ABSTRACT
Wafipa mound cultivation has existed as a traditional subsistence farming method in south-west Tanzania for longer than there are written records. Early travellers and missionaries passing through the Ufipa Plateau in the 1880s described the system as 'primitive, inefficient, and wasteful of forest resources'. As a result, successive government policies have neglected the practice almost completely. No attempt has been made to study this simple indigenous conservation technique, let alone to improve the practice. As a result, the farmers themselves have widely forgotten the methods of wafipa mound cultivation which their forefathers formerly depended on. How do the farmers themselves perceive this indigenous farming method? This chapter attempts to look at the system through their eyes and, by field visits to numerous villages on the Ufipa Plateau, to determine the current extent of wafipa mound cultivation.
