Mechanization demonstration during a field visit to Makonde, Zimbabwe, as part of the FACASI Phase 2 final review meeting. Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT
African farmers have ten times fewer mechanized tools per farm area than farmers in other developing regions, according to the Malabo Panelâs mechanization report. For the past six years, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) funded Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) project has explored ways to address poor access to appropriate mechanization solutions, which is costing smallholders a lot in lost productivity.
âOne of the key outcomes of the FACASI initiative has been to present women and youth with pathways into diverse profitable income generating businesses using small mechanization,â says Alice Woodhead, professor in rural economies at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. Woodhead shared her impressions following a field visit to Makonde, in northwestern Zimbabwe, as part of the FACASI Phase 2 final review meeting held in May. Almost 40 public and private sector project partners from Zimbabwe and Ethiopia attended the event in Harare as well as ACIAR representatives.
Farm machinery: women entrepreneurs thrive on two wheels
Agatha Dzvengwe and Marianne Jaji shared their business experience as two-wheel tractor (2WT) service providers in Makonde. The 2WT, which can be used for multiple purposes from transporting, planting, fertilizer application and shelling, allows them to plant efficiently and provides additional income through hiring out their tractors to neighboring farmers. For instance, during the 2018/19 season, Dzvengwe used the Fitarelli planter to plant ten hectares of maize, two hectares of sugar beans and five hectares of soybeans. Because of the planterâs efficiency, she had enough extra time to hire out planting services to neighboring farmers, earning $100 for one hectare of maize, and double for the planting of soybean or sugar beans.
Marianne Jaji provides 2WT based shelling services, which she says generates steady income for her household, enabling her to contribute to important household decisions. Despite the 2018/19 season being characterized by drought, Jaji was confident that she could still earn a decent income from neighboring farmers engaging the 2WT harvesting services. Other women service providers reported relief from labor drudgery and empowerment. âWe have been freed from the burden of toiling in the field. Now that I own a 2WT, the society respects me more.â
âIn a business dominated by men, women like Agatha and Marianne can become successful entrepreneurs, providing crucial farming services for the community such as shelling, planting and transport,â explains Bertha Tandayi, a FACASI research assistant at the University of Zimbabwe, where she studies the adoption of 2WT based technologies by women entrepreneurs in Makonde and Nyanga districts.
Small-scale mechanization has higher adoption rates in areas where the most profitable services are provided, such as shelling. The benefits for entrepreneurs and the community are visible and include the creation of employment, home renovations, asset accumulation, livestock rearing, borehole drilling and the purchasing of agricultural inputs.
Mechanization demonstration during a field visit to Makonde, Zimbabwe, as part of the FACASI Phase 2 final review meeting. Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT
Sustainable shelling enterprise for Mwanga youth group
Since establishing their enterprise in 2016 following training under the FACASI project, the Mwanga youth group is still going strong in Makonde. During a live demonstration of the medium sized sheller, Masimba Mawire remarked that the shelling business has provided steady and reliable income for the group. Brothers Shepherd and Pinnot Karwizi added that the group has gained from further training in maintenance, facilitated through the FACASI project. âIt is evident that the youths have found a way to work as a business team, giving them purpose and to realize aspirations of being a business owner and not just an employee,â said Woodhead.
Of the services provided through the 2WT technologies, shelling services are in greatest demand, as this simple technology significantly reduces the time spent on shelling maize cobs. A medium sized sheller, for example, produces between five and six tons of shelled maize grain per day, over ten times more than manual shelling.
The combined benefits of income, reduced drudgery and high efficiency of the 2WT based technologies have transformed the lives of the youths and women services providers. Confident in their future, they plan to expand their business portfolios, looking at value addition options such as post-harvest processing of other crops.
The indigenous peoples who lived in central and southern Mexico thousands of years ago developed a resilient intercropping system to domesticate some of the basic grains and vegetables that contribute to a healthy diet.
Today, small farmers in roughly the same areas of Mexico continue to use this flexible system called âmilpaâ to grow chili, tomatoes, beans, squashes, seasonal fruits and maize, which are essential ingredients of most Mexican dishes.
An analysis of the Mexican diet done in the context of a recent report by the EAT â Lancet Commission found that Mexicans are eating too much animal fat but not enough fruits, vegetables, legumes and wholegrains. As a result, a serious public health issue is affecting Mexico due to the triple burden of malnutrition: obesity, micronutrient deficiency and/or low caloric intake. The study also urges Mexico to increase the availability of basic foodstuffs of higher nutritional value produced locally and sustainably.
Although changing food consumption habits may be hard to achieve, the traditional diet based on the milpa system is widely regarded as a healthy option in Mexico. Although nutritional diversity increases with the number of crops included in the milpa system, its nutritional impact in the consumers will also depend on their availability, number, uses, processing and consumption patterns.
Unfortunately, milpa farmers often practice slash-and-burn agriculture at the expense of soils and tropical rainforests. For that reason, it is also important to address some of the production-side obstacles on the way to a healthier diet, such as soil degradation and post-harvest losses, which have a negative effect on agricultural productivity and human health.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) engages in participatory field research and local capacity-building activities with farmers, local partners and authorities to foster innovation and to co-create strategies and procedures that help farmers produce food sustainably.
