Opportunities for Conservation Tillage with Animal Traction |
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Opportunities for Conservation Tillage with Animal Traction |
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Report of the ATNESA International Workshop on Conservation Tillage with Animal Traction for Soil and Water Management and Environmental Sustainability 5th - 10th October 1998 Rundu, Namibia.
Opportunities for
Conservation Tillage with Animal Traction Report of the ATNESA International Workshop
held An ATNESA Publication, 1999 Sponsored by: Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development. NNRDP - Northern Namibia Rural Development Programme; RSDP - Rural Development Support Programme, Namibia; NOLIDEP - Northern Region Livestock Development Programme, Namibia. CTA - Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation; Commonwealth Foundation
ATNESA Network addresses:
Cover Pictures: Various "faces" of Conservation Tillage in Namibia by P.G. Kaumbutho Document preparation by: Dr. P.G. Kaumbutho Executive Coordinator Kenya Network for Draught Animal Technology P.O. Box 61441, Nairobi. Kenya. Tel/Fax +254-2-766939 Email: KENDAT@Africaonline.co.ke Introducing the Namibian Ministry of Agriculture, Water & Rural Development 1. An Overview of the Workshop 2. Summaries of Keynote Presentations 3. Summaries of Case Study Presentations 4. On-Farm Demonstrations of Conservation Tillage Implements Using Animal Power 8. Workshop Recommendations and Follow-up Annex 3. List of Papers Submitted Annex 4. ATNESA and Network Contacts
Reporting Team: L to R: P.G. Kaumbutho,
T.M. Simalenga, V.Nghipondoka, S. Husselmann, J. Siacinji-Musiwa, W. Kumwenda, M..Bwalya
and E. Mwenya The Animal Traction Network for Eastern and Southern Africa (ATNESA) was formed in 1990 to improve information exchange and regional cooperation relating to animal draft power. The network aims to unite researchers, manufacturers, development workers, institutions and the users of animal traction in the region. Membership of the network is open to all individuals and organizations interested in its objectives. The ATNESA steering committee, elected during major workshops, includes traction specialists from six countries in the region, as well as representatives of interested resource organizations. The committee initiates, coordinates and facilitates a variety of network arrangements. ATNESA encourages the formation and operation of national animal traction networks, whether formal or informal. Responsibility for implementing ATNESA activities is delegated to these national networks and to ATNESA members in different countries. ATNESA, in collaboration with national networks and other organizations, has arranged international workshops on several themes including Improving animal traction
technology (Zambia, 1992) More than 400 people from 40 countries have participated in ATNESA international workshops and several resource publications have been produced. ATNESA has a small secretariat in Zimbabwe to assist international liaison. Nevertheless, ATNESA encouraged interested people to work with their local national networks and to contact directly, their colleagues in other countries. The addresses of ATNESA national networks, ATNESA Steering Committee members are given at the end of this publication. ATNESA Secretariat
Introducing MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, WATER AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (MAWRD) Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development exists to promote and facilitate the environmentally sustainable development, management and utilization of water and agricultural resources to achieve sound socio-economic development together with all citizens.
The Ministry considers land clearing and preparation as an important input constraint which must be addressed. The Government promotes private ploughing services and the establishment of private tractor maintenance facilities in rural areas. However, highest priority is placed on the promotion of animal draft power. The utilization of draft animal power and appropriate farm mechanization technology, to address seasonal labour shortages and raise the productivity and profitability of smallholder production is being fully supported. Promoting the use of improved animal draft technologies for soil cultivation and weeding is now receiving priority attention from Government extension and training services. The increasing demand from farmers should stimulate the private sector to produce and stock DAT implements and replacement parts. Ministry of Agriculture Water and
Rural Development
Workshop Participants
The organization and success of the workshop "Conservation Tillage With Animal Traction For Soil-Water Management And Environmental Sustainability" was made possible by the hardwork of many different people. The ATNESA steering committee and the workshop reporting team would like to thank all those people who made the workshop possible and who assisted in the preparation of this report. The host organization was the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development (MAWRD). The workshop was organized by a local committee, with representatives of Ministry of Agriculture, the University of Namibia, ATNESA and the Rural Support Development Programme (RSDP). The Committee comprised of:
Support Programme
In-service Training - DAT
ATNESA Secretariat Deep appreciation is due to all these people for their dedication and hard work. Gratitude is also due to the Division of Agricultural Training and Mashare Agricultural and Research Institute who provided secretariat services and logistical assistance. Special thanks also go to Ms.A. Andreas; Ms A. Libanda; Ms. S. Husselmann and Ms. S. Patoko who assisted in the secretarial services during the workshop. The workshop secretariat and other core costs of the workshop were funded by: MAWRD- Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development, NNRDP - Northern Namibia Rural Development Programme, RSDP - Rural Development Support Programme, Namibia NOLIDEP- Northern Regions Livestock Development Programme, Namibia. The funds sponsored all Namibian participants. Special appreciation is due to Dr. V.P. Shivute, the PS in MAWRD for his support and help in securing the funds. External participants were sponsored by CTA - Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation, CF - Commonwealth Foundation and some by their own organizations or by agencies within their own countries. The ATNESA steering Committee would like to convey appreciation to all the local, national, regional and international organizations that supported participants, directly or indirectly. During the workshop many people acted as chairpersons or rapporteurs of plenary sessions, group discussions and informal evening meetings. All are warmly thanked.
