ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Agron.
Sec. Agroecological Cropping Systems
Agroecological and Socioeconomic Determinants of Lablab (Lablab purpureus) Integration in Tanzania's Dryland Farming Systems
Provisionally accepted
- 1Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere University of Agriculture and Technology, Mara, Tanzania
- 2University of Dar es Salaam Institute of Resource Assessment, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
- 3University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
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Lablab (Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet) is increasingly recognized for its potential to enhance productivity, resilience, and sustainability in dryland farming systems. Despite these benefits, its adoption in Tanzania remains low and uneven. Understanding how agroecological and climate variability influence lablab integration is critical for developing site-specific strategies that support climate-resilient agriculture under future climate scenarios. This study employed a mixed-methods approach involving 337 participants from two contrasting agroecological zones: Kondoa District in the Central Zone and Butiama District in the Lake Zone of Tanzania. Data were collected through household interviews, focus group discussions, and climatic trend analyses, enabling the integration of farmers' perceptions with long-term climate data to generate context-specific insights. Socioeconomic factors significantly influenced lablab adoption across both zones (P < 0.05), with over 50% of adopters being younger and middle-aged farmers (<40 years). Climate trend analysis revealed increasing warming in Butiama (0.048 °C/year, R² = 0.238) accompanied by minimal rainfall increase, while Kondoa exhibited slower warming (0.0073 °C/year) but a significant rise in February rainfall (Sen's slope = 11.8 mm/year, p < 0.05). Mixed cropping systems were identified as the most suitable integration strategy, with over 70% of farmers highlighting their role in improving land equivalent ratio (LER) between 1.2 to 1.6. Adoption was facilitated by institutional and market support but constrained by seed shortages, pests, and diseases. The findings highlight lablab's potential to engage youth in climate-resilient agricultural innovation and to strengthen dryland resilience under changing climatic conditions. Targeted, zone-specific scaling strategies that address seed systems, pest management, and market linkages are essential. These insights provide timely evidence to inform policy and programmatic interventions aligned with Tanzania's ASDP II and broader food security and climate-smart agriculture frameworks in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Keywords: agroecology, Dryland Agriculture, Lablab purpureus, legume integration, Sustainable farming systems
Received: 10 Oct 2025; Accepted: 18 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Leonard, Alavaishe, Manoko and Joseph. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Radius Ndibalema Leonard
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