Francisco Canul Poot in his land. (Photo: CIMMYT)
These efforts led Francisco Canul Poot, a milpa farmer from the Yucatan Peninsula, to adopt conservation agriculture concepts in his milpa and to stop burning soil residues since 2016. As a result, his maize yield grew by 70%, from 430 to 730 kg per hectare, and his income increased by $300 dollars. 15 farmers sharing property rights over communal land have followed his example since.
These outstanding results are encouraging more farmers to adopt sustainable intensification practices across Mexico, an important change considering that falling levels of nitrogen and phosphorus content in Mexican soils may lead to a 70 percent increase in fertilizer use by 2050.
By implementing a sustainable intensification project called MasAgro, CIMMYT contributes, in turn, to expand the use of sustainable milpa practices in more intensive production systems. CIMMYT is also using this approach in the Milpa Sustentable PenĂnsula de YucatĂĄn project.
At present, more than 500 thousand farmers have adopted sustainable intensification practices â including crop diversification and low tillage â to grow maize, wheat and related crops on more than 1.2 million hectares across Mexico.
A recent study shows the slow adoption of conservation agriculture practices in sub-Saharan Africa, despite their multiple benefits for smallholder farmers. In Zimbabwe, it is estimated that no more than 2.5% of cropland is cultivated under conservation agriculture principles.
One of the constraints is the lack of appropriate machinery and tools that reduce drudgery. âAddressing a wide set of complementary practices, from nutrient and weed management and judicious choice of crop varieties to labor demand, is key to making conservation agriculture profitable and feasible for a greater number of farmers,â said Christian Thierfelder, Principal Scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Farmers in the district of Murehwa, in Zimbabweâs Mashonaland East Province, have embraced sustainable farming systems. They are benefitting from higher yields and new sources of income, and they are improving soil fertility.
Netsai Garwe (left) and Cosmas Garwe in their maize field, Ward 4, Murewa district, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT)
Cosmas and Netsai Garweâs homestead copes well despite the erratic weather. They own a lush one-acre field of maize and well-fed livestock: 18 cows, 9 goats and 45 free-range chickens. Two years after a crop-livestock integration initiative funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) ended, the family still benefits from the conservation agriculture practices they learnt.
âWe were taught the value of minimum tillage using direct seeding, rotation, mulching and weeding to ensure that our maize crop thrived,â explained Cosmas Garwe. âIntercropping and crop rotation with legumes like soybean, pigeon pea and velvet beans really improved our soil,â said Netsai Garwe.
Like the Garwes, more than 2,000 farmers in Murehwa district are scaling the production of lablab and velvet beans, which implies almost complete adoption. Effective extension support, local innovation platforms, and access to profitable crop and livestock markets have been key drivers for widespread adoption.
Better soil and cash cows
Many of these smallholder farmersâ fields have been under cultivation for generations and the granitic sandy soils, predominant in the area, have become very poor in soil organic matter, a key component of soil fertility.
âNitrogen-fixing green manure cover crops such as velvet beans, lablab and jack beans can provide an affordable way for smallholder farmers to bring back soil fertility, especially nitrogen, into the soil,â explained Thierfelder. âOnce the soils become responsive to mineral fertilizer again, a combination of leguminous crop rotations, manure use and in-organic fertilizer will provide stable and sustained crop yields of maize, their main food crop, even under a changing climate.â
Starting the second year the Garwes tried conservation agriculture on a 0.4-hectare plot, their yields improved, realizing 1.2 tons. As an additional benefit, the cover crops could be used as new animal feed sources, so they could keep maize crop residues as soil cover and increase the amount of organic matter in the soils.
Adoption of green manure cover crops was not easy at first, but farmers from Murehwa quickly realized that lablab and velvet beans improved the fattening of cattle and poultry. Drying the cover crop, they were able to produce protein-rich hay bales, sought-after in winter when other fodder stocks usually run low.
Better-fed, healthier animals meant better sales, as the Garwes could now get around $1,200 for one cow. Neighboring farmers soon found this new crop-livestock system appealing and joined the initiative.
Cattle fattening pens at Cosmas and Netsai Garwe’s homestead. (Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT)
Saving for a dry day
The economic opportunities for farmers in Murehwa go beyond cow sales. In 2013, the Klein Karoo (K2) seed company offered contracts to farmers for the production of lablab seed. Suddenly the crop became highly profitable, which trigged adoption by almost all the farmers in the area.
As explained by extension officer Ngairo, âthere is lablab and velvet beans grown everywhere, at homestead plots, school gardens⊠using ripline seeding techniques and showing the widespread adoption of conservation agriculture practices in the ward.â
Better incomes from livestock, fodder and lablab seeds had ripple effects for these Murehwa communities.
