On-farm evaluation of yield and economic benefit of short term maize legume intercropping systems under conservation agriculture in Malawi

Conservation agriculture in Southern Africa: Advances in knowledge

“…However, Umar et al 105 stressed that farmers perceived labor requirements very differently and, whereas basin planting was perceived to be more labor intensive, significant labor reductions were recorded on animal traction ripping. Results for manual CA systems in Malawi 28,102 showed labor savings of about 9 and 19 person days ha − 1 in land preparation and weeding under CA. Manual CA systems practiced in Malawi involve direct seeding using a dibble stick, which requires significantly less labor than preparing the traditional ridges and furrows manually.…”

“…Although labor input in this study was small compared with previous studies, they showed that CA reduced farm labor requirements (Table 3). Related studies in Malawi showed that returns to labor were more than twice as high under CA using monocropping and intercropping with legumes, both on and off farm, as under conventional tillage practice using the conventional ridge and furrow system 28,102 . The use of planting basins, a technology promoted by most development organizations in Zambia and Zimbabwe, based on manually dug planting holes 103 , spreads out the labor requirement for land preparation and encourages timely planting, thereby reducing the peak labor load at planting 104 .…”

“…Although farmers are aware of the benefits of crop rotations, socio-economic factors often hinder integrating rotations within their farms 128,129 . In Malawi, for example, the government subsidized maize seed and inputs (inorganic fertilizer, agrochemicals) to achieve maize self-sufficiency at the national level, which encouraged monocropping 102 . In areas where farm sizes are Note: CP, conventional practice; CA, conservation agriculture sole maize; CAL, conservation agriculture maize-legume intercrop.…”

“…However, these past researches were largely conducted within experimental stations and did not take into account socio-economic constraints in real farm situations that could hinder the widespread adoption of CA. Recently, more studies reporting results from onfarm and on-station trials have been published concentrating on some of the above-mentioned challenges and constraints 28,37,68,73,86,94,96,97,99,101,102,104,[113][114][115][116] .…”

Mainstreaming conservation agriculture in Malawi: Knowledge gaps and institutional barriers

“…These efforts have improved understandings of the agro-ecological zone-specific performance of, and thresholds in, CA practices (Wall and Thierfelder, 2009;Mashingaidze et al 2012). Efforts to undertake these trials within farm sites, such as those in Ntcheu (Mloza-Banda and Nanthambwe, 2010), are starting to generate much-needed data on with CA (Ito et al, 2007;Ngwira et al, 2012Ngwira et al, , 2013.…”