The main objective of the field visit was to discuss with farmers on issues concerning socio-economic, farming systems, environmental and other issues based on the potential and use of DAP for conservation tillage in Namibia.

Each group was to come up with a possible strategy for the introduction of conservation tillage for the area or village visited. Each group was also asked to identify possible conservation tillage interventions, which could be introduced or demonstrated. Following the field demonstration the previous day, the participants had already become familiar with the range of implements and technology selection available.

Eight (8) groups with 7 - 8 participants each, visited 24 villages, and encountered a total of 124 farmers. The communal villages visited surrounded Rundu, within a radius of ± 200km.

The Kavango region covers much of the area visited and is located to the North East of Namibia bordering Angola. The Kavango river makes up the Northern and Eastern borders of the region. Here rainfall (400 - 500mm per annual) is scarce, scattered and unevenly distributed over the falling period. According to farmers rainfall has generally been decreasing over the last ten (10 ) years.

Apart from the Kavango River, there is no other source of surface water. The interior of the region depends on underground water from boreholes. Soils are generally sandy. The area is generally flat with undulated sand hills.

The following are the summaries of the main observations and recommendation of group discussion. Due to the similarities of the visited villages, issues have been grouped and summarized to get an overview picture of the villages in Northern Namibia.

Building materials and their provision can contribute to environmental degradation

Mixed farming is the major farming system, with cattle, goats and mahangu as the main elements. Other types of livestock kept include pigs, chickens and donkeys. Some farmers visited were also involved in other part-time activities such as fishing and trading. Farmers who lived near the Okavango river and Omurambas (valley) were also growing vegetables.

The places visited were found to have communal grazing land and their crop fields were fenced off to restrict livestock from going in to destroy their crop.

Some farmers practiced dry planting such that their seeds germinated with the first rain storm. The common crops included pearl-millet, sorghum, cowpeas, groundnuts, bambara nuts, pumpkins, maize, beans and water melons.

Water is life!

Land clearing was commonly carried out by men starting from about 2 months before the onset of the rains. The clearing was usually done using an axe. The cut material would then be raked using a wooden rake, in readiness for either burning or use as fencing material for the fields. After burning of the cut material (trash) farmers normally wait for the first rains before going in to plough, using the ox drawn plough or hand hoe. This again was commonly done by men. Weeding was predominantly carried out by women, though it was reported that men were increasingly getting involved in weeding.Bird scaring especially for millet was by both sexes.

The local governance responsibilities are traditionally vested in village headmen with authoritative powers to regulate all issues including those of socio-economic nature such as land allocation. Having women village-heads was common. Government intervention is normally through the local elected regional councilors in constituencies.

In the area of Namibia visited agriculture provides the basis for the peoples’ livelihood . Other sources of income include pension to the elderly and disabled, remittances, formal employment (private and public); and local opportunity earnings, selling of wild fruit, selling of thatching grass, casual work, brewing and distilling and rendering of services e.g. DAP -ploughing and transport.

Farm labour is concentrated on the family house hold. It is becoming scarce. Hiring of labor paid in cash or kind is quite common especially for seasonal work such as weeding, harvesting and threshing. The "NZAMBI" system is widely used. In it a farmer brews beer and calls other farmers to assist with farm work.

Arid Namibia: Several parts receive no rain at all in some years

Marketing is a problem during surplus years in some areas. Farmers have no or limited access to financial resources. The existing Agribank loan scheme is not accessible to the majority and most needy and poor farmers.

Almost all the villages visited had schools, clinics, hospitals, shops ("cuca shops"), boreholes and wells.

Due to declining rainfall there was talk of declining food security situation at household level.

The traditional way of crop production was found to be very destructive in the area. Most farmers did not use any soil improvement techniques such as application of cattle manure in their fields. Some farmers complained that they did not use cattle manure because it brought weeds. This was identified as one of the major problems. A few farmers said they could use cattle manure from their kraals if the exercise was not as labour intensive and if they had ox carts to transport the manure. In the area cattle kraals were generally located near the homesteads but fields were farther away.

