MS Zambia Newsletter November 2009

Farmers embrace conservation farming

With global climate changes causing more erratic and unpredictable rainfalls, and with traditional farming methods contributing to lowering the quality of the soils, Zambian farmers are looking for alternative methods to be able to survive.

By Lena Vind-Andersen, Information Officer, MS Zambia

04. November 2009

”Why did you choose to try out conservation farming?” A chorus of voices erupts all around: ”Hunger.” Last year, the villagers of Raphael only ate once a day. This year, they hope things will be better. The village of Raphael lies in Nyimba District in Zambia's Eastern Province. As in many rural communities, the fields of the villagers surround the thatched huts in all directions. But unlike last year, hardly any of the fields are showing the burned black vegetation and white ashes, which you would commonly see around this time of year. That is because the farmers of Raphael have decided to try some new farming methods. Methods which they have learned from MS Partner Nyimba District Farmer's Association (NDFA).

”We originally started this project, because we were worried about the excessive charcoal burning and clearing of trees for farmland, which was taking place. When we did our initial surveys in the district, we found out that people were burning charcoal to supplement their incomes because the fields weren't yielding enough crops. And the reasons for clearing new farmland were the same: The soil had been exhausted to a point where there was not enough nutrients left to support the crops,” explains Albert Chaala, the District Organisational Coordinator for NDFA .
The solution to this has been to introduce farmers to the methods of conservation farming that will improve the quality of the soil and thus give greater yields. It will also benefit the environment by minimising deforestation. In Zambia, 1.250.000 ha of woodlands are cleared on average every year and the lack of trees leads to soil erosion, which in turn contributes to silting the rivers. And when rivers become shallower it makes them more prone to drying out in the dry season and more likely to cause backwards flooding in the wet season, both of which are detrimental to the local farmers. With the global climate changes setting in, the farmers in Nyimba have experienced very erratic rainy seasons for some time now, ranging from too little, causing droughts, to too much, causing flooding. Thus, the deforestation contributes to making farming conditions even more precarious.

This September NDFA has trained 20 farmers in conservation farming methods and each of those has trained a minimum of another 20 in their local communities. One of them is Wison Mwanza in Raphael: ”One of the main differences in the methods is that we are now no longer burning the fields to clear them before sowing. This has been the traditional way of doing it for a long time, but the burning spoils the nutrients of the soil by destroying all the plants that would otherwise fertilize it,” he explains.

Instead the villagers now use hoes to prepare the field and also take care to not use up the entire field, leaving spaces between each row untouched. That way, the soil doesn't become quite as loose and will be less likely to be washed away in floods. They are also planting different plants on the fields that will restore the nitrogen levels of the soil, like buffalo beans and acacia trees, and will be using natural fertilizers rather than artificial ones. And finally, they will do crop rotation next year, sowing different crops on the fields instead of continually using the same field for the same crop.

”We had a really poor harvest last year which caused hunger, but we are hoping that the new methods will give us a better yield and we are looking forward to reaping the benefits,” Wison Mwanza says. The village of Raphael is backing up the project wholeheartedly. Among the supporters is Davison Banda, the village headman: ”It is only of late that we have experienced hunger in this area, so I have been encouraging everybody to participate in the hope that they will have more food in their homes and more money in their pockets,” he says.

Out of the 85 households in the village, a little less than 80 are participating and as the new methods are more labour intensive, the villagers are now helping each other out with the field preparations. The project is being funded by the UNDP.