Governments in Southern Africa endorse Conservation Agriculture as a pathway to food security

LUSAKA, Zambia, 11 April 2009, African Press Organization (APO) - Permanent Secretaries and Directors of Agriculture in Southern Africa, farmers unions, researchers and representatives from AU-NEPAD, COMESA and FAO today renewed their commitment to support farmers in their efforts to use Conservation Agriculture (CA) as an avenue for increasing productivity and incomes.

“Experiences from pilot CA projects in Zambia and Zimbabwe have shown increased access to food by those that practice it,” said Bernard Namachila, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives in Zambia.

“This in turn has reduced their dependence on food markets and has increased their resilience to weather and socio-economic related shocks,” revealed Namachila during his opening remarks at the start of a three-day regional conservation agriculture tour that is taking place in Zambia between the 6th and 8th of April.

Namachila was joined by Dr. Noureddin Mona the FAO Representative in Zambia, Martin Bwalya of AU-NEPAD, Jarvis Zimba of the Zambia National Farmers’ Union, Jim Barnhart of USAID-Zambia, Charlotta Norrby of the Swedish Embassy, Imakando Moosho of the Royal Norwegian Embassy-Zambia, Permanent Secretaries of agriculture and Department Directors from SADC and beyond and delegates from regional research organisations, farmers, and development agencies.

The tour is aimed at increasing the uptake of CA in the region by creating awareness among government and regional decision makers. The tour is organized by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in conjunction with the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

The choice was made to hold this meeting in Zambia due to the extensive experience of CA in the country. The leading proponents are the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACO), the Conservation Farming Unit of the Zambian National Farmers Union (ZNFU-CFU) and the Golden Valley Agricultural Research Trust (GART). Zambia has been pursuing CA activities since the mid 1990s. It is now included in the 5th National Development Plan and the country is considered to be a regional leader in the field.

What is so special about Conservation Agriculture?

Unlike conventional farming practices, conservation agriculture (CA), is aimed at attaining food security at the household level by minimizing soil disturbance, maintaining a permanent soil cover and practicing crop rotations. When these are practiced together with other good agronomic practices it is possible to increase yields significantly. Labour or fuel costs are reduced dramatically by moving away from ploughing. Fertilizer and moisture are used more efficiently by concentrating them where they are needed by the crops.

Used over several years the techniques of CA will improve soil structure and fertility which will result in greater resilience to the more frequent droughts that are expected with climate change.

“It is time for the region to look critically at an approach such as CA which recognizes that, proper and efficient use of the land and water resources is cardinal for sustainable farm productivity” said Dr. Mona of FAO which is providing technical guidance to the national ministries that are implementing CA in Southern Africa.

According to a joint statement from AU-NEPAD and FAO, “employing CA principles significantly increases and stabilises crop yields while at the same time it also preserves the natural resources that are critical for food production.”

The statement goes on to add that close to 100 million hectares of land are under CA globally. However, in Africa, the total area under CA is still very small relative to areas farmed using conventional tillage methods.

In southern Africa, few countries have adopted CA as part of their agricultural programming policy and strategy despite the potential benefits.

Speaking on day-one of the regional tour on CA, Martin Bwalya, the Lead Specialist on the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme’s (CAADP) project on sustainable land and water management at AU-NEPAD said that some of the contributing factors to the low uptake of CA in the region include limited awareness of the relevant technologies, limited sharing of documented evidence on CA and limited or lack of supportive policies, research, extension and resources capacity.

This three-day tour is designed as a lesson learning and knowledge sharing exercise for the representatives of the 9 participating countries.

Support to regional CA initiatives

In Zambia, FAO is working with ZNFU-CFU and MACO on a Norwegian funded project to scale-up the number of CA farmers in Zambia.

In another project, FAO and AU-NEPAD are working with Ministries of Agriculture and other development partners to up-scale CA in the four pilot countries of Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Financial support to the tune of US$4 million is being provided by the Royal Norwegian Government.

The Swedish Government has provided US$1 million in support of networking, monitoring and evaluating CA-related activities in the region.

The regional CA tour is largely funded by the United States Agency for International Development as part of a broader US$ 800,000 project that is in support of disseminating information about CA.

The links to CAADP and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

“We are working with various Regional Economic Communities, such as COMESA, research institutions, partners and national decision makers to make sure that we have the political will to revitalize agriculture in Africa as is laid out in CAADP,” said Bwalya.

The on-going work on up-scaling CA in Southern Africa is building upon existing efforts on CA that are being supported by development agencies within the context of AU-NEPADs CAADP Pillar 1 on sustainable land and water management.

CA projects in the region are also aligned to the global focus on MDGs 1 and 7 which focus on the development priorities of hunger, poverty eradication, food security and sustainable management of the environment.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). All rights reserved.