Farmers who grew vegetables on small plots near the river used cattle manure on their plots. A small number of farmers shifted the cattle kraal in the field so that the manure could be deposited straight into the field.

Many farmers were not aware of conservation tillage methods although a number of them grew crops on slopes of up to 2.5% practiced ploughing across the slope. Some farmers found out from experience that in order to flatten their land they could plough from say, North to South in one year and plough across (i.e. West to East) the following year. The "excess" trash was burnt as part of the preparation of the fields for ploughing.

Forest fires were also widespread and led to speedy deforestation. This resulted in increased erosion and general reduction in the quality of grazing lands, among other effects. Deforestation due to indiscriminate cutting of trees was also common.

For example the Muramba ecosystem was destroyed due to ploughing and growing crops in it. Most fields in the Muramba were abandoned after 3 - 4 seasons due to reduced productivity, which was suspected to be due to the development of a hard plough pan. The problem of hard pan was noticed by a number of farmers. Many did not do anything to alleviate the problem. However a farmer who used 6 oxen, and a big mouldboard plough and ploughed deeper to break the hard pan reported to have seen the benefits.

No Agroforestry was practiced in the area although this could be a way of improving the soil and also provide cover. All farmers left stover in the field after harvesting. Some farmers harvested a little stover for fencing their homestead but most of the stover was left for animals to graze. Before ploughing some farmers would take the left over stover and burn it, whilst others would just plough it in.

All farmers visited used draft animals. Some had their own while others hired from neighbours. Use of oxen was restricted to ploughing with single furrow ploughs and transport mainly by use of sledges.

Using draft power was noted to critically influence area cultivated, hence, crop production. Donkey use was restricted to transport and actually it was not so common in the areas visited.

Cattle hire prices varied a lot in the areas visited with N$100 per 5 hours in Mungunda and Fumbe areas and N$40 - N$50 at Bagani and Muthinduko.

Ox drawn cultivators were not yet common with the farmers visited, but the few farmers who had experienced them reported their liking of them. Some other farmers who had only seen the cultivators demonstrated also showed interest in their acquisition.

The concerns raised included:

1. Some villages were observed to have local leadership vacuum and this may indirectly affect adoption of CONTIL techniques,
2. For labor intensive activities like weeding the adoption of labor saving technologies could be enhanced. The use of cultivators will, however be hindered by the numerous tree-stumps in young fields, some of them practicing shifting cultivation.
3. The adoption of some tillage tools like the rippers can only take place if the farmers appreciate them. This can only be achieved by on-farm, hands-on demonstrations for farmers to make their own judgement.
4. In fields that are not ridged, and as was observed to be the case in the areas visited, the use of ox drawn tie-ridger for water harvesting purposes is not useable. The introduction and adoption of the ridger might therefore have to precede that of the tier.
5. Some equipment may not be adopted simply because of their prohibitive prices. Farmers had the general feeling that anything above N$200 was too expensive. For the ripper / planter attachment, credit provision would have to be considered. The introduction and consequent adoption of all conservation equipment will not take place if nothing is done to the prevalent problem of cattle theft in the area.

Participants agreed that the aim of using conservation tillage was not only to increase farm labour productivity and food security, through water and soil conservation but also to do it in a more sustainable manner. They agreed technologies which need to be promoted and tried include tillage, based on subscribing, ripping, planting and weeding practices. Details and needs would however vary from one location to another.

• Palabana subsoiler attachment:

This implement can be fitted to any common plough beam. The implement is used to break the hard pan thereby improving water infiltration and conservation. It can be used in the dry season on lighter sandy soils to get maximum shattering effect and during the rainy season between crop rows.

The major disadvantage of the implement is its high power requirement (4 animals). It is however unlikely that any design work would lead to a lighter equipment that did the necessary work while utilizing two animals.

