Organic farming is practiced from necessity since chemical fertilizers may not be available, many farmers lack the money to buy them, and there is not enough market demand for crops to make their use economic. At present, the main inorganic fertilizers used are rock and/or sulphate of potash for cloves and peregrine, which are supplied in small quantities at government or cooperative farm stores. For cloves, some farmers use it together with a small amount of more readily available wood ash, while better-off peregrine farmers apply potash or compound it with a compound ditrans hong (N-P-K 15-15-15). Low analysis nitrogen fertilizers are not supplied, and while urea gives good results when obtained, farmers regard it as too expensive.

To optimize resources and minimize labor, Zanzibar farmers grow crops using traditional technology and locally-made farm implements. Hand hoes (muhuri) and short-handled axes or pangas are the main tools for working the soil and making planting holes. The axe is also used to cut small trees and branches for making farm boundaries and for staking climbing plants. In areas of coral rag soils which are hard when dry, the hoe is made with an iron blade instead of the normal hoe so one tool serves to dig and cut. A lightweight version can also be made by small-scale blacksmiths for weeding in beds and around trees. A kind of planting stick (shoka la kupandia) with a spike on one end and a wide flat end for tamping down the soil is used for dibble planting of such crops as cloves, cassava, sweet potatoes, and various fruit trees. No power-operated cultivation implements are used, so all land cultivation must be done by hand.

Traditional farming methods

Framing in Zanzibar has been traditionally practiced by small-scale farmers, most of whom are only engaging in farming for survival. They depend on age-old farming techniques handed down by their forefathers. On average, the smallholder farmers cultivate 0.5-hectare plots of land, which are owned by the village under the authority of a village leader. The majority of these farms were given by the previous political regime to supporters, with the idea being that everyone should be able to earn some form of income from a farm. The farmers practice subsistence agriculture, with the primary aim being to produce enough food to feed their family for the year. Male and female farming tasks are quite defined, with men doing the heavier work such as ploughing, land preparation, and tending to cash crops, while the women attend to crop weeding and domestic chores. Fire is a valuable tool for the farmers who use it frequently to clear fields, burn crop residue, and as a cheap form of land preparation. Slash and burn agriculture is still practiced by some families, especially in the more rural areas. This involves clearing woodland or forested areas, burning the wood, and using the ash as a form of fertilizer. This land is used for farming until the yield decreases, at which point the land is left fallow for a long period. This practice has reduced due to increased demand for land, with more and more land being converted to permanent agriculture.

Organic farming in Zanzibar

Organic agriculture is complex and knowledge-intensive. Thus, various on-farm trials and demonstration sites have been conducted on Zanzibar. These aim to improve understanding of organic agricultural techniques.

Organic agriculture can be considered as an applied agro-ecology and is implemented to avoid or mitigate costly socio-economic and environmental problems. Small-scale organic farming is ideal for Zanzibar for several reasons. Organic farming restrains from using high-cost chemical inputs such as fertilizer and pesticides. It helps retain and build soil fertility, encourages diversification to break pest and disease cycles, and organic agriculture is more resilient to the potential impacts of cost fluctuation and availability of chemical inputs.

Farms in Zanzibar are small, with an average size of 0.4 hectares, which discourages cash cropping and mechanization, as most farmers can meet their immediate food needs with very little surplus. This is both an advantage and a limitation to agricultural development since organic farming is more labor-intensive and provides an opportunity for farmers to diversify crop types and intercrop, while the lack of surplus cash hinders investment in agricultural development.

Organic farming is practiced in Zanzibar to a certain extent. Some areas are rich and fertile for organic farming, while other areas are sterile. The fertility of the soil on Zanzibar is mainly derived from the alluvial deposits laid down by rivers and streams, the calcareous remains of marine organisms, and the action of organic matter. Soils on Zanzibar are quite varied, including sandy loams, clay loams, and peaty soils, with clay loams being most suitable for organic production.

Irrigation techniques

Contemporary irrigation techniques in Zanzibar have become increasingly important, often involving lifting water from wells or ditches with a bucket and rope, a task usually given to women and children. This water is then transferred to the fields via buckets, or by carrying it by hand in the case of upland rice. More often than not, this form of irrigation does not provide an adequate supply of water for crops and the upland rice fields receive just one watering per season, resulting in low yields varying from 0.5-1 tons per hectare. The most successful form of irrigation in Zanzibar is that of the Shungi method, normally used for vegetable cultivation. This involves diverting water from a stream or well into a channel constructed to provide adequate water to the farm, often a group of individuals working on separate plots. The water is split into manageable quantities for each farmer and released into his plot when necessary. Although this system is somewhat sustainable, the provision of adequate water is often still problematic and does not cater for all crops or farm locations. Step or well irrigation can also be an effective approach and would be the most suitable for the double cropping of rice during the dry season, as seen in the successful scheme at Kizimbani. Step irrigation would be ideal for this location, however, it is only suitable when a water source is available at a higher elevation than the farm, making the use of engineering and a water pump necessary.

