Conservation Agriculture Promotion and Uptake in Mufulira, Zambia-A Political Agronomy Approach

Abstract

This study utilized 120 semi-structured interviews with smallholder farming households and two focus group discussions; as well as several key informant interviews with experts to explore the promotion and uptake of conservation agriculture (CA) in Mufulira, Zambia. Results reveal that ridges and flat culture continued to be the preferred tillage systems (97 per cent and 55 per cent respectively) despite the farmers having been trained in the use of a minimum tillage technique. None of the interviewed farmers perceived CA as a solution to any of their agricultural related problems. The NGO promoting CA in the district had framed it as suited for and claimed to target labour constrained HIV/AIDS affected households. Conversely, farmers complained that CA was challenging for them due to its high labour demands (23 per cent); poor harvests (18 per cent) and was unsuited to the rainfall patterns of the area (10 per cent). Local agricultural experts contested the promotion of basins in Mufulira. The framing of CA as a solution to labour constraints did not seem to hold in the study area. This effectively limited the contestation spaces available to the public officials with dissenting views on the suitability of basin CA in the district.

Why do smallholder farmers dis‐adopt conservation agriculture? Insights from Malawi

“…Contestations exist surrounding performance of CA under smallholder farming conditions (Baudron, Andersson, Corbeels, & Giller, 2011;Giller, Witter, Corbeels, & Tittonell, 2009;Giller et al, 2015;Pittelkow et al, 2015). In addition, lack of consensus regarding universal definition of CA (Glover, Sumberg, & Andersson, 2016;Whitfield et al, 2015) has led to diverse interpretations and promotion of disparate practices in different countries (Andersson & D'Souza, 2014;Bwalya Umar, 2017;Grabowski & Kerr, 2014;Kassam et al, 2012;Kirkegaard et al, 2014) Government, 2016) and coupled with the smallholders' tradition of growing maize .…”

Awareness and Use of Sustainable Land Management Practices in Smallholder Farming Systems

“…Crop rotations involving at least one legume, the use of crop residues, and timely planting emerged as the three most important SLM strategies used by rural households in the Eastern Province. These are three of the practices of the "CA package" promoted among smallholder farmers in Zambia [42,80]. Previous studies suggested that farmers opt for crop rotations because of the benefits associated with pests and disease control and food diversification [78].…”