This paper draws clearly on the Zambia experience on promoting conservation farming tillage among small scale farmers. The issue of relevant of research work, community participation and ownership of the technology being promoted as well as exchange of information are discussed. Practical examples are also cited. 

Introduction 

An urgent challenge facing farmers in Zambia is the need to find viable, sustainable and environmentally sound alternatives to the centuries old conventional farming system. This system of food crop production operates efficiently only when there is sufficient land to allow a long fallow period to restore soil productivity, which is exhausted during a short cropping cycle. Over the years, however, conventional farming has undergone rapid changes because of socio-economic factors, mainly population growth, which has reached alarming rates (McNarmara, 1984). This population growth has put severe pressure on the availability of fallow land and has led to increasing deforestation. 

Deforestation and increasing population together have forced traditional farmers to shorten fallow periods, setting in motion a spiral of degradation resulting in lower crop yields, a trend noticeable in throughout the tropics particularly in Africa (Kang, 1983). 

Results of the various Agricultural Sector Performance Analysis studies in Zambia are particularly alarming as they point to a decline in both yields and gross area under production including at farm level where incomes have also shrunk and families are generally less food secure than previously (Anonymous, 1973). 

At institutional level, weak and poorly funded public sector extension and research services coupled with inappropriate agricultural policies which have relied excessively on maize production have acted as contributing factors. However, the recent sharp decline in the performance of the agriculture sector is more likely to have arisen from: 

• Major changes in climatic and economic circumstances. These include the severe drought experience over the past years in the Southern regions of country characterised by both a decline in rainfall and distribution patterns.
• A severe decline in the availability of draught power in smallholder farming areas as a result of Corridor disease and poor nutrition and the reduction of active farm labour through urban drift.
• The liberalization of agricultural marketing under the Structural Adjustment Program resulting in the withdrawal of subsidies for farm inputs and commodities, the collapse of institutional credit organization, a sharp rise in interest rates on seasonal loans and a decline in lending operations.
• Excessive soil erosion and a decline of fertility in the traditional cereal production regions of Zambia.

What farmers are less aware is that conventional farming systems are destroying the land upon which they depend. Most farmers notice the inexorable decline in the productivity of their fields, however they generally believe this is a natural and irrevesible process. Furthermore land use technologies which have up to now been advocated to protect their soils are extremely labour intensive and farmers have therefore been unwilling to adopt them. Overwhelming evidence from research in Zimbabwe and Malawi over the past 12 years have underlined the negatives effects of conventional husbandry practices on the immediate, medium and long term productivity of the smallholder sector. Adherence to the conventions of overall ploughing, or ridging make it more or less impossible for smallholders to complete important husbandry takes on time. 

Approaches to Conservation Farming 

It is well known that conventional farming which is widely used to grow crops can destroy the land. It is important that small holders shift from this destructive method of farming to a productive, efficient and environmentally sustainable way of farming. In Zambia, the Conservation Farming Unit is advocating a radical change from the way farmers have planted the crops for generations by the following approaches. 

Doing Appropriate Research 

Agricultural research in Zambia is mainly undertaken by the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Fisheries. The research branch has been for not working with farmers such that their work is considered to be irrelevant. Besides this, the results are not broadly disseminated. The research that is being done by the government is not solving farmers’ problems and expanding their opportunities. In line with government policy of liberalization, a research trust has been established at Golden Valley which is a joint venture between the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries and the Zambia National Farmers Union to commercialize research activities. The main objective of the trust is to establish collaborative research with the farming community through adaptive trials and large scale demonstrations. 

The extension of soil and water conservation practices to small holders in Zambia has in the past been the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture. Efforts have concentrated on training of extension staff in conservation and the production of pamphlets and handbooks on soil and water conservation measures. Recommendations have focused primarily on formalised conservation and agroforestry activities, such as contour bunding and ridging, storm drains, gully protection, vetiver strip planting etc. The adoption of these recommendation by small scale holders has been negligible, primarily due to the high labour requirement, the failure to integrate conservation measures with crop husbandry practices and the lack of immediate benefits to farmers. As part of such major initiative to address the problem of tillage practices, Golden Valley Agricultural Research Trust (GART) in conjunction with Conservation Farming Unit (CFU) of the Zambia National Farmers Union has a series of adaptive trials. During the 1996/97 season for instance the CFU collaborated with GART in the establishment of long term conservation farming trials investigating tillage practices and intercropping. Work is continuing in other conservation related work and below is a summary of the preliminary results for the 1997/98 season. 

Results: (A) Tillage Trial 

Methodology 

On-station, the following five tillage techniques were evaluated by assessing crop yield. 

1. Conventional ploughing
2. Basins only
3. Basins + Dry Potholing
4. Basins + Dry ripping + Potholing
5. Basins + Dry ripping + Potholing + Residue

The tillage treatments were arranged in a randomised block design with four replicates at two sites. 

Crop Yield 

Maize yields obtained at Golden Valley during the 1997/98 season ranged from 4t/ha to 7t/ha(Table 1). 

Table 1. Maize yields in the 19997/98 season 

Permanent planting basins, dry ripping, potholing and residue treatments increased yield significantly over the conventional practice between 44 and 52%. There were no significant difference in yield between treatments 2 and 5. Treat 3 gave the highest yield. 

Preliminary, it can be concluded that permanent planting basins superimposed with ripping (T3) can practically be recommended to small scale farmers. 

