COMACO's impact on soils at the household level is impressive and starts with better farming practices
COMACO, through its market incentive approach, has recruited thousands of
households living in Luangwa Valley to practice composting as an organic-based fertilizer. By applying a small quantity in the pot-holes dug for conservation farming and where seeds are planted, it becomes practical to replace expensive fertilizer with compost, saving rural communities in the remote areas of Luangwa Valley well over $100,000 in fertilizer costs each year. Moreover, it is helping to sustain improved crop harvests , provided farmers practice composting and crop rotation together with conservation farming. Prior to COMACO, composting was not even known and yields were generally poor. The benefits of composting are easy for neighboring farmers to see and the practice is spreading and becoming a common way farmers now improve their yields. Where fields would once become over-used and unproductive, these new skills are now keep farmlands fertile and more bountiful.
- Conservation farming or pot-hole farming
Conservation farming is a technique that concentrates a farmer's efforts into small potholes where seeds are placed, water is captured, and nutrients are built up. With strict adherence to weeding schedules, a farmer reduces his own energy costs to weeding and greatly reduces the drain of soil nutrients caused by weeds. By combining conservation with composting and the right crops, a farmer is able to revive poor soils and keep them healthy and productive. The result is farmland that can keep families for food secure without increasing the need to clear new farmland is search of better soils. Through COMACO's efforts, almost 10,000 households are now practicing conservation farming in Luangwa Valley and were families who joined the program as poor, unsuccessful farmers and were largely unable to grow enough food to support their needs from one season to the next. Most of these families are now food secure and are confident enough farmers to grow one of the cash crops recommended by COMACO: rice, groundnuts, or soybeans.
