Early Evidence on Conservation Farming in Zambia

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Early Evidence on Conservation Farming in Zambia

• Gelson Tembo, Ph.D.
• Research Fellow
• Food Security Research Project, Zambia
• Michigan State University

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Motivation for CF in Zambia

• High input application rates with conventional
  methods
• Declining soil fertility
• Acidity build-up
• Excessive application of inorganic fertilizer
• Soil erosion
• Plowing leaves soil bare
• Residue burning/removal
• Moisture stress due to drought
• Soil hard pans (Plowing, Hand hoe, Compaction)

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Plow-pan damaged land
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Conservation farming in Zambia
Conservation Farming
Crop residue retention
Dry-season minimum tillage
Crop rotation

• Reduces soil erosion
• Adds organic matter

• Different root depths
• Adds nitrogen

• Hard pan breaking
• Precision input application
• Water harvesting

Planting basins
Ripping

• ADP farmers

• Hand-hoe farmers

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Dry-season digging of CF basins
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Dry-season ripping
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What we know from experience

• CF leads to better crop establishment and higher
  yields
• Inherent attributes of minimum tillage
• water-harvesting
• Concentration of fertilizer
• Fertilizer and improved seed
• Part of NGO-supported CF package

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What we know from experience

• CF leads to better crop establishment and higher
  yields
• Inherent attributes of minimum tillage
• water-harvesting
• Concentration of fertilizer
• Fertilizer and improved seed
• Part of NGO-supported CF package

• CF requires more labor

• Minimum tillage leaves 85 of land unturned
• Weed infestation
• Planting basin and rip line establishment is
  laborious

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Suitable agro-ecological regions
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Research questions

• Evolution and adoption of CF in Zambia?
• Causes of output gains observed in CF?
• NGO-supported CF packages include inputs
• Impact of CF on financial incentives?

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Methods and procedures

• Evolution and adoption of CF in Zambia
• Interviews
• Key persons in relevant institutions
• Farmers
• Literature (local, international)

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Methods and procedures (Continued)

• Yield impact regression models (01/02 survey)

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Methods and procedures (Continued)

• Farm-level incentives
• Crop budgets
• Maize vs. cotton
• ADP owners vs non-owners
• For each tillage method
• Compare returns to scarce resources
• Peak-season labor
• Land

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Major results

• Evolution and adoption of CF in Zambia

• Institutional and policy support
• Donor supported projects
• Government policy embraced CF in 1998
• Magoye ripper development and extension

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Major results (Continued)

• Adoption
• Overall, 8 of smallholders
• Important factors
• Regional differences
• Extension support
• Personal traits
• Partial, incremental, spontaneous adoption
• Disadoption in some cases
• Even at institutional level

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Major results (Continued)

• Yield determinants
• Planting basins had higher yields than plowing by
• 100 in maize
• 60 in cotton

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Major results (Continued)
Yield regression results
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Major results (Continued)

• Financial incentives of CF
• Smallholders without ADP (260,000)
• Basins 65 higher return to peak-season labor
  than conventional
• Use of pesticides boosts this by 50
• Smallholders with ADP (120,000)
• Returns to peak-season labor 35 higher in rip
  lines than conventional plowing

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Conclusions

• Declining state of Zambian soils
• Hard pans, expensive inorganic fertilizers
• Evidence suggests that CF outperforms
  conventional methods
• Extension support necessary
• To establish proper ADP ripper practices
• Private sector extension has worked well for cash
  crops
• Need to resuscitate rural credit and input supply
• Inputs improve incentives for adopting CF
• Full benefits likely to be achieved over time