Sauti ya wakulimaThe voice of the farmers

Presented by: Eugenio TisselliNYC October 10-16 2011

Mr. Alisha SalumMr. Alisha Salum

Mr. HamzaMr. Hamza

Mr. Haeshi ShabaniMr. Haeshi Shabani

This maize has been planted on terraces so as to prevent water logging.

This is corn that I grow on terraces after getting advice from my colleague. I got advice on cultivating on terraces during the winter and not in summer as previously. This maize has begun to dry up and is ready to eat.

Sauti ya wakulima, The voice of the farmers, is a collaborative knowledge base created by farmers from the Chambezi region of the Bagamoyo District in Tanzania by gathering audiovisual evidence of their practices using smartphones to publish images and voice recordings on the Internet.

Mutual learning, observation and community memory in the context of a local climate change scenario.

"Incorporating indigenous knowledge can add value to the development of sustainable climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies that are rich in local content, and planned in conjunction with local people."

Nyong, A., Adesina, F., Osman Elasha, B., "The value of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in the African Sahel", Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007

What can you tell about the effects of climate change? Well we have faced a lot of challenges including absence of autumn rains, something which has made us to have only one croping season (long rain season only) while as coast regions we used to have two cropping seasons in a year.

What can you tell about the effects of climate change? Well we have faced a lot of challenges including absence of autumn rains, something which has made us to have only one croping season (long rain season only) while as coast regions we used to have two cropping seasons in a year.

What do you advice your fellow farmers and the government in general with respect to climate change? For the government, they should put an irrigation system that will help farmers to water their plants in dry season or buld some well where they can easily get water for that purpose. To my fellow farmers, when it is too dry they should think of planting those crops which can tolerate droughts like cassava, sweet potatoes etc.

What do you advice your fellow farmers and the government in general with respect to climate change? For the government, they should put an irrigation system that will help farmers to water their plants in dry season or buld some well where they can easily get water for that purpose. To my fellow farmers, when it is too dry they should think of planting those crops which can tolerate droughts like cassava, sweet potatoes etc.

Sauti ya wakulima / The voice of the farmers.

The farmers: Abdallah Jumanne, Mwinyimvua Mohamedi, Fatuma Ngomero, Rehema Maganga, Haeshi Shabani, Renada Msaki, Hamisi Rajabu, Ali Isha Salum, Imani Mlooka, Sina Rafael

Group coordinator / extension officer: Mr. Hamza S. Suleyman

Scientific advisors: Dr. Angelika Hilbeck (ETHZ), Dr. Flora Ismail (UDSM)

Programming: Eugenio Tisselli, Lluís Gómez

Translation: Cecilia Leweri

Graphic design: Joana Moll, Eugenio Tisselli

Project by: Eugenio Tisselli, Angelika Hilbeck, Juanita Schläpfer-Miller

Sponsored by: The North-South Center, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - Zürich

With the support of: The Department of Botany, University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM)

Sauti ya wakulima is based on the megafone.net project