Enhancing Adoption of CA in Southern Africa: Initial experiences and lessons Mulugetta Mekuria and Patrick Wall ● The setting ● Approaches ● Initial Findings ● Potential Adoption Constraints ● Looking Ahead International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center

Enhancing Adoption of CA in Southern Africa: Initial experiences and lessons Mulugetta Mekuria and Patrick Wall ● The setting ● Approaches ● Initial Findings ● Potential Adoption Constraints ● Looking Ahead International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center

The Approach: participatory, dynamic and iterative Research with farmers Farmer experimentation Baseline data Regular interaction and monitoring Case studies -history of innovation Multi stakeholders Farmers’ feed back Capacity Building Adoption and impact assessment

Approaches used Approaches ● Baseline Data collection ● Research with farmers  Frequent monitoring of farmers’ perception of CA technology evaluation, testing and experimentation ● Diverse Partnerships ● Multi stakeholders( researchers, change agents, NGO) Private sector ● Technology, evaluation and adaptation (reiterative process) ● Skills development Capacity, training of farmers, ● Build on farmers’ knowledge International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center

The Problem Setting ● Declining soil fertility and degradation of of NR base over time ● Less investment in soil fertility technologies by farmers ● Withdrawal of government support for input subsidy, ● Declining support for farmer support institutions-extension and research ● Low level of maize productivity (less than 2t/ha yield) ● leading to persistent household food insecurity International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center

Profile of a Malawian farmer ● Main crops- Staples, Maize, Groundnuts Tobacco Land owned -1 hectare ● No Livestock ● Yield Maize 500kg/ha ● Seeds used-recycled ● Fertilizer used: 0.1 of recommended levels ● Agricultural Implements owned-hand hoe, Remittances++++ ● WANJIKU 2007 Main crops- Staples Land owned -1 hectare ● No Livestock ● Yield Maize 200kg/ha ● Seeds used-recycled ● Fertilizer used: 0.1 of recommended levels ● Agricultural Implements owned-hand hoe, Remittances++++

Farmers Circumstances ● More than 90 percent of Malawians live in rural areas ● depend on subsistence farming for their livelihoods. ● Almost 70 per cent live below the poverty line (less 1US$/day). ● Even in years when rainfall is adequate, 40 per cent of Malawi’s population does not have the purchasing power to be able to satisfy their daily needs. ● Chronic poverty and repeated food crises have depleted their livelihoods. ● Malawi recently emerged from four consecutive years of drought and chronic food insecurity, bumper harvests ( now exporting 400 t to Zimbabwe )

Farming Systems: overview ● Maize is typically produced in complex farming systems, where an individual farmer may manage several different land types. ● In Malawi, maize is the staple food crop and occupies % of the land area under ● maize accounts for 50-90% of the population’s caloric intake poor households rely on maize for food

Attributes of households: baseline data Surveyed households were about 26% headed by females. The level of education was low for the heads of households and all members of farm families. Land is allocated to annual crops, mainly to maize, groundnuts beans and limited area allocated to cash crops such as cotton and tobacco. Average yield of maize is below 2t/ha The area under maize ranged from 0.8ha(Malawi) to 3.4ha (Tanzania). The natural capital is made essentially of smallholdings and Land of poor soil fertility with limited financial assets to invest on the land. About half of the households surveyed in Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe and 82% in Malawi indicated facing a recurrent deficit in maize supply

Variable ZimbabweZambiaMalawiTanzania Female headed (%) Age of household head Farming years of expereince Household size Man equivalent units (meu) Consumption equivalent units (ceu) Consumer to worker ratio Annual per capita Income (USD) % with income less than 1USD/day Household attributes

ZimbabweZambiaMalawiTanzania land holding (ha) Mean cultivated area (ha) Per capita cultivated land (ha) Cattle*4.75(80)3.75(51)0.2(3)2.5(62) Sheep*0.56(12)0.05(2)0.04(1)1.92(45) Goat*2.02(49)6.36(66)1.29(24)3.92(70) Chickens*11.96(95)14.95(90)5.52(65)8.55(77) ox-plough (%) knapsack sprayer(%) *in brackets are the percentage of house holds owning Source survey data, 2005 Resources ownership and distribution

Initial Findings ● Farmers’ CA awareness improved ● Farmer experimentation progressing well ● Labor saving advantages of CA appreciated ● Reallocation of family labor for other farm and off farm activities (including holidays) ● Yield improvement recognized ● Crop residue retention once unthinkable is well recognized ● Local community based solution( collective action) being developed in Zimbabwe

Initial Findings

Examples International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center

Initial Findings International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center

Potential CA Adoption Constraints In ESA despite nearly two decades of development and promotion by the national extension program and numerous other projects, adoption has been extremely low in the smallholder sector Potential adoption constraints include ● Mind-set- Changing the plow culture ● Peer pressure and community norms can also be important impediments to the adoption of practices that go completely against conventional wisdom ● Limited Knowledge and capacity of the CA system among farmers, researchers and extension agents ● Inadequate residue retention, and competition for scarce residues ● Inadequate physical and financial access to inputs ● Unavailability of adapted equipment ● Underdeveloped innovation systems around CA ● Land tenure ● Support to farmers for environmental services ● Absence of National policy to support NRM in general and CA in particular ● Patterns and intensity of Adoption to be undertaken

Breaking the Poverty Trap-The Road Map for AGR Income Growth & Poverty Reduction POVERTY TRAP Nutrient Mining & Soil Degradation Low Agricultural Productivity Low Investment Low Profitability & Limited Market Access Resource Constraints, Poverty & Low Purchasing Power Cereal Bank Linked Credit Improved Crop Varieties, Tree crops, Animal breeds Conservation Agriculture More Efficient Input & Output Markets

Looking Ahead-2015 Land Owned -1 hectare ●Staples& high values Crops ●Yield Maize 3t/ha ●High quality seeds ●Fertilizer used: 0.7 of recommended levels ● Agricultural Implements hires a tractor, ● 2 dairy cows, ● Earns income from farming Wanjiku Land Owned -1 hectare ●Staples& high values Crops ●Yield Maize 3t/ha ●High quality seeds ●Fertilizer used: 0.7 of recommended levels ● Agricultural Implements hires a tractor, ● 2 dairy cows, ● Earns income from farming

Food Security Theory of Change Food Security Theory of Change(Toenniessen,2004) Greaterhousehold food security & incomes Higher & more stable yieldsIncreasedprofits Enhancedsoilproductivity +Improvedcropvarieties +Bettermarkets Access to knowledgetoolsgermplasmnetworks