SALAMA Sub-Strategy

Sustainable Agriculture and Land Management Program
2015 - 2020

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Introduction

Climate change and natural resource degradation are major global challenges to poverty reduction. Fighting climate change requires accounting for the livelihoods and rights of communities on the front line of climate impacts. Tanzania suffers from decades of recurring droughts and floods that cause devastating effects on agriculture, water, and energy sectors. Smallholder farmers, who represent nearly 80% of the population, are most vulnerable to climate change, which jeopardizes their income, food, and nutritional security.

The Government of Tanzania (GoT) and other development partners must invest in building rural populations’ adaptive capacities to realize resilient, food-secure societies in the face of climate change. However, agricultural investment comprises only 6% of Tanzania’s annual budget. The GoT has also promoted large-scale agricultural investments in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor (SAGCOT) that have resulted in land rights disputes between communities and investors. These investments exacerbate conflicts between farmers and pastoralists fighting for scarce land and water resources, sometimes causing injuries and loss of lives.

Women and girls are particularly susceptible to adverse climate impacts. They comprise the majority of Tanzania’s agricultural workforce and are responsible for securing food, water, and energy for household needs. However, patriarchal norms and traditions often dispossess women of rights, access, and control of land and agricultural resources, and exclude them from resource management and planning conversations.

In this context, CARE Tanzania endeavors to fight poverty and social injustice by promoting climate change adaptation, sustainable livelihoods, and women’s empowerment through its Wezesha country office strategy. The Sustainable Agriculture and Land Management (SALAMA) sub-strategy contributes to the Wezesha strategy, offering goals and actions to reduce smallholder farmers’, and especially women’s’, vulnerabilities to climate change impacts.