Results: (B) Intercropping Trial 

Cowpea is one crop that is being promoted for rotation with other crops by the Conservation Farming Unit. Most of the farmers growing cotton are growing it as a monocrop. The cotton has to be sprayed to control the pests and the cowpea as well which increased the costs on the insecticide. This trial investigates the effects of routine pest control measures applied to cotton for the control of cowpea. pests on intercrop and intracrop configurations. Thus, if cotton and cowpea are intermixed rather than grown in separate strips, what are the additive effects of spray drift on the cowpea. The treatments were arranged in a randomised block design with four replicates and the following treatments: 

1. Cotton/cowpea intercropped (2 rows cotton, 2 rows cowpea) and sprayed the cotton rows.
2. Cotton/cowpea intracropped and sprayed all rows (uninterrupted).
3. Cotton monocrop with spray
4. Cowpea monocrop with spray

Crop Yield 

Results of cotton and cowpea yield are presented in table 2. 

Table 2: Cowpea Yields in the 1997/98 Season. 

Monocrop 1188.078 kg/ha 

Intercrop 1402.553 kg/ha 

Intracrop 1220.960 kg/ha 

When cowpea was intercropped with cotton and sprayed the cotton, the spray drift from cotton increased the cowpea yield by 15% over the yield of unsprayed monocrop cowpea. When cowpea was intracropped with cotton and all the rows sprayed the yield of cowpea was increased 3% over the yield of cowpea in the unsprayed monocrop cowpea. 

Although at small holder management level without mechanization, the crop configurations were found to present no major practical difficult from a husbandry point of view they also effectively control the pests in the cowpea. 

Active Institution Policy Support 

The policy context in which an institution operates in shaped mainly by external pressure from national policy makers, foreign donors, the private sector and, in some cases farmers’ organizations. The government policy on soil conservation is contained in the statement of the Agriculture Policy reviewed in 1993 and formulated in 1994 (MAFF, 1996). There is a land husbandry sector in the government whose objective is to promote increased and sustainable productivity of agricultural lands. 

In 1985, the government formed Soil and Conservation and Agroforestry Extension (SCAFE) with similar objectives to the land husbandry. SCAFE has now been integrated into the Land Husbandry Programme. 

Over the past two years, a consensus has emerged among organizations involved in smallholder and commercial agriculture in Zambia and in the region as a whole that Conservation Farming (CF) systems provide the best opportunity for farmers to reduce their costs, increase productivity, ameliorate the effects of drought, improve their food security, and protect the agriculture resource base from further degradation. 

Accordingly discussion between Donors, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, the National Farmers Union and the Golden Valley Agricultural Research Trust (GART) in the late 1995 centered on the need to establish a cost effective and proactive unit to accommodate and promote the adoption of conservation farming systems (CF) among smallholders initially in more drought prone areas of Zambia. 

CFU is a registered society and its activities fall within umbrella of Agricultural Sector Investment Program within the context of private sector initiatives aimed at promoting agricultural development within the smallholder sector. Close links are maintained with Policy and Planning Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries in order that it can monitor the CFU’s progress, and provide support and guidance where necessary. 

The government policy liberalization makes commercialisation of research and extension activities a real possibility and they are in full support of Conservation Farming practices. 

Collaboration with Community based Organization 

CFU maximises its impacts by working with organizations which provide the necessary environment in which farmers are in a position to benefit from CF technologies. It therefore prefers to work with community based organizations where farmers are organized into interest groups or organizations which are saved by a motivated extension service and where they can obtain seasonal inputs and a ready market for specific crops. 

The CFU established 395 individuals demonstrations in the 1996/97 season. Of these approximately 180 or 45% have achieved the standard required for continued support by the unit. The CF demonstrations are monitored from land preparation until harvesting. This is to ensure that correct conservation practices are observed and followed. The demonstrations are scored annually. The scoring system is based on a 0 - 5 scale where 5 is excellent and 0 is poor. The scoring is done at the planting and basal application, emergence of the crop and just before physiological maturity or when the crop has active vegetative growth. In the 1997/98 season the CFU increased the demonstrations to 900. 

Demonstrations of CF technologies is one way of disseminating information to other farmers. CFU closely works with other organizations who have the capacity to extend to smallholders and which are prepared to incur the costs. Some of the community based organizations that CFU works with are DAPP in Monze and Chibombo, CLUSA in Mazabuka and Mumbwa, Muthuzi in Eastern Province and Lonrho Cotton. 

The selection of these organizations for promotion of CF is guided by the following criteria: 

• The should have the organization capacity and presence in the field to train and supervise demonstration farmers with close support from the CFU. There should be evidence that the client has organized farmers into cohesive groups for the purpose of promoting agriculture activities that relate to the diversification, and/or commercialization of smallholder agriculture.
• They should have sufficient knowledge of their farmers to enable the selection of progressive and responsive individuals.
• Through the client organization, (Outgrower scheme, NGO or agro-agency), the farmers should be linked to any one of or a combination of the following services; seasonal loans in cash or in kind for inputs; bulk purchase storage and on sale of inputs; crop purchasing and marketing arrangements.
• They should have the financial capacity to purchase the required inputs for core CF demonstrations and the ability to draw up contracts to ensure the repayment of inputs provided. The CF strategy is to work with each successful farmer for a period of three years but new farmers who do not achieve the standards are dropped.

Conclusion 

In order to increase food production through conservation farming strategies, farmers should increase the responsibilities for developing disseminating and improving technologies within their communities. The institutions involved in promoting conservation farming should train the farmers so that they know the technology. 

Community based organisations and outgrower schemes should also play roles in educating farmers and other members of the rural population including local leaders on conservation practices and to contribute to training of farmers in good land husbandry. 

Based on the experiences in Zambia, there is need for investment in Conservation Farming and the development of the right incentives framework is urgently required by Sub-Sahara African countries to facilitate food security, poverty alleviation and environmental protection. 

References

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