A case of the ndiwa irrigations system, West Usumbara mountains, Tanzania
Rural poverty is a major problem in Tanzania that has become the focus of different development strategies. Poverty alleviation is a priority objective in national development strategies. The Agricultural and Livestock Policy of 1997; the Agricultural Sector Development Strategy of 2001; and the Tanzania Development Vision 2025 recognize the critical importance of agriculture to poverty reduction. However, inadequate and unreliable rainfall has restricted the potential of rain-fed agriculture for rural poverty alleviation. Consequently, there has been an increasing appreciation of the role of small-scale traditional irrigation development. Yet, traditional irrigation systems face numerous constraints that have to be solved in order to realise their potential for rural poverty alleviation.