An African success: the case of conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe

Marongwe, Lungowe Sepo; Kwazira, Karsto; Jenrich, Michael; Thierfelder, Christian; Kassam, Amir; Friedrich, Theodor

doi:10.3763/ijas.2010.0556

Cited by 102 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Farmers attributed it to higher water retention capacity in conservation agriculture than in conventional agriculture. Other studies have shown higher infiltration rates and water holding capacity in conservation agriculture plots than in conventional agriculture plots (Marongwe et al, 2011;Zarea, 2011). Farmers also argued that early land preparation and planting associated with conservation agriculture increased chances of survival of the maize crop from floods.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smallholder Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change and Conservation Agriculture: Evidence from Zambia

Nyanga¹,

Johnsen²,

Aune³

et al. 2011

JSD

137

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Actors involved in promoting conservation agriculture have often not taken into account perceptions of smallholder farmers of climate change and conservation agriculture as an adaptation strategy. This study documents smallholder farmers' perceptions of climate change and conservation agriculture. Most farmers attributed climate change to supernatural forces. Smallholder farmers' perceptions related to floods and droughts were significantly associated with adoption of conservation agriculture. The extent to which smallholder farmers perceived conservation agriculture as a climate change adaptation strategy was very low. This suggests existence of other important reasons for practicing conservation agriculture than adaptation to climate change. Policy implications of the study are: conservation agriculture projects should not only focus on technical approaches to increase adoption rates but also consider social aspects such as perceptions that are equally important in conservation agriculture. Inclusion of climate change communication to facilitate exchange of climatic information that could enable smallholder farmers relate to conservation agriculture as an adaptation strategy is essential.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smallholder Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change and Conservation Agriculture: Evidence from Zambia

Nyanga¹,

Johnsen²,

Aune³

et al. 2011

JSD

137

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Wherever CA has been adopted it appears to have had both agricultural and environmental benefits, as shown in Table 4. CA has now spread to some 25,000ha in Lesotho, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, and resulted in increased and more stable yields (Marongwe et al, 2011;Owenya et al, 2011). In Zimbabwe, 8,000 farmers have adopted CA methods, resulting in maize yields growing by 67 per cent.…”

Section: Livestockmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable intensification in African agriculture

Pretty

Toulmin

Williams³

2011

International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability

844

554

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Conservation agriculture has the potential to reduce water stress in crops, which is critically important in southern Africa as the region braces for the hotter and drier weather predicted by climate change models (Lobell et al, 2008). The benefits of CA have been validated empirically through various studies around the world such as those of Cavalieri et al (2009), Affholder et al (2010), Marongwe et al (2011) and Mazvimavi (2011). As a result, many institutions have invested in efforts to transfer this technology to smallholder farmers, particularly those of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Promotion of CA has been suggested as a key strategy to alleviating the negative impact of drought and rainfall variability. Despite promotional efforts by donor agencies in Zimbabwe, adoption rates of CA by smallholder farmers have been disappointing (Marongwe et al, 2011;Andersson & Giller, 2012). In practice, smallholder farmers have modified the CA package and adopted some components of the technology such as digging planting basins while leaving out others, such as mulching and crop rotation (Giller et al, 2009;Mazvimavi & Twomlow 2009;Pedzisa et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Intensity of adoption of Conservation agriculture by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe

Pedzisa

Rugube

Winter‐Nelson

et al. 2015

Agrekon

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article assesses the intensity of technology adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) techniques by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. It seeks to understand the drivers of CA adoption intensity in terms of the number of practices implemented using count data analysis. On average, the farmers in our sample adopt five out of 2 eight possible CA practices while only 7.4% use all eight practices in any one year. Practices such as digging planting basins (81.9%), applying manure (73.2%) and timely post-planting weeding (70.1%) are relatively popular, while adoption of crop rotation (22.8%) is comparatively rare. Productivity is positively correlated to the number of techniques used. Farmers adopting all the CA practices are the most productive, with an estimated maize yield of 2.50 tons/ha, compared with a yield of less than 1 tons/ha for those using three techniques or fewer. Results from a Poisson regression indicate that education, agro-ecology, non-governmental input support and extension support have a significant impact on adoption intensity. Subsidised inputs increase the number of components used, although access to those inputs was uneven across regions of Zimbabwe. Further, the number of CA components used in the previous season positively impacts current season adoption intensity, implying that promotions of CA technologies do have a persistent effect, even after those promotions end.

show abstract

An African success: the case of conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe

Cited by 102 publications

References 5 publications

Smallholder Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change and Conservation Agriculture: Evidence from Zambia

Smallholder Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change and Conservation Agriculture: Evidence from Zambia

Sustainable intensification in African agriculture

The Intensity of adoption of Conservation agriculture by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About