Market and Trade

The importance of the export crops to the Zanzibar economy is clearly immense. These were primarily cloves, coconuts, and some smaller crops such as vanilla, cardamom, and oranges. The Zanzibar economy has historically relied on monoculture, and this is still evident today in the extreme dependence on agriculture in general, and more precisely, on cloves. The result of this overdependence on one crop has been economically damaging. In the 1980s, there was a collapse in clove prices, and many farmers switched to rice or upland crops to try to diversify, but these were less profitable, and Zanzibar simply could not compete with Asian rice producers. Currently, World Trade Organisation restrictions prevent Zanzibar from applying tariffs on imported rice, which would protect local rice farmers, and similarly, restrictions on agricultural subsidies, created by the International Monetary Fund, limit the available support for farmers. This is damaging as small-scale farmers are given no incentive to remain in an agriculture which has increasingly low wages and uncertain employment. Despite this, the situation would likely have been worse had the currency devaluation and a decline in the total number of cloves produced not increased prices slightly. The main problem with conventional export agriculture is that it is typically capital intensive, leaving few opportunities for farm workers to move up the ladder when the opportunity to do so is limited. The loss of semi-skilled youths and educated small farm holders to other employment opportunities in a circle of outmigration has left a shortage of people with the necessary skills to run an export business, be it agricultural or otherwise.

Export of agricultural crops

Agricultural crops play a dominant role in the trade of Zanzibar, and the exportation of cash crops such as cloves, coconuts, citrus, and spices has established the country as a significant player in global export markets. At current levels, it is evident that the volume and value of crop exports dictate the state of the Zanzibar economy. This is summarized by the fact that 75% of the Zanzibar population is reliant on agriculture for income, and 60% of the total labor force is employed in the agriculture sector. This clearly identifies the importance of agriculture as a livelihood in Zanzibar. The dependability of agriculture on livelihoods is mirrored in the Zanzibar economy, where the total value of marketed production and exports of crops is approximately half the total GDP. This indicates that agriculture is essential in wealth production. The reliance on export markets and the dominant role of agriculture in the Zanzibar economy presents both opportunities and threats with respect to improving the quality of life and reducing poverty. It is suggested that to improve food security and sustainable livelihoods, Zanzibar should look to diversify cash crops and add value through quality improvements. This may suggest a move away from dominant crops such as cloves to more options of cultivation such as rice, seeing that rice is a staple food and Zanzibar currently imports large quantities to meet domestic demand. Though to make such advancements in crop diversification and quality improvement, enables the need for improved access to large-scale, market-oriented, and export-focused agriculture. This is where agriculture holds its potential to reduce poverty; a key example being the Zanzibar Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (ZSGRP), where success is highly dependent on the agriculture sector.

Local market and consumption

Zanzibaris are moderate consumers of rice, one of the most important foodstuffs on the island. Nearly all Zanzibaris eat rice, but according to the Agricultural Sample Census of 2007, an average Tanzanian consumes around 32 kgs of rice per year. In Zanzibar, rice accounts for 65 percent of the calorie intake, with an estimated 116 kgs of rice eaten per person. For comparison, the data shows that families in the urban areas usually consume more rice than those in rural areas, with 2.5 to 3 kgs per week, while the rural and Zanzibar east coast people consume around 1.5 to 2 kgs. A challenge to the rice industry was the 2007 ban of rice importation from nearby countries to reduce the competition for island-grown rice. The other staple food is bananas and cassava, which can be found in the rural areas and have major nutritional and income impacts. These two foods are loved by many, but are often associated with the less wealthy due to their relatively low production cost and they are considered “food for the poor.” Due to this nature, often local banana and cassava growers have argued that there should be more government and foreign investment to develop these industries and to improve the image of the crops and the social status of those involved in the industry. An occasional visit to the rural areas will also show much family subsistence farming of sweet potatoes and pulses mainly for consumption and to reduce expenditure on rice and rice-based products.

Limited access to modern farming techniques

There are several reasons contributing to the limited access to modern farming techniques. Agricultural extension service, essential for the transfer of technology to farmers, is weak and underfunded in many rural areas. According to World Bank reports in 1988, public agricultural extension spends only 5-7% of its resources on services to the 80% of the country, i.e. smallholder farmers. Thus, research efforts have little impact on farmers as technology generation and transfer is not reaching farmers. The Zanzibar Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) is trying to address farmers’ problems through adaptive research on soil conservation and fertility improvement, water management, crop improvement, and post-harvest technologies. This approach can be effective with farmers as it includes them in researcher problem identification and in the generation and testing of alternative technologies. However, only a small portion of recommendations actually gets to farmers and reaches impacts on the practices of farmers. Although some NGOs have had some success with outreach programs, overall only a small percentage of smallholder farmers have had contact with any extension service in the past five years. Another factor is lack of access to credit with which to purchase farming inputs. Although loans are available from ADC and some rural development banks, few farmers are eligible, and terms are not always favorable. Many smallholders currently have little or no cash income, being engaged in subsistence farming, and are reluctant to take loans because of uncertainties with market sales, agronomic conditions, and fears of crop failure due to problems such as weather damage to crops inflicted by aggressive monkeys. Uncertainties around land tenure security are a significant constraint to farm investment, as a survey indicated that 93% of farming households would increase spending on farming if land tenure were improved. The farmer vs. elephant/monkey conflicts over crop raiding will discourage investment in farm inputs. Schools and other public buildings converted from agricultural land are another example of opportunity costs of land. This loss hurts communities as insufficient taxes on village lands are often diverted to areas of high population density where there is a lack of available land for farming.