Opening Ceremony: Rundu Governor’s Address After the workshop, a reporting team prepared this workshop report. The team comprised of the individuals listed on the Cover Page of this Report. Ms. S. Husselmann of Tsumis Agricultural College assisted the reporting team with word processing. The workshop will be followed up in a number of ways, as outlined in this report. The papers submitted at the workshop, are being edited for publication as Proceedings. Summaries of key ones are presented in this report. The proposed project proposals which arose will be finalized and presented to Namibian Government for follow-up. Emanating activities of regional nature will be implemented by ATNESA and other organizations with similar interest. Lastly the ATNESA steering committee would like to warmly thank everyone who has been involved in the planning, implementing and support for this workshop. The steering Committee looks forward to further close collaboration with individual members, supporting organization and other networks.
OPENING SPEECH Deputy Minister for Agriculture Water and Rural Development Honourable S. Webster
Hon. S. Webster Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Guests, Workshop participants, Ladies and Gentlemen Let me first all of all take this opportunity to welcome all of you to Rundu and to our beautiful country, Namibia. You are all most welcome. I am delighted to be in the midst of this distinguished gathering of specialists from different parts of the world who have considerable experience in the area of conservation tillage, animal traction and environmental sustainability. One therefore hopes that this technical workshop will effectively present the state of affairs; as regards conservation tillage, discuss the various options available, dissemination approaches and formulate recommendations and programs for further research intervention and extension. I have noted that your workshop objectives are quite noble since you seek to share and exchange notes on recent technology developments on conservation tillage. You also intend to discuss the socio-economic constraints and transfer strategies vis-à-vis those developments. I have also noted that Rain-water harvesting for soil-water management in semi-arid areas is another issue high on your agenda. We in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development will be following closely on your deliberations and implementation strategies. The importance of conservation tillage and environmental sustainability cannot be overemphasized. We need to conserve land at all costs. The majority of our smallholder agricultural land has poor soils, which are shallow with low soil fertility. In Namibia, the climate can be described as 37% semi-arid to arid. In most of our countries in the region (including Namibia), conservation tillage practices have been adopted and practiced by large scale commercial farmers for many years. What we need to address is the question of having sound conservation tillage practices based on animal traction systems that can be effectively adopted by small holder farmers. For example, if your recommendation is "tied ridging" or "zero tillage" system, how much does it adapt and how does it behave in different soil types e.g. sandy soils and with different farmers? We all know that tractors and draft animals can be used in agriculture. They can either be used on their own or combined to complement each other to improve the economic viability of the farm. For small holder farmers, animal traction is the best option as it is affordable, sustainable, profitable and environment friendly in most ecological systems. Here in Namibia, about 60 – 80% of farmers in northern communal areas use draft animals for both ploughing and transport purposes. The Government of Namibia has recognised the important role draft animal power can play to uplift the standard of living of rural communities. This has led to the establishment of the National draft animal power program, which is centred at Mashare Agricultural Development Institute. Your input and exchange of ideas on how the program is ran, its research and training activities, and its future role in improving small holder agriculture will be mostly appreciated. I cannot do justice to your workshop if I do not join in the popular theme of involving farmers (participation) and empowering them. As you are aware, most people are concerned with the need to involve others in issues which affect their lives. The call is for us to make farmers, partners in development. Farmers should therefore be involved not only in extension programs, but even in designing and carrying out on-farm research. So, the issue is not on whether farmers should participate or not but much more on how they should participate? I want to believe that this workshop will make an attempt to make farmer participation and empowerment a reality. I suppose farmer participation will start with the field visits during this workshop. The government fully recognizes the vital role which is played by research in the overall development of Agriculture. I am told that some of the outputs from this workshop are the Research and Extension Program on conservation tillage for Namibia and to launch the decade of promoting conservation tillage with animal traction in the region. I would like to challenge you to come up with viable proposals in achieving the intended target. If possible try to get farmers needs so as to put their input into the whole research agenda, especially if the research and promotion programs are going to affect their most needy areas. We will be waiting to receive the proposal as soon as possible. This workshop has been made possible by efforts of various individuals and donor support. It is proper to recognize the input of the local workshop secretariat and organizing committee, who spent many hours in making plans and necessary follow ups. The following donor support is appreciated: CTA – Netherlands, Commonwealth Foundation, the RSDP, NOLIDEP, NNRDP, FAO and other organizations who have financed participants to this workshop. We should not forget the crucial role the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development, in collaboration with ATNESA has played in supporting this workshop. Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to remind you once again that while we are here making deliberations, farmers are anxiously waiting for our services. Our greatest challenge still remains that of helping smallholder farmers to help themselves in a sustainable way. Let me wish you a very successful technical workshop. And with these few words I hereby declare the workshop on Conservation Tillage with Animal Traction for Soil-Water Management and Environmental Sustainability officially open.
1. AN OVERVIEW OF THE WORKSHOP
ATNESA Chair: Introduction to the Workshop Workshop background Many smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa are faced with problems of recurrent droughts, loss of rain water to runoff, erosion and degradation of soils. Conservation farming is now seen by many as one of the solutions to these devastating problems. For optimum tillage, planting and crop management systems to be developed, promoted and subsequently adopted, it is essential for researchers, extensionists and development agents to understand the constraints within which individual farmers operate. Studies on relationship between animal traction, environmental impact and the sustainability of production systems, are relatively recent. As a result, there is very little concrete information about environmental impact of using draft animal power. Animal traction as a power source, cannot be considered in isolation. It must be examined in the context of total farming systems, in order to assess its positive and negative environmental implications. At an ATNESA workshop "Meeting the challenges of animal traction", held in December 1995 in Kenya, the importance of using draft animal power for conservation tillage in semi-arid areas was stressed. It was therefore within ATNESA planned to organize a regional workshop on conservation tillage and environmental issues. Such a Workshop would look into various options available as well as dissemination strategies. It would launch a decade of promoting sustainable conservation techniques based on draft animal power and utilization. Animal traction is being strongly addressed as an important technology for Eastern and Southern Africa. In Namibia, the Government has acknowledged the importance of this technology by setting up a National Draft Animal Power (DAP) Programme, to assist the smallholder farmers especially in the Northern Communal Areas. This region, by Namibian standards, receives the highest rainfall (500 mm to 700 mm) per annum. The Northern region is further characterized by sandy soils with low organic matter and water retention capacity. For the past few years, tillage specialists in Eastern and Southern Africa and elsewhere have been addressing issues related to the above factors, to acquire technologies based on animal traction for smallholder farmers. One issue identified for this purpose has been "Conservation Tillage" (CONTIL) and how it affects the environment.
Keeping participants and discussion in track! Workshop objectives The objective of the workshop was to bring together farmers, national and regional specialists involved in research, development, training and extension in order to:
Workshop sub-themes
Participants Participation comprised persons involved in research, training, extension and rural development programmes related to smallholder agriculture. A total of 84 participants attended the workshop. These were from Namibia, regional ATNESA member and non-member countries, West Africa and Europe. In attendance were multi-disciplinary individuals and organizational representatives with diverse experiences, from various countries and regions. Some participants brought in equipment used in conservation tillage for demonstration on the farmers fields. The names and addresses of participants are listed in Annex Two of this Report. Host, dates and location The workshop was hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development of Namibia. The planning and facilitation of the workshop was carried out in close cooperation with the ATNESA steering committee. The workshop was held at Ngandu lodge in Rundu, Namibia from 5th - 10th October 1998. Workshop Registration Workshop programme Detailed workshop programme is presented in Annex One. However, the following is a day to day summary of the workshop events: Day 1 This was the day when participants arrived. After registration, participants put up posters and exhibits. In the evening of this day there was the official opening of the workshop by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development, Honourable S. Webster. The Governor of Rundu town also formally welcomed the participants.
