Conservation farming proves popular with farmers

Efforts to encourage farmers in Zambia to adopt alternative farming methods have paid off, and small-scale farmers in some areas are reporting record productivity. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the bumper crops may be attributed to a steady move away from conventional tillage methods to conservation farming (CF). The UN agency on Tuesday highlighted that its 2002/03 CF assistance programme had resulted in the production of approximately 28,000 mt of maize, valued at US $7 million, while noting that the total cost of the programme was US $4.2 million. "Conservation farming has become more popular with farmers who can see their yields, in some cases, increase five times over. But it is important that the results of this technique become more well known, so that other farmers can participate," FAO resident representative in Zambia, Tong Qing Song, told IRIN. Under the CF assistance programme, last year some 60,000 farmers across southern Zambia were supplied with input packages of seeds, fertilisers, lime and tools. In conservation farming techniques, plant residue from the previous crop are left on the land to minimise erosion and provide organic material. This considerably reduces the need for expensive chemical fertilisers. The basins are dug carefully to avoid turning up the earth which keeps the nutrients in the soil alive and retains precious moisture. When the rains collect and sink into the basins, instead of running over the heavily tilled land and eroding soil, the water seeps gently into the soil. Farmers then plant their new maize in the moist soil and wait for the seeds to germinate. A key component of FAO's CF programme is the ongoing training of farmers. "Without the proper technical advice about improved tillage and planting methods, the inputs may go to waste. For this reason, it is necessary to provide farmers with sustained guidance," Qing Song said. He noted that the Conservation Farming Unit (CFU), initiated by the Zambia National Farmers Union and backed by a consortium of international donor agencies, had spent the last five years advocating the use of conservation farming techniques, which encompasses improved tilling and planting methods, crop rotation and inter-cropping practices. Advocates for CF argue that much of the advantage comes from enabling farmers to better plan their work - the usual last-minute rush to prepare the land before the rains come, planting late and potentially losing up to 60 or 70 percent of their yield as a result, are successfully being avoided. Moreover, conventional tillage methods involve burning plant residues, which degrades soil quality. These traditional methods have been used for generations in Zambia are seen as having benefits, including reducing labour input and destroying pests. But the CFU also points out the enormous negative impact of such traditional approaches. "Aside from the environmental damage, burning residues exposes the soil to erosion, while farmers who use oxen to plough, waste time which would be more valuable in planting as soon as the rains start. Ridging, meanwhile, is back-breaking work and only serves to further erosion, while hoeing has a similar effect while also encouraging weeds," the CFU explained on its website. In Zambia only 16 percent of the estimated nine million hectares of cultivable land is regularly cropped, and only six percent of an irrigation potential of up to three million hectares is used for irrigated agriculture, according to the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute.