Conservation Farming

Farmers in the Luangwa Valley face a number of unique challenges, from marauding elephants to poor quality soils and unpredictable rainfalls. In recent years, farmers with limited skills, who tend to farm using the fertile alluvial flood plains, have seen increases in crop loss from worsening annual floods which are resulting from damage to the local watershed.

COMACO currently has 34,381 farmers registered as COMACO farmer producer group members (52% are women). These registered farmers learn improved farming practices that help address the environmental challenges affecting their particular region. By applying improved farming practices, families can increase yields with minimal increase in labor, reduce weeding, and avoid having to clear new land and risk conflict with wild animals. With COMACO-acquired skills, farmers can also maintain good yields on higher ground and avoid the risks of floods, thus also reducing erosion and further watershed damage. Finally, farmers are learning the value of CF to providing them with food security and added income.

COMACO’s approach to CF is based on a combination of mulching, composting, and using potholes as continuous planting stations to build up soil fertility, resulting in significantly improved crop yields. By improving rainwater retention, potholing can mitigate the effects of droughts. The practice uses fixed pot holes that are used in successive years to plant seeds. Each year, compost is added to the pothole to improve soil structure and fertility and the area around the pothole is mulched.

Composting and mulching are core skills supported by COMACO. In past years, farmers were made dependent on chemical fertilizers distributed by short-lived government programs. Once the government stopped subsidizing these fertilizers, many farms failed. Composting replaces these chemicals with cost-free, sustainable, organic sources of nitrogen. Farmers also learn to value living in harmony with wildlife, as elephants and other grazers are major providers of the ideal manure for composting.

The use of mulch also protects the soil from water loss and erosion and adds much needed organic matter and microbial life to the soil. Over time, with consistent weeding and use of mulch, the need to weed decreases, which saves the farmer appreciable time and labor. As farmers recognize the value of mulching, they also put a stop to the ubiquitous practice of burning off crop residue after harvest. Crop residues are much too valuable for mulch and for blocking the regeneration of weeds to be wasted through burning. By reducing the incidence of fires, surrounding wildlife habitat remains undisturbed and prosperous, bringing organic farming full circle back to COMACO’s commitment to conservation. COMACO also teaches familiar farming skills such as zero tillage, proper plant spacing, crop rotation and uniquely Zambian intercropping, which encourages the planting of leguminous local tree species to provide nitrogen to poor quality soils.