Of mechanisation, conservation agriculture
By Own Correspondent
By Farai Mabeza
NESTLED in the shadows of the scenic and spectacular Mawonga Mountain, in Goromonzi district, is the Twamba family home, about 60 kilometres north of Harare.
The Twamba family depends entirely on rain-fed agriculture.
On top of Mawonga is a huge cross visible from kilometres away. Apparently it is a monument that was built in remembrance of a colonial era priest who died after falling off the mountain.
The Twambas are not too bothered by the intriguing mountain in their backyard.
They have known it all their lives, although there is more than a tinge or hint of pride as the father of the family unwittingly narrates its history to any visitor who happens to stop over at their homestead.
What concerns them is farming — their livelihood, and the dilemma they have in choosing the right way to practice it. The obvious choice is conservation agriculture (CA) given the twin factors of its high yields — which they have been yielding — and the erratic and unpredictable rainfall caused by climate change.
CA can be practiced using hand hoe dug basins or the mechanised version and the latter would result in a larger yield per hectarage.
It could have been a natural choice due to its low labour demand, but inadequate rainfall like what has been experienced over the past decade or so, means that hand dug basins win the day for their superior moisture holding potential.
“We do have the equipment, but we opted for the basins because in a drought year like this one we definitely need their capacity to keep moisture for longer periods than using rippers,” said Viola Twamba, the lady of the house.
CA practitioners from southern African countries, who gathered in Harare recently, implored their Zimbabwean counterparts to clarify to farmers who have misconceptions about CA and have been discouraged by the labour demands associated with the practice.
“The problem with Zimbabwe is that whenever they talk of CA they talk of basins and not of mechanised CA,” an expert from Zambia, Collins Nkatiko said.
The CA Status Report for Zimbabwe prepared by the Zimbabwe Conservation Agriculture Network acknowledged that initial CA capacity building activities in the country did not exclude mechanisation.
“There is need for use of appropriate business models for equipment and mechanisation of post-production activities to reduce labour.
“Manual CA basins are still relevant for households with no livestock,” reads the report, which adds that encouraging business models among CA farmers would enhance sustainability and improve adoption of mechanised systems.
Eunice Chivunga, the sales and marketing manager at Mealie Brand, a manufacturer of CA implements conceded that her company’s market is predominantly outside the country’s borders.
“The Zambian market has performed better than the rest. The Zimbabwean market has been driven by non-governmental organisations so far and effective demand is yet to be significant,” she said.
Justice Nyamangara, a soil and agricultural sciences expert from the Chinhoyi University of Technology, explains why farmers are opting for hand dug basins in spite of the availability of mechanised options.
“Some farmers don’t know about rippers and also there is the issue of draught power. At the beginning of the season animals are in bad shape because of the preceding dry season, so you would need to wait for them to gain strength, but if you wait you lose time.”
Labour demands in manual CA systems have prevented area expansion. Although there was a rapid increase in numbers of CA practitioners from 5 000 (2004/05) to over 300 000 (2011/12) this was fueled by donor-backed farmers.
The 2015 national crop assessment revealed that there were 242 000 non-supported CA farmers and 41 000 supported CA farmers.
Another concern is that emphasis on CA has been on food security crops, particularly maize with little promotion of commercial crops although cash crops and rotations are encouraged.
It has also faced the problem of stigmatisation with the dominant perception being that it is a technology for the poor despite the fact that it was widely practiced by commercial farmers before the land reform in 2000.
Advocates contend that CA is not considered enough as part of farming and as a business hence there is need to focus on high value crops and value addition.
Twamba said she and her family will not be able to achieve any surplus this year because of the low rainfall, but thanks to CA they will still have enough to feed themselves until the next harvest.
“I was expecting five tonnes, but I think I will get only two tonnes,” she said.
David Phiri, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) sub-regional coordinator for southern Africa and the organisation’s representative in Zimbabwe, said that although CA farmers in the region have been rising, the percentages have not yet reached the benchmarks to effectively contribute to the attainment of national and regional agricultural and food security developmental goals.
“Unfortunately there are no quick fixes to changing farmers’ behaviour in agriculture. It has taken close to a 100 years for farmers to adopt the current conventional agricultural production practices. We cannot therefore expect them to completely change to CA over the course of one decade,” said Phiri.
Joyce Mulila Mitti, a plant production and protection officer at FAO’s sub-regional office in Harare, said the objectives of CA include managing climate risks, understanding and planning for adaptive transitions that may be needed and exploiting opportunities for reducing or removing greenhouse gas emissions where feasible.
“There is need for technical support and capacity development of key institutions and organisations to enable implementation of locally appropriate climate-smart production systems.”
According to the Agriculture Ministry, farming contributes 15-18 percent of gross domestic product, over 40 percent of national export earnings and 60 percent of raw materials to agro-industries, while providing livelihoods for up to 70 percent of the population.
Smallholder farmers like the Twambas produce about 60 percent of the country’s staple cereal crop, making Zimbabwe’s food security situation extremely vulnerable to climate change.