Lilian Chimbadzwa shows the house they were able to build in 2013 using proceeds from lablab sales. (Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT)
Since they adopted lablab and conservation agriculture practices in 2013, Kumbirai and Lilian Chimbadzwa transformed their asset base. They were able to complete their four-bedroom house, connect their homestead with the national electricity network and send their daughter to a nearby boarding school.
Despite prolonged dry spells during the last season and the threat of fall armyworm, these farmers have been coping much better than those practicing conventional tillage farming.
âFarmers taking up lablab and other leguminous cover crops have not only improved their incomes, but also the resilience of their farming systems,â explained Isaiah Nyagumbo, Cropping Systems Agronomist at CIMMYT. âConservation agriculture practices such as mulching help retain soil moisture, while pests and diseases are less prominent in diversified fields planted with stress tolerant maize varieties and legume cover crops.â
Crop rotation of maize and velvet bean at Kumbirai and Lilian Chiambadzwa’s plot has guaranteed high yields in an El Nino season. (Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT)
For CIMMYT and other institutions willing to scale sustainable intensification practices in Africa, there is plenty to learn from the farmers in Murehwa.
New research in the district has started to test how climate-adapted push-pull systems support smallholder farmers in overcoming the invasive fall armyworm using biological means. These systems involve conservation agriculture, green manure and legume intercropping, and planting high-productivity fodders surrounding the plots. This would also reduce the reliance on pesticides, which may be harmful for humans and the environment.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (ASARECA) gathered agriculture leaders, experts, Â ministers and permanent secretaries from 14 countries in the region May 2-4, 2019 in Kampala, Uganda. These experts reflected on the lessons learned from the eight year-long Sustainable Intensification of Maize and Legumes farming systems in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
The minister of agriculture, animal industry and fisheries of Uganda, Vincent Ssempijja, reminded that âAfrica is paying a high price from widespread land degradation, and climate change is worsening the challenges smallholder farmers are facing.â Staple crop yields are lagging despite a wealth of climate-smart technologies like drought-tolerant maize varieties or conservation agriculture.
âIt is time for business unusual,â urged guest speaker Kirunda Kivejinja, Ugandaâs Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of East African Affairs.
Research conducted by CIMMYT and national partners in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda under the SIMLESA project provided good evidence that sustainable intensification based on conservation agriculture works â it significantly increased food crop yields, up to 38%, as well as incomes, while sustainably preserving soil health.
In Malawi, where conservation agriculture adoption rose from 2% in 2011 to 35% in the 2017/18 season, research showed increases in water infiltration compared to the conventional ridge-and-furrow system of up to 90%, while soil organic carbon content increased by 30%. This means that soil moisture is better retained after rainfall, soil is more fertile, and plants grow well and cope much better during dry spells.
The SIMLESA project revealed that many farmers involved in CIMMYT research work, like Joseph Ntirivamunda in Rwanda, were interested in shifting towards more sustainable intensification practices. However, large-scale adoption still faces many hurdles.
âYou cannot eat potential,â pointed out CIMMYT scientists and SIMLESA project leader Paswel Marenya. âThe promise of conservation agriculture for sustainable intensification needs to be translated into more food and incomes, for farmers to adopt it widely.â
CIMMYT’s director general Martin Kropff (left) greets Uganda’s second deputy prime minister, Kirunda Kivejninja. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet)
The scale conundrum
Farmersâ linkages to markets and services are often weak, and a cautious analysis of trade-offs is necessary. For instance, more research is needed about the competing uses of crop residues for animal feed or soil cover.
Peter Horne, General Manager for ACIARâs global country programs, explained that science has an important role in informing policy to drive this sustainable transformation. There are still important knowledge gaps to better understand what drives key sustainable farming practices. Horne advised to be more innovative than the traditional research-for-development and extension approaches, involving for instance the private sector.
Planting using a hoe requires 160 hours of labor per hectare. A two-wheel tractor equipped with a planter will do the same work in only 3 hours.
One driver of change that was stressed during the Kampala forum was the access to appropriate machinery, like the two-wheel tractor equipped with a direct planter. While hoe planting requires 160 hours of labor per hectare, the planter needs only 3 hours per hectare, enabling timely planting, a crucial factor to respond effectively to the increased vagaries of the weather and produce successful harvests. While some appropriate mechanization options are available at the pilot stage in several African countries like Ethiopia or Zimbabwe, finding the right business models for service provision for each country is key to improve access to appropriate tools and technologies for smallholder farmers. CIMMYT and ACIAR seek to provide some answers through the complementary investments in the Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) project.
CASI can be scaled but requires tailoring sustainable intensification agronomic advices adapted to local environment and farming systems. Agricultural innovation platforms like the Mwanga mechanization youth group in Zimbabwe are one way to co-create solutions and opportunities between specific value chain actors, addressing some of the constraints farmers may face while implementing conservation agriculture practices.
Providing market incentives for farmers has been one challenging aspect, which may be overcome through public-private partnerships. Kilimo Trust presented a new consortium model to drive sustainable intensification through a market pull, linking smallholder farmers with food processors or aggregators.
