M tells us that they moved from the other side of the island to farm this land. We meet M, one of these new farmers, sitting on coconut palm mats outside the home he shares with his wife and children, chickens pecking at the dry sand. Ĭows amongst the ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani. Land is passed on through ancestry and kinship and new farmers must consult the community before claiming land. Farmers here don’t own the land they farm, only the crops they plant and the fences constructed to protect their crops the land they farm is common land, owned by the community. Though fishing (uvuvui) and agriculture (kilimo) form the main basis of the economy, families also graze small herds of cattle or goats in the bush and fields. Once commonly used, slash and burn agricultural practices have been declining on the islands traditionally sorghum (mtama), would be planted for three to five years, before being burned after the final harvest and left fallow for up to five years. The bush cleared, opening out onto a blackened clearing, a herd of cattle steered along their grazing route by a herder wielding a stick, on land subject to slash and burn. We traversed sandy footpaths between sparse settlements, these roads, speckled with coral, guiding us through dense bush. During our visit, we witnessed the construction of water reservoir tanks on Songo Mnara, installed by the World Monuments Fund to capture water during the rainy season to provide the island with fresh water during the dry season. Kilwa Kisiwani has a plentiful supply of fresh water, but on Songo Mnara local wells contain brackish water. Local farmers cultivating pearl millet (uwele) and garden crops, including tomatoes (nyanya), experienced poor harvest and poor growth due to the lack of rainfall.
Drought (Ukame) has affected the growth and yields of crops on the island for several years, exacerbated by soil exhaustion. Low rainfall during the rainy season has a major impact on agriculture on an island which has no fresh water for irrigation. The harvest is late this year, M tells us that the crop is short and stunted because of the drought (ukame) and as a result, very little has been harvested, even this late in the season.
We stand, the hot sun beating down on us, surveying a field of sorghum (mtama).
0 kommentar(er)
