Abstract
Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been widely promoted as a pathway to sustainably intensify agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Yet despite decades of promotion, CA uptake in SSA remains sparse with only few analyses of its impacts on farming and rural livelihoods. This study, which focuses on areas in Central Malawi considered to have a relatively high uptake of CA, uses analyses of satellite images, field observations, interviews with farmers, extension workers and other people involved in CA promotion, as well as a household survey, to investigate how CA has been adapted. We find that the three CA principles – (1) continuous minimum tillage, e.g. no-ridging, (2) permanent ground cover, and (3) crop rotation/intercropping – were not practiced as intended. First, one-third of non-ridged land was tilled during the growing season, and half was again ridged in the following season. Second, unless crop residues were added, the soil’s surface of non-ridged plots was usually bare at planting, causing weed control problems, and an increased risk of erosion. Most farmers added large volumes of crop residues to their non-ridged plots. They collected these from the surrounding fields, but this practice severely restricted the size of these plots. Third, crop rotation/intercropping was practiced less when farmers stopped ridging. Thus overall, very few farmers practised all of the three CA principles simultaneously. CA promotion appeared to only increase yields on plots where mulch was added, but this practice is not scalable. CA promotiondoes not seem to have provided substantial benefits for overall farm productivity, labour-savings or soil conservation.
Highlights
Travelling inland from Malawi’s lakeshore road in the Nkhotakota district during the dry season, it is easy to observe the common ridgeand-furrow cultivation practice (RFC) that dominates smallholder farming in this country
Whereas conservation agriculture (CA) has become widely practiced in mechanised, high-input agriculture in the Americas and Australia, where it reduces fuel costs associated with tillage (Giller et al, 2015), its uptake in smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been problematic (Giller et al, 2009; Andersson and D’Souza, 2014)
Studying situations of low uptake, these studies often report that farmers are not convinced of the merits of CA, and that it is unsuitable for their situation
Summary
Travelling inland from Malawi’s lakeshore road in the Nkhotakota district during the dry season, it is easy to observe the common ridgeand-furrow cultivation practice (RFC) that dominates smallholder farming in this country In this area one may observe fields covered with thick layers of dry maize residues scattered through the landscape – an indication that conservation agriculture (CA) is prac ticed. The observed fields covered with thick layers of crop residues reflect sunlight and can be detected on high resolution satellite imagery as accessible on Google Earth (Fig. 1) This appeared to enable an easy, low-cost method of assessing CA uptake in smallholder farming areas beyond the common focus on minimum tillage
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