Land resources inventory and suitability assessment of the eastern part of Morogoro Rural District was carried out to asses the potentials and constraints of the various land units for the production of smallholder low input rainfed maize, rice, citrus and sesame production. The study covered Divisions, ie, Mkuyuni, Matombo, Mvuha and Dutumi with a total area of 503,101 ha. The centre of the area is Matombo, which is about 60 km south-east of Morogoro Municipality. The area is located between latitudes 6 0 45′ S and 7 0 30′ S and between longitudes 37 0 40′ E and 38 0 15′ E. It is bounded by Uluguru mountain ranges in the southwest, TAZARA railway in the east and Dar es Salaam-Mwanza/Kigoma central line in the north.

The study area has sub-humid tropical climate (Sharma, 1987). The mean annual rainfall ranges from 900 mm at Mikula to 2600 mm at Kibungo. The area experiences bimodal rainfall characterized by two rainfall peaks in a year. The short and lighter rains usually last from October to January with its peak in December; and the long rains from February to May with their peak in April. The distribution pattern of both long and short rains is irregular and therefore rainfall in the study area is to some extent unreliable.