Climate smart agriculture impacting farmers’ lives in Zambia

By Gloria Siwisha

Climate change is a concern in Sub-Saharan Africa because of its adverse impact on the environment. In Zambia, climate-induced hazards such as an increase in frequency and severity of seasonal droughts, occasional dry spells, increased temperatures in valleys, flash floods and changes in the growing season, always have a direct impact on farmers’ lives with unforeseen consequences on food, nutrition status, and incomes. For these reasons, the Zambian government, working with collaborating partners, is integrating climate change concerns into its agriculture policy agenda.

Under its Zambia climate-smart agriculture (CSA) strategy framework, the government is promoting the roll-out of CSA practices that will sustainably increase productivity, enhance the resilience of farmers towards climate-related effects, and reduce or remove greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (CSAIP/World Bank, 2019). Conservation agriculture (CA) and agroforestry, are the most widely promoted CSA practices in Zambia, with various impacts on livelihoods and the environment. Experts argue that CA’s three main principles of minimum soil disturbance; surface cover with crop residues, and diversification through crop rotations, can increase productivity and contribute to a sustainable environment and natural resource management in the long term, especially if combined with good crop management and improved agronomic practices. Agroforestry is promoted given its ability to contribute to food and income security, amelioration of the environment and subsequently, mitigation of climate change effects. 

Getrude Banda, 48, is one of the successful lead farmers in Kawala Agricultural camp of Sinda district, in the Eastern province of Zambia. She is part of the 20,000 farmers that had been exposed to conservation agriculture and maize-legume intercropping systems validation trials for eight consecutive years under the Africa RISING project, implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Total Land Care and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), in Sinda, Chipata and Lundazi districts of Eastern Province. Project activities started in 2011 under the auspices of the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems in Eastern Provinces of Zambia (SIMLEZA) project, which later expanded to SIMLEZA-Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING). Before the commencement of the project, Ms Banda had been practising conventional agriculture.

She grew maize; soybean, sunflower, cotton, and groundnuts on her eight hectares field by way of creating ridges with a hoe or using a plough. She also planted the recycled seed and usually did not leave crop residues in the field after harvest. “On a one-hectare conventional maize field, I would harvest 1.8 tonnes instead of 5 to 8 tonnes per hectare that a farmer who practices CA can get if they followed all the technology’s protocols. As such, I faced challenges of sustaining household food security and incomes,” Ms Banda said. Since 2011 however, her life has changed for the better.

“Under the CA trials that were established in 2011, we compared maize planted under zero tillage in rotation or inter-cropped with cowpeas and maize planted under conventional farming practices. The SIMLEZA-AR project also promoted the use of the ripper during land preparation, retention of crop residues, and incorporation of agroforestry trees in crop fields,” she said.

According to Ms Banda, in the 8 years of hosting the trials, she observed that conservation agriculture retained more moisture compared to conventional farming. She also said yields in CA plots were always higher than those in conventional farming plots. “Today, I manage to produce 150 by 50 Kg bags of maize on a one-hectare field, something I could not achieve previously,” she said. Ms Banda, who at the time of the interview was in her field doing land preparation using CA methods, said she cannot revert back to conventional farming methods as conversation agriculture had yielded her positive results. “So far, I have prepared to plant basins on a 1.5 hectares land using the Chaka hoe. The rest of the field will have rip-lines. Less tillage and crop residue retention are CA techniques that have enabled me to produce positive results over the years,” she said.

Among the many successes, Ms Banda has scored in her business are the construction of two housing units (one complete and another at window level); procurement of a ripper and Chaka hoe, as well as the establishment of poultry business to supplement crop production. Her desire is to purchase a tractor to ease crop production. Ms Banda advises farmers to take farming as a business if they were to realise meaningful results.  “A farmer’s office is the field,” she said.

According to the District Agricultural Coordinator Henry Mukulumoya, Sinda district currently has 10, 800 lead farmers learning climate-smart agricultural practices through farmer field schools.

The author is a journalist specialised in Agriculture and Climate Change. She is based in the Eastern Province of Zambia and works for the National Agricultural Information Services (NAIS).