• Magoye Ripper Attachment:

This implement was used for making planting furrows either on ploughed or un-ploughed land. For conservation tillage purpose it is used on unploughed land. The Magoye Ripper Attachment works fairly well on dry soils and can be attached to any common plough beam. With this implement early planting and early weeding is possible.

• Ripper Planter Attachment:

The planter attachment helps achieve a simultaneous ripping and planting operation. Dry planting is made possible with this equipment. In terms of gender considerations, this implement eliminates the labour burden on women who commonly do the planting. Different seed metering devices can be used to fit the differences in seed size.

• Ripper Ridger Attachment:

This is a ripper attachment with extended wings. It is needed for making ridges prior to planting, either after ploughing, directly on flat land or by splitting old ridges. In this form the implement is a mini-ridger. The implement can also be used for weeding.

• Cultivator :

This is an implement with two front tines to break up the soil before the weeding sweeps come to action. The space in-between is weeded by hiller blades, which also re-form the ridges. The equipment is popular as a weeder.

• Tie Ridger:

If planting has been done on ridges, the tie ridger could be used to harvest rain water for the crops grown.

The workshop identified the following strategies which can be used to promote conservation tillage technologies in Namibia

• Create awareness on the importance of CT through publicity and demonstrations at all levels
• Use participatory research and extension approaches with farmers as the prime clients in the designing, implementation monitoring and evaluation of technologies.
• Facilitate creation of Community Based Organizations (CBO’s) through which sustainable CT development can be propagated.
• On-farm testing and demonstration of relevant CT techniques and implements, to give farmers options.
• In depth investigation on the status of soil and water including soil water and design of appropriate technologies and techniques.
• Encourage the availability of improved seed in remote areas.
• Encourage harvest and storage of crop residues by farmers.
• Encourage collection and storage of highly nutritious natural Fodder.
• Encourage exchange of knowledge and experience by farmers through networking and exchange of farmer to farmer visits.
• Training of both technical staff, farmers in all DAT aspects.
• Facilitate development and improvement of local manufacturing, supply and repair capacities for DAT implements.
• Include DAT learning and practice in school and college curricula.
• Branding of animals to counter theft.
• Gender considerations in all aspects.
• On-going monitoring and evaluation.
• Facilitate or ensure the availability, affordability and accessibility of implements through:

1. initial stock and supply by theRepublic of Namibia (GRN) or it’s agents
2. Deliberate financial back up through:

• Loan guaranteed by GRN through Agribank using the National Credit Program (NACP).
• Possible subsidy by GRN or Donors.

After discussing with farmers and taking into account the existing farming systems, the resource-material and knowledge available participants used their experiences with socio-economic and technological factors as well as the physical characteristics of the area, to come up with the following CT system proposals for Namibia. Of essence, the recommendations were both short and medium term:

Since most farmers had livestock, manure could be used for both environmental and soil fertility considerations.

1. Ripping Ripping was highly recommended especially for the fine sandy soils of Northern Namibia which tended to form an impenetrable hard-pan layer 12-20mm below ground surface.
2. Weeding Weeding was mentioned as a major problem. Considering that the technology had been adoption-tested with positive results little effort was needed in incorporating it into conservation tillage systems of Namibia. Animal power was available to back it, though specialized training for weeding as would be necessary.
3. Draft Animal Nutrition DAP nutrition and management would remain very important for Namibia. Draft animal power supplementary feeding was considered necessary especially because animals are weak at the beginning of the season when they are needed most for land preparation
4. Rainwater Harvesting For water harvesting and considering that Namibia is characterized by heavy down pours followed by heavy runoff, it was noted that there is room for water harvesting especially in the interior region of the country.

Although the shorter term efforts would not be carried out in isolation but in integration with longer term ones, the following initiatives were considered of a medium term nature:

• Agro-forestry programme
• Crop Rotation as well as inter-cropping research on-station and on-farm.
• Crop and livestock integration in line with a) and b) above where animal feed and nutrition is a critical consideration.