Project Proposal

Study on Conservation Farming by Lydiah Gatere

Farming in the plateau region of Eastern Zambia’s Luangwa Valley involves a system where forest is cleared, burned and crops planted with few external inputs. Cotton is the major cash crop and maize the subsistence food crop. Environmental degradation is prevalent due to farming practices employed such as the the traditional system (often called “slash and burn” and known locally as chitemene). The problem has been greatly worsened by two other factors, these are:

(i) Population pressure is increasing leaving less time available between cropping and soil restoration, and

(ii) The heavy reliance on cotton farming without adding anything back to the soil, stripping it of nutrients. These factors combine to cause a need for high rates of deforestation.

To curb this, one farming technique Conservation Farming (CF) has been promoted. The technique involves: dry season preparation of small depressions or basins for plantings, no burning of crop residue from the prior harvest but using those residues to suppress weed growth and improve moisture retention between the basins; and using nitrogen-fixing crop rotations. CF is hypothesized to be a better farming system than the traditional system and allow more permanent cropping with less soil erosion and soil degradation.

The main goals of our soil science research are to:

(i) investigate under which environmental conditions CF works best,

(ii) determine what parts of CF are the reasons for better yields;

(iii) determine what types of organic amendments (compost, biochar, leaf cuttings, etc.) are best for improving production potential under CF; and

(iv) determine how long it takes until CF achieves its greatest yield potential under conditions used by the farmers. CF should also help with the problem of soil erosion that result in siltation of rivers lower in the watershed and more severe flooding when rains begin suddenly at the start of the cropping cycle.

This work is being performed by scientists from Cornell University, Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility, and the Conservation Farming Unit, in conjunction with the men and women of COMACO. It is supported by a SANREM-CRSP grant from US-AID, through Virginia Tech University.