Conservation Farming Results

Initial support provided by World Food Program (WFP) in the form of maize incentives to encourage adoption of conservation farming is shown in the table below. 2005 was a severe drought year and much of the maize (approx. 60%) was given as relief. Continued compliance with conservation farming by replacing maize incentives from World Food Program with COMACO-based market incentives is a major challenge for the COMACO approach. The sharp reduction of WFP maize supplementation as an inducement for initial training in 2006 offers an important opportunity for testing farmers? support for joining and maintaining membership in this model. For the Lundazi and Chama areas where WFP maize support has been completely removed for the 2006 planting season and where COMACO markets are most developed, conservation farming compliance has remained consistent with previous years, (see following table).

To evaluate the actual benefit of conservation farming, 689 farm plots were sampled across 8 chiefdoms in Luangwa Valley. Selected plots included those that used conservation farming with and without compost and those that used traditional farming practices. Selection of plots was at an early stage of crop growth to avoid possible biases in plot selection. Mean plot size was 2734 m2 or approximately 1.1 limas . Figure to the right shows mean maize produced per lima. Box whisker plots are organized as above to show the distribution of data (with horizontal lines within the box representing the 25th, 50th and 75th quantiles, the horizontal lines through the box representing the mean, and whiskers extending to the 10th and 90th quantiles). Based on mean values, increase in maize yields attributed to CF with and without composting in comparison to traditional farming practices was 151.6 kg/lima and 103.2 kg/lima, respectively (both statistically significant at P<0.001). However, it can be seen that variations between farmers are great, necessitating more research to investigate possible confounding factor such as differences in compost types, patterns of applications, suitability for different soil types, etc.

Labour is the primary cost to the individual practicing conservation farming in terms of digging holes, making compost and supplying each hole with the correct quantity of compost. Results suggest a large variation in the food security benefits of conservation relative to traditional farming practices, which would suggest farmers may vary their level of compliance with the best conservation farming practices. Longer term benefits may become more pronounced as continued inter-row mulching will reduce the costs of weeding while increasing soil fertility with continued application of compost.

A lima is the standard unit farmers use for measuring their fields and equals 50 meters by 50 meters. BACK TO TOP