Institute in project to promote conservation agric

Agriculture Reporter
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have partnered to promote the adoption of conservation agriculture in Southern Africa.

Conservation agriculture is a farming system that promotes minimum soil disturbance, maintains permanent soil cover and diversification of plant species and can efficiently increase agricultural productivity, while reducing land degradation and improving soil health for more productive, profitable and sustainable farming.

In Zimbabwe, conservation agriculture is now popularly known as Pfumvudza.

The Government is intensifying efforts to boost agricultural production through Pfumvudza to guarantee food self-sufficiency and commercialise smallholder agriculture.

In a statement yesterday, CIMMYT said it was working with the IITA to investigate the drivers and barriers to adoption of conservation agriculture in Southern Africa and to develop strategies for achieving adoption and impact at scale.

The project, “Understanding and Enhancing Adoption of Conservation Agriculture in Smallholder Farming Systems of Southern Africa (ACASA)”, will apply social and scaling science to understand the biophysical, socio-economic, institutional, and policy drivers and barriers to the adoption of conservation agriculture technologies and practices.

“ACASA is supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (Norad) and will be implemented in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in collaboration with the conservation agriculture stakeholders and farmers in the region,” said CIMMYT.

The project was officially launched virtually recently by Zambia Minister of Agriculture Michael Katambo.

Minister Katambo said conservation agriculture was a timely intervention as the livelihoods and food security of smallholder farmers in Southern Africa were increasingly being threatened by climate change and variability that had led to a steady decline in the production of food staples and an increase in the number of food and nutrition insecure people over the last couple of years.

Substantial on-farm experimental evidence has been generated on the agronomic and economic benefits of conservation agriculture which was first introduced in South Africa in the 1970s.

Investments have been made by the donor community and national governments to promote and scale conservation agriculture technologies and practices among smallholder farmers in the region.

Despite all these efforts, the adoption rate among smallholder farmers remains low.

IITA director for Southern Africa, Dr David Chikoye said: “We should not let the low adoption of conservation agriculture discourage us. Let us use this opportunity to reflect and identify the missing link and come up with more sustainable solutions to the problem.

Malawi IITA agricultural economist Dr Arega Alene said although adoption of improved practices by most resource-poor farmers was primarily determined by the potential immediate benefits on crop yields, profits, risk, and livelihoods, there were a number of biophysical, socio-economic, institutional and policy factors that promote or hinder adoption of conservation agriculture.

“The project, therefore, aims to identify the adoption drivers and barriers and develop pathways and strategies for inclusive scaling of conservation agriculture practices,” he said.

CIMMYT principal cropping systems Agronomist, Mr Christian Thierfelder highlighted some of the bottlenecks for conservation agriculture adoption noting they were linked more to socio-economic and cultural factors rather than biophysical.

“Conservation agriculture is a viable and proven climate smart farming system. Therefore future research efforts should go towards understanding farmers’ decision-making and behavioural change as well as profitability,” he said.

Other key partners include Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), African Conservation Tillage Network (ACTN) and Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA).