Effects of socio-economic changes on cultivation systems under customary land tenure in MBozi District, southerzania

Abstract

Indigenous cultivation systems in the Nyasa–Tanganyika Corridor of Mbozi District, southern Tanzania, reflect strategies developed to cope with political, socioeconomic, and ecological circumstances and changes. Such cultivation systems were formed under the customary land tenure system by which most lands in village are held by a few native clans. A clan elder, called the esongo, manages the distribution and use of each clan's land. Clans without large landholdings can earn income by borrowing land or helping an owner of an ox cultivate large fields. Therefore, their activities have also been controlled by the rule of the native clans. Clan land management by the esongo has created certain norms of ecological use, which have helped maintain woodlands despite economic development and population pressures. Thus, the clan-controlled land has functioned as a "commons." Although cultivation systems have changed at times in response to internal and external socioeconomic conditions, customary environmental use practices have served to harmonize human–environmental interactions. However, maize cultivation by ox plowing in permanent fields is rapidly spreading throughout this area in response to market factors and socioeconomic changes. This current change may affect both local society and the environment.