The Sunday Mail
Harmony Agere
Farmers have been urged to practice conservation agriculture and sustainable crop intensification to improve crop yields and tackle climate change as the country is poised to have normal to below normal rainfall in the coming cropping season. Conservation agriculture is a set of soil management practices that minimise the disruption of the soil’s structure, composition and natural biodiversity.
The practices include crop rotation, crop intensification, and zero tillage which was once practiced in rural areas.
While crop intensification is part of conservation agriculture, it also enables farmers to manage their crops as they will be concentrating on small pieces of land thereby maximising on yields.
Research shows that conservation agriculture reduces crop vulnerability to extreme climatic events.
In drought conditions, it reduces crop water requirements by 30 percent, makes better use of soil water and facilitates deeper rooting of crops.
In extremely wet conditions, conservation agriculture facilitates rain water infiltration, reducing the danger of soil erosion and downstream flooding.
As such, Agritex Director, Mr Bernard Mache urged farmers to employ conservation agriculture as part of efforts to curb the effects of a projected drought.
Addressing attendants at the Zimbabwe National Climate Outlook Forum last week Mr Mache said the system can be adopted gradually.
“It’s time for farmers to really take conservation agriculture seriously now because the effects of climate change are there for everyone to see and we need to act on it,” he said.
“This (conservation agriculture) can be done gradually.
They can start with a small piece of land and increase as the time goes on.
“This also includes the use of organic fertilisers because they preserve moisture in the soil and are also sustainable to the environment.”
According to a research paper published by the Journal of Sustainable Development early this year, most farmers who had taken up the conservation agriculture before have since abandoned it.
“Findings indicate that a large share of farmers who had adopted conservation agriculture during the period of active promotion eventually abandoned the practice in the absence of support from non-governmental organisations.
“Households with more farming experience, bigger household sizes and a greater number of cultivated plots were less likely to stop using conservation agriculture. In turn, wealthy households and farmers in the drier areas were more likely to stop using it.”
On crop intensification, experts say the system could help Zimbabwean farmers boost their production as most of them have been wasting resources on vast and hard to manage plots.
Therefore, farmers are urged to concentrate their resources on manageable land to avoid incurring huge operating costs while also maximising on production.
While some farmers have abandoned conservation agriculture, others have accepted it well and are still practicing it.
“We have been following Agritex training workshops on conservation agriculture and crop intensification. As a farmer I have benefited a lot from them because my way of doing things have changed for the positive,” said Imelda Machirori who owns a small farm in Mazowe.
“When I first got the farm I thought that planting my crops on a large area is the only way to practice good farming but I have learnt that you can get much more from a hectare.
“Since I started practicing intensified cropping I am now getting three times more of what I used to get from one hectare.”
According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) cereal yields have been declining partly due to low soil nutrients caused by unsustainable soil use.
“Available evidence shows continuously declining cereal crop yields during the past decade despite the large areas that are planted each year and this can be attributed to the major constraints of low and erratic rainfall, inherently low soil nutrient status, limited inputs and lack of appropriate technologies.
“It is, therefore, important to note that intensification of crop production systems should aim at increasing crop productivity per unit area through the use of technologies that address moisture management issues, increase the efficiency with which both external and natural re-courses are used, while maintaining and improving soil fertility.”
Research shows that countries like Rwanda are already practicing intensified cropping due to limited land and are reaping huge benefits.Experts say there is need to have more awareness campaigns if the concept is to be accepted locally.
