This continuous cover agricultural system enabled the Chagga people to thrive despite steep, erodable slopes and high population densities. In recent decades, land expropriation for colonial or state plantations, land fragmentation through inheritance, and massive out-migration of youth have apparently led to conditions of simultaneous land and labor shortage. Lack of land and labor have reduced the availability of fodder and therefore of cattle manure for fertilization. Some researchers believe the homegarden system may no longer be stable due to nutrient mining.
Many households are increasingly dependent on non-farm income.
Others, however, especially poor and female-headed households, rely heavily on the homegardens for household nutrition, cash crops, fuelwood, and fodder. This paper describes a pre-dissertation field study to explore the social, cultural, economic, and ecological changes affecting management of the Chagga homegardens. A participatory farming systems research approach is taken in order to highlight farmers' own perceptions of problems and to seek potential solutions through farmers' own knowledge and innovations. Since the research is preliminary, emphasis is placed on methodologies for exploratory, qualitative research with the goal of narrowing a research focus and arriving at research questions of theoretical and practical value.