âSIMLESA, as a long-term ambitious research program, has delivered remarkable results in diverse farming contexts, and conservation agriculture for sustainable intensification now has a more compelling case,â said Eric Huttner, ACIAR research program manager. âWe should not ignore the complexity of conservation agriculture adoption, as shifting to new farming practices brings practical changes and potential risks for farmers, alongside benefits,â he added. As an immediate step, Huttner suggested research to define who in the public and private sectors is investing and for what purpose â for example, access to seed or machinery. Governments will also need further technical support to determine exactly how to mainstream conservation agriculture in  future agricultural policy conversations, plans and budgets.
âLooking at SIMLESAâs evidence, we can say that conservation agriculture works for our farmers,â concluded Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union. During the next African Union Specialized Technical Committee in October 2019, she will propose a new initiative, scaling conservation agriculture for sustainable intensification across Africa âto protect our soils and feed our people sustainably.â
Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union, speaks at the SIMLESA regional forum. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet)
Jelle Van Loon is an agricultural engineer with a PhD in biosystems modelling, and over a decade of experience in agricultural research for development in Latin America. He currently serves as Associate Director for Latin America of CIMMYTâs Sustainable Agrifood System Program, leading research initiatives aimed at building pathways towards resilient food systems and long-term rural development. Leading the innovations for development team, he coordinates a transdisciplinary team, including aspects like farmers market linkages and responsible sourcing, capacity development, and community-based outreach and explores the multiple interfaces between adaption, adoption and scaling from a socio-technical viewpoint in research for agricultural development.
In addition, Jelle has ample expertise in scale-appropriate mechanization from smallholder farm solutions to precision agriculture applications, has actively progressed to work in innovation systems thinking, and in addition he serves CIMMYT as representative for Latin America in which he focusses this line of work to establish impactful partnerships and innovative business models.
Fall armyworm, a voracious pest now present in both Africa and Asia, has been predicted to cause up to $13 billion per year in crop losses in sub-Saharan Africa, threatening the livelihoods of millions of farmers throughout the region.
âIn their haste to limit the damage caused by the pest, governments in affected regions may promote indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides,â say the authors of a recent study on fall armyworm management. âAside from human health and environmental risks,â they explain, âthese could undermine smallholder pest management strategies that depend largely on natural enemies.â
Agro-ecological approaches offer culturally appropriate, low-cost pest control strategies that can be easily integrated into existing efforts to improve smallholder incomes and resilience through sustainable intensification. Researchers suggest these should be promoted as a core component of integrated pest management programs in combination with crop breeding for pest resistance, classical biological control and selective use of safe pesticides.
However, the suitability of agro-ecological measures for reducing fall armyworm densities and impact must be carefully assessed across varied environmental and socioeconomic conditions before they can be proposed for wide-scale implementation.
To support this process, researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) reviewed evidence for the efficacy of potential agro-ecological measures for controlling fall armyworm and other pests, consider the associated risks and draw attention to critical knowledge gaps. Findings from the Africa-wide study indicate that several measures can be adopted immediately, such as sustainable soil management, intercropping with appropriately selected companion plants and the diversification of farm environments through management of habitats at multiple spatial scales.
Read the full article âAgro-ecological options for fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda JE Smith) management: Providing low-cost, smallholder friendly solutions to an invasive pestâ in the Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 243, 1 August 2019, pages 318-330.
Intercropping options for mitigating fall armyworm damage. (Photo: C. Thierfelder/CIMMYT)
Read more recent publications by CIMMYT researchers:
In India’s state of West Bengal, the success of men and women farmers and agri-entrepreneurs is paving the way for the out-scaling of climate-smart conservation agriculture practices for sustainable intensification across the region.
Through the Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (SRFSI) project, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is improving productivity, profitability and sustainability across the Eastern Gangetic Plains.
Simon Fonteyne is a cropping systems agronomist tasked with the coordination of a network of research platforms in Latin America, through which local collaborators adopt sustainable intensification practices to local agro-ecological conditions and promote them to local farmers.
The Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa project (SIMLESA), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), has completed a series of country policy forums. The forums focused on maize-legume intercropping systems, Conservation Agriculture based on Sustainable Intensification (CASI) and other innovations that can help farmers in target countries shift to more sustainable farming practices resulting in better yields and incomes.
Policy makers and scientists from eastern and southern Africa will meet in Uganda at a regional forum convened by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), 3-4 May, 2019. The forum will discuss ways to scale up the learnings of SIMLESA.
In the following interview, Paswel Marenya, CIMMYT scientist and SIMLESA leader, reflects on 8 years of project learning, what CASI means for African smallholder farmers, the dialogue between scientists and policy makers and next steps.
Q: What does sustainable intensification of the maize-legume systems mean in the African context? Why is this important for smallholder farmers?
A: Sustainable intensification is the ability to produce more food without having a negative impact on the environment and the natural resource base, but in an economically profitable, and socially and politically acceptable way. In eastern and southern Africa (ESA), maize is the most important staple and the populationâs main calorie source. In Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Ethiopia annual per capita consumption of maize is around 100, 130, 70 and 50 kg respectively. This important cereal is at the center of nutrition and food security in the countries where SIMLESA has been working.
