitrogen to the soil. These plants will also add carbon credits, and control stubborn weeds.

Cost Analysis of Sunn Hemp for Pastoralists

Expense: 50,000Tshs per acre for seed

Benefits:No lime or fertilizer needed at planting and no fertilizer needed on next crop.

Increase growth of cattle, antlers, fawning rate, and weight gain.

Sunnhemp food plots attract, grow, and keep livestock herd on your land.

Benefits in 60 days of sunnhemp growth on a per acre basis:

Provides 4 tons of 30 % protein forage for a cattle herd

Provides 100 pounds of Nitrogen to soil in 60 days

Provides 10 lb. of Phosphorus and 80 lb. of Potash

Over the entire summer, provides 200-300 pounds of Nitrogen =

Suppresses unwanted weeds

Suppresses nematodes

Improves drought tolerance of next crop

Improves stabilizing factors to the soil

Adds 4 tons of organic matter to the soil

Would you rather spend Tshs50,000 per Hectare on Sunnhemp and have very healthy pastoral community or let them spend their time moving from place to place without a definite hope?

In summary ,I feel that we need to inject changes to pastoral communities who keep cattle for their pride ,but it is these cattle who suffer most as they have their rights to live well too. The pastoral communities will benefit by living in new and wonderful ways, and getting another good start in life. However, life should be challenging, exciting and above all fun, and a plant specie can bring the fun around because its natural, ecofriendly and sustainable for the whole livelihood of the community and finally inject permacultural attitudes to the communities.

Note:If you would like to support the ongoing work of FoodWaterShelter, then why not go along to their next permaculture course? Learn more at https://www.foodwatershelter.org.au/pdc.aspx

This article is part of an initiative by FoodWaterShelter to promote permaculture networks in East Africa, and to support the hosting of PDCs in Tanzania. This and other articles are written by PDC students in exchange for PDC scholarships.

5 Comments

  1. Peace through permaculture! Great to see a solution that can work for pastoralists and farmers. Sunn hemp is a great cover crop for farmers too, especially in the early stages of a food forest. Sunn hemp does struggle without lime on the 4.7 pH soil I live on in humid subtropical Hawai’i–I think it has to do with the seed breeding and the ag system used to grow the seed though. Other Crotolarias do well as green manure though.

    If sunn hemp grows well with no lime, there is a good chance that Moringa will too. For those not familiar with this botanical rock star, it is a quick growing tree that is superfood than can be grown as a palisade (living fence) by agriculturists. It is known for being easy to grow and not needing fertilizer. Moringa is a useful feed addition for ruminants but it has low palatability. More info about living fences at: https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.echocommunity.org/resource/collection/E66CDFDB-0A0D-4DDE-8AB1-74D9D8C3EDD4/Living_Fence–Its_Role_on_the_Small_Farm.pdf

    More info and links about agroforestry and blending the best of the past with best of today at http://www.agroforestrydesign.net

  2. Hi Fadhili,

    Is this new data given above? will it be published somewhere? Otherwise, where do the facts and figures come from? The first site I looked at says protein is 12.5-15% and it also recommends to restrict to 10% feed for cattle and 45% for sheep to reduce risk of poisoning… https://www.tropicalforages.info/key/Forages/Media/Html/Crotalaria_juncea.htm It also seems that perhaps a more Permaculture approach avoiding monoculture by interplanting a mix of other compatibles may reduce disease and pest pressures that would be costly to deal with.

    1. Thanks for the comments.
      Dylan,The facts and figures are from the refferences which I will outline herebelow,I do agree that it will be a better idea to mix it within other plants that may reduce the risk of poisoning.Looking forward to hear other comments that will make this article a success when put into practice.

      Refferences:

      Books:

      Marejea:Crotalaria Ochroleuca:Freedom From Hunger,Fr Gerold,Benedictine Publ. Ndanda 1989

      Managing Cover Crops Profitability,3rd Edition,Andy Clark,Diane Publishing Co.

      Soil Fertility Management for Sustainable Agriculture,James F Power,Rajendra Prasad,Lewis Publishers 1997

      Websites
      1.
      http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE…/nrcs142p2_053283.pdf

      2.
      ucanr.org/sites/asi/db/covercrops.cfm?crop_id=40

      3.
      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotalaria_juncea

  3. Happy to see such marvellous benefits and opportunity for farmers and the whole community. I hope though, that the limitations and potential future downfalls of monocultures are taken into consideration, and as the farmers, in time, gain opportunity, profit and the control that comes with profit and resilience, they also are open to ideas of taking care of soil. We don’t need more tilling, monocultures or deforestation.

  4. Hi

    This project looks really good, I just have some concerns. Could the plant be a neophyte and develop into a threat for the natural environnment?

    I also think that mouving with the cattle makes part of the cultural way of living of the pastoralists and that this aspect should be respected. It would be good to look for solutions that allow them to continue to live that way.

    Thank you,
    Kind regards,

    Sophie Marchesi

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