Informal networking Day 2 The first half of the second day was occupied by presentations of keynote papers first by Mr. P.W. Misika who presented a country synthesis of Namibia; followed by Dr. P. Kaumbutho who presented an overview of conservation tillage practices in East and Southern Africa. Case studies and country reports were presented in the afternoon. Day 3. All participants went to attend field demonstrations on tillage systems and technologies on a farmers field at Muroro, fourty five kilometres East of Rundu. Later, three case study papers were presented on indigenous conservation tillage technologies and technology transfer techniques. In the afternoon there were plenary sessions, group discussions and presentations of group discussions. Day 4. The fourth day was spent on field visits to farmers. Participants were divided into eight groups and each group visited three farm villages to discuss with farmers their problems and possible solutions. Later the groups worked on and presented summaries of field findings and recommendations. Day 5. Participants were divided into small output oriented groups. These groups were involved in intensive discussions to make strategies and action plans for both National and Regional level activities. This was a most useful day of the workshop.
Informal Networking Day 6. On the last day of the workshop there was a plenary session to make recommendations and follow-up actions. This was followed by a Workshop Synthesis presentation by Richard Fowler of South Africa. Thereafter there was workshop evaluation session by all participants. The workshop was officially closed by the Under Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development Mr.P.W.Misika. Workshop inputs i. Papers Most participants prepared papers and Case Studies on conservation tillage practices and environmental issues for sustainable agricultural production using DAP. These included research reports, indigenous practices such as rain water harvesting, experiences of extension programmes, and proposals for future and collaborative activities. Twenty five papers were prepared for the workshop. Summaries of keynote papers, case studies and regional experiences presented are included in this report. These and the rest of the papers submitted will be edited and produced in full as Workshop Proceedings.
Group Discussion ii. Exhibits Colourful and informative exhibits were put up by participants in the roundavel close to the conference room. These exhibits covered a wide range of topics from, various uses of animal power in agricultural production design and evaluation of equipment, field trials, manufacturing of farm equipment, indigenous soil conservation tillage techniques and gender issues. Some typical Programmes the posters presented were such as:
Expectations of Participants At the beginning of the workshop, participants were asked to write down on a card what they hoped would be an outcome of the workshop. The cards were put together, discussed and summarized. The following were the main expectations as expressed by the participants:
Evening Programmes There were a number of optional evening programmes that were arranged and executed during the conference week. These evening programmes provided further opportunities for networking among individuals. The most notable programmes were:
Group Reporting
Informal networking interactions The workshop provided an excellent forum for intensive interaction among the participants. Many formal and informal arrangements were independently made between participants throughout the week. These will result in further collaboration and exchange of information on conservation tillage with animal traction for soil-water management and environmental sustainability.
Evaluation At the end of the workshop all participants were invited to give their views on all aspects of the programme and logistical arrangements by completing evaluation forms anonymously. The participants were very positive and gave the workshop a very high rating. A workshop analysis of the evaluation is presented in this report. Workshop outputs Many participants reported that after attending the workshop they were now more informed on problems affecting animal traction, soil fertility and management, environmental degradation and other multi-disciplinary factors. This means that the workshop enhanced understanding of issues on Conservation Tillage (CT) and increased motivation of participants. This is bound to benefit national and regional programmes working on conservation tillage with animal traction. Many technical recommendations arose from the workshop deliberations. Proposals for a range of follow-up activities were made. The most notable proposals were: i) Proposals for Namibia Based on the stakeholders input and experiences from the region and elsewhere, received at the workshop, the reporting team prepared a proposal for Conservation Tillage Work in Namibia. Stakeholders presented a wide range of issues which were compiled into four broad activities in the Proposal:
At the end of the reporting week a draft proposal was presented to the MAWRD. The Proposal was complete with a Log Frame and Budget and was well received by the highly cooperative senior members of Namibian Government. ii) Regional Collaborative Activities Other activities which were regional in nature, also emanating from the stakeholders input were mandated to ATNESA to take-up. These were as follows:
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