Country: Tanzania

Location: Morogoro, Iringa and Moshi
Professional Staff provided by our Organization:  Prof. K. N. Njau, Evody Ndumiwe, Frank Njiku, Leonard Gastory 
Name of Client:Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH)
Start Date:January  20112  Completion date: October 2014

Narrative Description of Project:

Millennium Development Goal 1 calls for a reduction of 50% of people whose income is less than 1$ a day and of the people who suffer from hunger by 2015. However, rate of poverty reduction is very slow. Life in the urban areas is expensive, employment in the formal sector is diminishing and wages are declining in absolute terms. This has accelerated the growth of urban agriculture as a survival strategy by the urban poor. Commercial urban agriculture, spurred by increasing urban market, has also grown as urban population seek alternative income and employment. Urban agriculture, therefore, contributes to household food and nutritional security, creates informal employment, income diversification through sales of surplus produce or savings on food expenditures, and promotes urban food supply systems. However, urban agriculture is characterized by low yields due to low agricultural inputs, relies on rainfall and sometimes it uses polluted river streams or untreated sewage water. Polluted water affects the health of the urban farmers and the quality of farm produce, while heavy reliance on rainfall affects farm productivity because of weather variability. Water shortages in a number of urban centres have been blamed on the use of domestic water supply for irrigation in commercial urban farms. Therefore the overall goal of this study is to promote urban/peri-urban agriculture including fish farming through use of treated wastewater as a source of nutrients and irrigation waters. This research fits into Cluster I of MKUKUTA II. Use of treated waste water is expected to increase urban agricultural yields as will be demonstrated by field/pilot studies in Morogoro, Iringa and Moshi. 

Services Provided by ENVICON:-

  • Conduct baseline survey in Morogoro Iringa and Moshi municipalities to identify knowledge, attitude  and practices of communities towards using wastewater for agriculture and aquaculture purposes;
  • Develop communication strategies that may influence change of perception and attitude of the communities toward using wastewater for agriculture and aquaculture purposes;
  • Carry out value chain analysis and evaluating cost and benefit of wastewater recycling for agriculture and aquaculture purposes;
  • Conduct assessment on health of people living near wastewater treatment ponds or using it for irrigation;
  • Prepare of  a video documentary on the status of wastewater usage for agriculture and aquaculture purposes, benefits of recycling wastewater and experiences of those who will be  using treated for agriculture and aquaculture;
  • Disseminate of research findings through workshop, conference, seminars, video documentary, and awareness printed materials.