Legumes and cereals go hand-in-hand. In ESA the majority of agriculture producers â typically over 70 percent â are small farmers who farm on less than 5 hectares of land. Smallholders need sustainable diversification by intercropping maize with legumes. They get their calories from the cereals and derive proteins from the legumes. If they get marketable surplus, legumes are lucrative crops that typically fetch twice the price of maize.
Currently, the average legume yield in ESA is about 0.5 tons per hectare (t/ha). With the practices and the new varieties that SIMLESA tested, legume yield increased by 1-1.5 t/ha. Such significant yield improvement can have a huge impact on household income, food and nutritional security. For maize, the average yield in the region is about 1 t/ha, although in Ethiopia average yield is 2-2.5 t/ha. Using SIMLESA-recommended CASI practices yields of up to 3.5-4 t/ha were achieved in research-managed fields. Under farmer conditions, the yield can increase from 1-1.5 t/ha to about 2-2.5 t/ha.
SIMLESA has enabled farmers to significantly increase the productivity of maize and legumes without undermining soil health, and allowed farmers to become more resilient, especially in the face of erratic and harsh climate conditions.
Integration of small mechanization in CASI practices, particularly in Tanzania, is another positive outcome of SIMLESA. Farm labor tends to fall disproportionately on women and children in traditional systems, so the integration of machinery that can eliminate labor drudgery might alleviate the labor burden away from women.
Q: How did SIMLESA identify the best approaches to improve yields and incomes in a sustainable way in each target country?
A: Africa has not experienced the green revolution that South and Southeast Asia experienced in the 1960s and 1970s, with improved varieties, irrigation and government support. Africaâs heterogenous environment calls for a different approach that is more systems oriented. The integration of disciplines from agronomy, soil science, breeding, economics and social science â including market studies and policy analysis â are part of the approach SIMLESA has used. This interdisciplinary approach is something you seldom see in many projects.
To identify best approaches, SIMLESA has conducted adaptive agronomy research, which involves scientists replicating successful experiments done in agricultural institutes or research stations in farmersâ fields under farmer resources and local conditions.
SIMLESA also promotes the notion of conservation agriculture to shift thinking in farmer practices. Conservation agriculture involves farmers growing maize and legumes in minimally tilled fields, retaining crop residue on fields without burning or discarding and implementing crop diversification.
Q: What are some of the key takeaways from the policy dialogues SIMLESA initiated in the project countries?
A: One of the things we have done in the final year of SIMLESA is policy outreach. Having done all the adaptive agronomy, socio-economic and gender studies, it is time to mainstream the results. One way of doing this is to share specific, concrete results with decision makers and explain the implication of those results to them. To do that, we organized a series of workshops in seven target countries in the region, at both the local and national levels. We shared ideas on what can be done to mainstream SIMLESA in development and research programs and in knowledge systems.
For SIMLESA practices to become the norm, more farmers need to use conservation agriculture systems, adopt improved, drought-tolerant varieties, integrate and improve legume production and where possible, practice crop rotation. At a minimum, they should do optimal and resource-conserving intercropping, conserve crop biomass for extended periods in order to recycle nutrients and organic matter and move away from aggressive tillage.
Across the seven countries, research on CASI practices should continue with proper knowledge systems put in place. Curated agronomy and socio-economic research data are easily accessible to a range of actors â scientists, farmers or agribusinesses â in a repository. Policy recommendations at country level have been summed up in a series of policy briefs.
The need to strengthen the training and mainstreaming of conservation agriculture in the curriculum at the tertiary-education level was stressed in Kenya and Tanzania. Developing the machinery value chain was recommended in Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique. Such tools as the hoe, jab planter, riplines and the two-wheel tractor are suitable for implementing conservation agriculture practices like planting seed on untilled or minimally tilled land with crop residue. Another suggestion from Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique was the need to focus on training of technicians who can provide machinery after-sales services and promote machinery hire to help farmers access the basic tools. Incubating businesses in custom hire services, provision of seed capital, and a focus on multi-functional mechanization also featured prominently. Another idea was to support small last-mile agribusinesses such as agro-dealers to aid scaling efforts.
Workshops also highlighted a need for government to work closely with extension services and industry associations to show the benefits of agricultural inputs on a consistent and long-term basis. This can help create markets and therefore the business case for agribusinesses to expand their distribution networks.
Farmer Anjeline Odero checks maize in her CA plot in Siaya county, Kenya. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
Q: How relevant is the issue of indigenous or local knowledge in the implementation and scale up of CASI approaches?
A: CASI principles are compatible with traditional African farming practices, especially the diversification element. African agro-ecologies are not conducive to monocropping as such, especially in areas with poor markets. If you donât have good linkages with the markets, you will lose out, especially on the nutritional aspects. Where will you, for instance, get your proteins? African indigenous agriculture was a more self-containing system and self-regenerative in the sense that people did fallow farming, there was strong crop-livestock integration and mixed cropping systems.
Q: What are some of the adoption constraints that relate to the implementation or scale-up of CASI approaches?
