This data set describes a survey in which 150 smallholder farming households participated in Karagwe and Kyerwa districts, Kagera region, Tanzania at the beginning of the rainy season between September and November 2017. The survey aimed to identify current uses of farm waste (including crop residues, food and kitchen waste, livestock manure and urine, cooking ash, animal bones, and human urine and faeces) and relate them to the agricultural production. Besides, this holistic survey encompasses gender-based household data. The data refers to two cropping seasons from September 2016 to August 2017 (12 months). The households have been selected after discussion with eight agricultural experts from Tanzania. All households were smallholder farming families in banana-coffee-based farming systems. All farms were affected by the degradation of vegetation and soil resources. They all reported that the productivity of their soils had been declined since they had started farming. None of the farmers applied mineral fertilizer to the soils, and none had received training in sustainable land use management yet, e.g., from a local farmer field school or governmental organization. The data set bases on a questionnaire that contained open and closed questions, a total of 54 questions, on household data, agricultural production and the use of organic farm waste. The original language of the survey was Swahili. If some farmers answered in local Haya languages, the answers were directly translated into Swahili and noted. After surveying, the answers were digitalized and translated into English. The dataset contains 130 quantitative/ qualitative variables. The original survey is attached to this data set.--The study area is located between 1.0° to 2.1° S and 30.4° to 31.4° E in the Kagera region in NW Tanzania and covers seven wards of the Karagwe district (Kayanga, Nyakahanga, and Ndama wards in the Bugene division; Kituntu, Chanika, and Kihanga wards in the Kituntu division; and Nyaishozi ward in the Nyaishozi division), and six wards of the Kyerwa district (Isingiro ward in the Kaisho division; Kamuli, Kikukuru, and Kimuli wards in the Mabira division; and Nkwenda and Rukuraijo wards in the Nkwenda division). On the hilly terrain of the Karagwe Ankolean System, altitudes vary between 1,200 and 1,650 m above sea level.--The study region is characterized by a bimodal rain pattern with annual rainfall between 716 and 1,286 mm (on average 982 mm ± 127 mm), and moderate temperatures with minimum mean temperatures between 11.6° C and 16.2° C and maximum between 24.6° C and 28.3 °C (Touber and Kanani, 1996; TMA, 2017). The rain falls during the Masika rainy season from March to May and the Vuli rainy season from October to January.

Period of data collection: 1st September to 30th November 2017.--Period to which data refers: September 2016 to August 2017.--Creation of data set: 20th of August 2019.--Technical assistance in data collection: The Tanzanian non-profit organization WOMEDA. In-person, Juma Masisi, Leinalida Alichard, Harriet Robert and Godson Byamungu assisted in data collection and translation between local Haya languages, Swahili and English.--Publisher: Technische Universität Dresden, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Department of Forest Sciences, Institute of Soil Science and Site Ecology and Institute of International Forestry and Forest Products; United Nations University, Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES).