Impact Of Dessertification On Community Development In Bigwa Village, Morogoro Town, Morogoro Region Tanzania

ABSTRACT

The study was carried out on desertification and rural development in Morogoro Town where

by Bigwa village was used as the case study. The study objectives included to establish the

extent of dese11ification in Bigwa village, to find out the extent of development in Bigwa

village, to establish if there is significant relationship between the level of desertification and

the level of rural development. These guided the study and determined the data that the

researcher collected from the field through interviews and questionnaires.

The study used an exploratory research design to explore into issues concerning the practice of

desertification and rural development in Bigwa village, simple random sampling was used to

select a representative sample from the study population where a sample size of 80 respondents

were selected for the study. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources using

documentation, interviews and questionnaires, collected data was analyzed qualitatively using

thematic analysis to generate relate data into tables that helped the researcher in discussing the

findings.

The study indicated that desertification was leading to reduction of rural development in that

most of the people were not in position to engage in their usual agricultural activities like

farming and livestock rearing because the rain was inadequate for crops, pasture and water for

their animals and all this has made people move to nearby settlements because this areas were

still not yet affected by human destruction like cutting down of trees for firewood and

overgrazing. This is because these areas were before taken to be insecure places. Therefore, for

rural and economic development to be realized in Bigwa village and Morogoro town at large the

fight against desertification should be encouraged and enforced by various stakeholders like

community members, sub-county administrators, sub-county political wing, development partners and the district administration.