This paper presents the assessment of land use changes and its implication
to household livelihood in the Usangu Plains, Mbarali District. Remote
sensing, participatory and questionnaire survey methods were used in the
study. Findings shows that the Usangu Plains have experienced changes in
land use towards agricultural land use intensification due to high population
growth, market demand for rice, and the impact of liberalization policy. This
has consequently contributed to high demand for land and farm labour, as
well as their commercialisation. Households adapt to these emerging
conditions through livelihood diversification, depending on their access to
livelihood assets. Well-off households have heavily been involved in
commercial rice production and diversification to high capital investments.
Intermediate households with few livelihood assets were restrained from
commercial rice production, and thus diversified to less capital investments.
Poor households pursued survival strategies due to very limited endowment
of assets and livelihood options, and diversified to activities with non-cash
investments (casual labour, sales of charcoal/ firewood). The well-off group is
more successful in exploiting available opportunities, while the poor group is
the most vulnerable to changes, and their strategies have had more negative
impacts on the environment. Diversification to off-farm income-earning
activities is increasing with changing market conditions (liberalisation).
However, this does not imply farewell to farms at the expense of off-farm
income-earning activities. The on-farm and off-farm income activities are
interlinked and crucial to household livelihood in the Usangu Plains.