A: Some of the constraints include the availability of appropriate machinery and suitable weed management. Currently, for weed management, the suggestion is to use herbicides. This is facing resistance in countries such as Kenya and Rwanda owing to the environmental effects of widespread herbicide use. The challenge is to find weed management technologies that minimize or eliminate herbicide use. The other constraint relates to markets. When you succeed in raising legume and maize production, you must find markets for them.
Another constraint concerns educating farmers on implementing the practices in the right way on a large scale. This expensive undertaking requires a public-private sector partnership. To have impact, you need large-scale farmer education and demonstrations.
Q: One of the key constraints is labor intensive activities that are inefficient and time wasting. This can be fixed with access to small mechanization. What are some of the approaches that enable smallholdersâ access to farm machinery? How sustainable are these approaches?
A: This is one  area that needs more work. Although machinery was not an integral part of the project design, SIMLESA scientists and national implementers found ways of assimilating machinery testing, including leveraging other CIMMYT projects such as the Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification project (FACASI), which was a SIMLESA collaborator on the farm mechanization component. Two-wheel tractors and other conservation agriculture machinery that were tested to promote the agronomy that SIMLESA was working on, especially in Tanzania, came from the FACASI project.
Q: SIMLESA stakeholders will gather at the ASARECA regional forum in early May to discuss actionable CASI programs for the public and private sector alike. What do you expect from this regional forum? If there were two or so policy recommendations to give, what would they be?
Some policy recommendations include creating an enabling environment that provides nationwide CASI demonstration sites for farmers. We are encouraging the government, the private sector and community organizations to join forces and find ways of facilitating the funding for multi-year, long-term CASI demonstration and learning sites. While CASI practices are becoming mainstream in the thinking of business and government leaders, these now need to be specifically be budgeted into various agricultural programs. One key program to promote CASI is retraining extension workers to on new systems of production based on CASI principles so they can facilitate knowledge transfer and help farmers act collectively and engage with markets more effectively.
Farmer Rukaya Hasani Mtambo weeds her CA plot of maize and beans in Hai District, Tanzania. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
Wei Xiong is an interdisciplinary researcher focusing on the interactions between agricultural production and environment, with specific experiences in climate change and agriculture, development of agricultural system modeling tools, evaluation of climate-smart agriculture, and Genotype by Environment Interaction analysis.
Xiong is good at using cutting-edge technologies (such as cloud computing, machine learning, big data, HPC, and bioinformatics) in GĂEĂM interaction analysis, with a track record of improving short- and long-term agricultural forecast models at the local, national, and global scales. He is also interested in smart agriculture, agricultural AI, and innovative predictive approaches from genomics to phenomics.
Tek Sapkota currently leads the Climate Change Science Group within CIMMYTâs Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) program and is based in CIMMYT headquarters in Mexico. He carries out research in the area of agricultural systems, soil science and environmental sciences. He is particularly involved in studying agro-ecosystems management consequences on nutrient dynamics and their effect on food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation. He is a member of the Climate Investment Committee in OneCGIAR.
Sapkota has served in IPCC as Lead author as well as Review editor. He is an associate Editor of Nature Scientific Report and Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems journals. He is an agricultural expert in the India GHG platform.
A woman stands on a field intercropping beans and maize in Sussundenga, Manica province, Mozambique. (Photo: Luis Jose Cabango)
For many small farmers across sub-Saharan Africa, the crop yields their livelihoods depend on are affected by low-quality inputs and severe challenges like climate change, pests and diseases. Unsustainable farming practices like monocropping are impacting soil health and reducing the productivity of their farms.
Sustainable intensification practices based on conservation agriculture entail minimal soil disturbance, recycling crop plant matter to cover and replenish the soil, and diversified cropping patterns. These approaches maintain moisture, reduce erosion and curb nutrient loss. Farmers are encouraged and supported to intercrop maize with nitrogen-fixing legumes â such as beans, peas and groundnuts â which enrich the soil with key nutrients. Farmers are equally advised to cultivate their crops along with trees, instead of deforesting the land to create room for farming.
Since 2010, the Sustainable Intensification of Maize and Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project has promoted effective ways to produce more food while protecting the environment across Eastern and Southern Africa. In particular, the SIMLESA project aims at sustainably increasing the productivity of maize and legume systems in the region.
The SIMLESA project demonstrated the advantages of deploying low-carbon and low-cost mechanization adapted to smallholder farming: it addresses labor shortages at critical times like planting or weeding, boosting farmersâ productivity and yields. The SIMLESA project introduced mechanization in different phases: first improved manual tools like the jab planter, later draft power machinery innovations such as rippers, and finally motorized mechanization in the form of small four-wheel tractors.
Farmers visit a field from Total LandCare demonstrating conservation agriculture for sustainable intensification practices in AngĂłnia, Tete province, Mozambique.
From proof of concept to nation-wide adoption
In Mozambique, conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification practices have significantly expanded: from 36 farmers in six villages in four districts in 2010, to over 190,000 farmers in more than 100 villages in nine districts by the end of 2018. This remarkable result was achieved in collaboration with partners such as the Mozambican Agricultural Research Institute (IIAM), extension workers, communities and private companies.
âSmallholder agriculture mechanization reduced the amount of labor required for one hectare of land preparation, from 31 days to just 2 hours. This enabled timely farming activities and a maize yield increase of about 170 kg per hectare, reflecting an extra 3-4 months of household food security,â said the national coordinator for SIMLESA in Mozambique, Domingos Dias.
Following its successes, SIMLESA and its partners have embarked on a series of meetings to discuss how to leverage public-private partnerships to expand conservation agriculture practices to other regions.
Throughout February and March 2019, a series of policy forums at sub-national and national levels will be held across the seven SIMLESA countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
The first policy dialogue took place on February 7 in Chimoio, in Mozambiqueâs district of Manica. Key agriculture stakeholders attended, including representatives from CIMMYT, IIAM, the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as policy makers, private sector partners and international research institutes.
Participants of the SIMLESA policy forum in Chimoio, Manica province, Mozambique, pose for a group photo.
âWe are delighted at SIMLESAâs unique strategy of involving multiple partners in implementing conservation agriculture for sustainable intensification practices. This has, over the years, allowed for faster dissemination of these practices and technologies in more locations in Mozambique, thereby increasing its reach to more farmers,â said Albertina Alage, Technical Director for Technology Transfer at IIAM. âSuch policy forums are important to showcase the impact of conservation agriculture to policy makers to learn and sustain their support for scaling up conservation agriculture for sustainable intensification,â she added.
Forum participants called for better coordination between the public and the private sector to deliver appropriate machinery for use by smallholders in new areas. They recommended adequate support to enable farmers to better integrate livestock and a diverse cropping system, as well as continue with conservation agriculture trials and demonstration activities. Besides involving farmers, their associations and agro-dealer networks in scaling conservation agriculture initiatives, participants agreed to promote integrated pest and disease management protocols. This is considering the recent outbreak of the fall armyworm, which devasted crops in many countries across sub-Saharan Africa.
âThe SIMLESA project is and will always be a reference point for our research institute and the Ministry of Agriculture in our country. The good progress of SIMLESA and the results of this forum will help to draw strategies for continuity of this program implemented by government and other programs with the aim to increase production and productivity of farmers,â Alage concluded.
The SIMLESA project is a science for development alliance, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in collaboration with national research institutes in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Face of an adult male Phidippus audax male jumping spider. (Photo: Opoterser/Wikimedia Commons)
A new study explores how conservation agriculture in southern Africa supports spider populations and diversity in fields, which could help mitigate pest damage and potentially lead to higher yields for farmers. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), herbivorous insects such as aphids, caterpillars and weevils destroy about one fifth of the world’s total crop production each year. Spiders can help keep voracious pests in-check, but conventional farming practices (e.g. tilling, crop residue removal and monoculture) can harm or drastically reduce these beneficial bio-control agents.
There are more than 45,000 identified spider species around the world. From glaciers to tropical rainforests, they inhabit every terrestrial ecosystem on earth. Some can even live in tidal zones, and at least one species inhabits fresh water. While we tend to associate spiders with webs, only about 50 percent of the species catch their prey this way; the rest hunt on plants, on the ground or below it, using a variety of tactics such as stalking, stabbing, crushing â even seduction.
Although spiders have been around for 300 million years, some species are at risk of extinction due to habitat loss and fragmentation. Drastic reductions in vegetation â whether from a new parking lot or a tilled field â removes the food source that attracts their prey. Bare ground exposes their nesting sites and themselves, which makes it harder to hunt and easier to be hunted by birds and small mammals.
At the Chinhoyi University of Technology experimental farm in Zimbabwe, a team of researchers aimed to determine the response of spiders under different agricultural practices. Conventional farmers often prepare their fields for planting by physically breaking up and inverting the top 6-10 inches of soil. This practice of ploughing prepares a fine soil tilth, which makes it easier to plant; it breaks up and buries weeds, and reduces soil compaction to aerate the soil. But tilling also increases topsoil erosion from wind and water. It accelerates soil carbon decomposition, reduces soil water infiltration and disrupts microorganisms living in the soil, including beneficial insects and spiders.
The researchers conducted two experiments over the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 cropping seasons to see how tilling, crop residue retention (i.e. leaving stalks and post-harvest organic matter in the field), fertilizer application and weeding affected ground- and plant-wandering spider species. They hypothesized that spider abundance and diversity would increase with lower levels of soil disturbance and more plant cover.
The results showed direct seeding into no-till soil increased the abundance of spiders and the diversity of species. Mulching also showed a positive effect. Contrary to their hypotheses and results from temperate regions, the application of fertilizer and intense weeding did not affect the spider community. The researchers attributed this to the difference in climatic conditions (tropical vs. temperate) of this study in southern Africa.
âOften the governmentâs and farmerâs immediate reaction to a crop pest issue is to apply a pesticide, but we can make use of biological control agents, which may be cheaper and less damaging for the environment,â says Christian Thierfelder, a co-author of the study. Thierfelder is a cropping systems agronomist and conservation agriculture specialist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) with long-term experience in sustainable intensification.
âSpiders, ants and beetles all do a really good job with little or no cost to the farmer,â he adds. âFor us, itâs quite fascinating to see simple agronomic practices to affect and control crop pests. This also provides new avenues of dealing with the fall armyworm, an invasive species which has devastated crops across the majority of sub-Saharan Africa countries.â
A robust number of studies from Europe, Australia and North America have shown the link between conservation agriculture and biodiversity, but Thierfelder says that research on biodiversity in agronomic systems is relatively new in southern Africa. While the study in Zimbabwe helps fill this gap, more research is needed to show the connection between the abundance of spiders, beetles and ants with the suppression of insect pest activity.
This research was jointly funded by Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) and the German Academic Exchange Program (DAAD). The CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) supported this study through Christian Thierfelderâs contributions.
Support for smallholder farmers to trial and select sustainable practices suited to their varying conditions is essential to build resilient farms needed to feed Africaâs soaring population, said economist Paswel Marenya at the Second African Congress on Conservation Agriculture in Johannesburg this October.
Farmers face different agroecological, socioeconomic and institutional environments across Africa. The mounting challenges brought by climate change also vary from place to place. Family farmers are born innovators, with government and industry support they can develop a resilient farming system that works for them, said the researcher from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
One of the emerging paradigms of sustainable agriculture resilient to climatic changes is conservation agriculture â defined by minimal soil disturbance, crop residue retention and diversification through crop rotation. Although not a one-size-fits-all approach, it is a promising framework to be applied and adapted to meet farmersâ unique contexts, he said.
âConservation agricultureâs potential to conserve soils, improve yields and limit environmental impacts makes it one of the elements that should be given prominence in efforts to secure sustainable and resilient farming in Africa,â he told audiences at the conference dedicated to discuss conservation agriculture systems as the sustainable basis for regional food security.
âResearch shows that with a network of appropriate support, farmers can access the tools and knowledge to experiment, learn, adapt and adopt these important principles of conservation agriculture,â he said.
âTheir farming can thus evolve to practices that have low environmental impacts, diversify their cropping including intercropping maize with legumes, and test affordable machinery for efficient, timely and labor-saving operations. In the end, each farmer and farming community have the ability to tailor a conservation agriculture-based system based on what works best given their unique socioeconomic settings,â said Marenya.
Trialing sustainable practices leads to adoption
Through the project over 235,000 farming households in the region have trialed sustainable practices reporting positive results of improved soil fertility, reduced labor costs, and increased food production and maize yields despite erratic weather, said collaborating investigator Custudio George from the Mozambique Institute of Agricultural Research.
âThe majority of these farmers have gone on to adopt their preferred practices throughout their whole farm and now actively promote conservation agriculture to other farmers,â he added
Women undertake the majority of agricultural activities in sub-Saharan Africa. When they are empowered to try sustainable practices they overwhelmingly adopt those technologies identifying them as an economically viable way to overcome challenges and increase household food security, said Maria da Luz Quinhentos, who is an agronomist with the Mozambique Institute of Agricultural Research.
Maria da Luz Quinhentos, from the Mozambique Institute of Agricultural Research (IIAM).
Forming networks to support farmer resilience
The research project took a multidisciplinary approach bringing together sociologists, economists, agronomists and breeders to study how maize-legume conservation agriculture-based farming can best benefit farmers in seven countries; including Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda.
In this vein, the project sought to connect farmers with multi-sector actors across the maize-legume value chain through Innovation platforms. Innovation Platforms, facilitated by SIMLESA, are multi-stakeholder forums connecting farmer groups, agribusiness, government extension, policy makers and researchers with the common goal to increase farm-level food security, productivity and incomes through the promotion of maize-legume intercropping systems.
âHaving a network of stakeholders allows farmers to test and adopt conservation agriculture-based techniques without the risk they would have if they tried and failed alone,â said Michael Misiko who studies farmer adoption as part of SIMLESA.
âFarmers form groups to work with governments to gain access to improved seed, learn new farming practices and connect with local agribusinesses to develop markets for their produce,â
âWhen new problems arise stakeholders in local and regional innovation platforms can diagnose barriers and together identify mutual solutions,â he said.
Researchers and governments learn from innovation platforms and can use results to recommend productive climate-smart practices to other farmers in similar conditions, Misiko added.
Climate-smart agriculture key to achieve Malabo Declaration
The results from SIMLESA provide African governments with evidence to develop policies that achieve the Malabo Declaration to implement resilient farming systems to enhance food security in the face of a growing climate risks, said Marenya.
If these smallholders are to keep up with food demand of a population set to almost double by 2050 while overcoming challenges they need productive and climate-resilient cropping systems.
CIMMYT research identifies that the defining principles of conservation agriculture are critical but alone are not enough to shield farmers from the impacts of climate change. Complementary improvements in economic policies, markets and institutions â including multi-sectoral linkages between smallholder agriculture and the broader economy â are required to make climate-resilient farming systems more functional for smallholder farmers in the short and long term, said Marenya.
