21 December - Prioritising in Agriculture

The views expressed on this blog are the author's alone and do not reflect the views or opinions of his employer, Concern Worldwide.

A recent editorial in the Post ... as usual, my comments in red among the text.

Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Yang Youming is urging Zambia to prioritise agriculture as it is essential to the development of any nation.

“In terms of development of agriculture and this is the basis of economic takeoff in China because when we talk about the economic miracle in China, we always talk about industrialisation in China and China being the main manufacturing base for commodities to be exported to the entire world. But we must remember the first thing we emphasise is that we should have a solid agricultural base because you have to provide food and clothing to our people. And food and clothing all come from agriculture, so agriculture has always been and will remain a priority area,” says Ambassador Yang.

For Zambia, we have no sensible alternative to prioritising agriculture. The great majority of our people are dependent on agriculture for survival. Eight five [85%] per cent of our country’s workforce is in agriculture. And only six per cent of our labour force is deployed in the industry. The remaining nine per cent is in services.

The argument CFU makes is that most of these people in agriculture are not "farmers" per se, e.g. the production of food, fuel and/or fibre is not the primary goal of their farming endeavors. There is some truth to that, but the letter of the article is fundamentally correct ... they are growing crops for survival, e.g. food. Disqualifying someone as a farmer is all well and good, but it remains the essential means of survival for the overwhelming majority of rural Zambians.

But despite 85 per cent of our people being deployed in agriculture, the sector’s contribution to our GDP is only 19.80 per cent. The contribution to our GDP by industry and services is far above that of agriculture - 33.80 per cent for industry and 46.5 per cent for services. How can a sector in which 85 per cent of our workforce is deployed account for less than 20 per cent of our GDP? Despite 85 per cent of our workforce being deployed in agriculture, only 4.52 per cent of our arable land is under use. And only 0.05 per cent of that land has permanent crops. And with so much water, only 1,559 square kilometres is irrigated land.

There is some funny math at work here ... would be interesting how you count maize (the faraway leader in crops planted by that 85%) after taking away government subsidies on the production and consumption of the same. Most of what IAPRI says is that the majority of those 85% don't produce a surplus for sale. So ... huge labor force contributing almost nothing to the GDP.

It is clear that we have not prioritised agriculture. The contribution of agriculture to our GDP is too low and more so given its great potential. With 85 per cent of our workforce deployed in agriculture, it means that agriculture is the major source of livelihood for the great majority of Zambians who today, over 60 per cent of them live in abject poverty.

This means that if we have to move our people out of poverty, great effort will need to be exerted to increase agricultural production and consequently increase incomes of the majority poor who are totally dependent on agriculture for survival. This will call for consistent and sustainable high productivity growth in agriculture.

Okay, a bit of funny logic at work here; bunch of people do agriculture, ergo, improving agriculture production will "increase incomes of the majority poor who are totally dependent on agriculture for survival". Most people we work with are a lot like kids on Midwestern farm in the U.S.A. ... once they get the chance, they boost off the farm looking for easier work that pays cash (you would, too if you spent your formulative years swinging a hoe). Even people in rural areas are not likely to engage in sale of farm produce; they may engage in some other livelihood activity. This is where people get the message goobered up ... if you were to, say, get everybody to be a better cabbage farmer, what the hell would they do with all those cabbages? Same really with maize; people, typically the great mass of poor, are really excited when their production equals their consumption levels, or if their production allows them to reach their yearround consumption levels (vis-a-vi sale of their produce). 

To improve agriculture, a lot of things have to change. Our agricultural policies have to change. We can’t continue with the policies that have failed our people and have left them poor over many decades.

Here we go. Policies. As if words on paper can make the soil fertile. 

There will be need for diversification in agriculture. It doesn’t make sense to continue thinking and acting as if maize production is all that agriculture is about. Crop diversification is urgently needed. There is need to promote other crops that can be easily or cheaply grown by our people. And not every part of our country is good for every crop. 

We also need to find markets for all those diverse crops and figure out how to dismantle the great spinning economic, gastronomic, cultural and political engine that maize production and consumption has become. 

There is need to strengthen co-operative structures if we are to improve agriculture, especially for the poor. Efficiently run co-operatives can help a lot in terms of marketing, skills building, research, ICT services, finance, infrastructure and irrigation investment.

Now off to find that cooperative that efficiently uses all those services. "Cooperative" is what I call an automatic word. When you say "cooperative", farmers hear "subsidized inputs". They need to not think of the word "cooperative". Maybe "covenant" or "tontine", though the latter might bring in some interesting repercussions. 

There is also need to focus on crops that will help ensure household and national food security and also provide some surplus for exports. Such crops may include Irish and sweet potatoes, mixed beans, cowpeas, groundnuts, cashew nuts, fruits, in addition to cassava, millet and sorghum.

The contribution of our agriculture to exports is very low. It is just about five per cent. This needs to be increased if we are to see a reversal of economic fortunes.

Of course, crops like sugar, wheat, barley, soya beans, cotton, tea, coffee, tobacco, sunflower and so on and so forth also need policy priority if we are to develop a strong agri-business and light manufacturing.

Sigh. Of all of those, soyabeans, cotton, tobacco and sunflower are within the realm of reason (barely) for a small-scale farmer to grow (the others require irrigation and quite specific management regimes. However, these would be the best-off farmers, those with land and labour to spare. This past week when meeting with farmers, I recognized that the great mass of rural Zambians, who often operate on a quarter-tank with regards to caloric energy, plant maize and cassava because they are a) easy to get and b) provide the most calories. You don't go planting cotton or tobacco when your body's screaming for fuel.

Livestock production also needs to be increased if we are to meet the rising domestic demand and create a surplus for export and increase the incomes of our people. Livestock production calls for improved testing and treatment of all diseases of economic importance for cattle, pigs, goats, sheep and poultry in order to stabilise and increase stocking levels.

Funny enough, it appears that the number of cows in the country could meet demand; it's just that selling cows for money is still at cross-purposes with the fundamentals of cattle possession in the social context; status, non-liquid wealth, the medium of exchange to seal marriage arrangements, etc. Chickens are the way to go; less touchy with the whole gender thing, and villagers are so attached to Lil' Cluck-cluck.

Of late, the Minister of Finance Alexander Chikwanda has shown some increasing interest in fish farming. And the President has also shown some interest in this sector. But more needs to be done to improve fish farming. What is coming out of our fish farms is too little to meet the increasing demand for fish that has been complicated by the depletion of fish stocks in our rivers and lakes.

We agree with Ambassador Yang’s observations on the need to prioritise agriculture. It is a sector in which the great majority of our people are deployed. The poverty that we are experiencing today is a result of poor agriculture. (my opinion poor agriculture practices) If agriculture improves, the poverty levels will equally drop (will they really?). We have low agricultural productivity because the sector is not receiving adequate attention. We are spending over US$300 million per annum subsidising maize. But what are we getting out of that investment as a country? There is no strong political will needed for crop diversification. Too much political opportunism is tied to agricultural policies. Political (and cultural and gastronomic) sensitivities have ridiculously been created around maize production and subsidies. It’s time we stopped cheating our people and took a courageous way out of these sterile agricultural policies that are leading us nowhere other than to the deepening of poverty.

True ... but it's the practices, the capacity of extension to improve practices, and the mentality of how to improve production that are at fault. The Ministry of Agriculture is packed with ghost workers, agriculture officers not at their posts, or agriculture officers who fail to develop, recognize, and / or refine local innovations, etc. It is a system built on the assumption that knowledge comes from on high and should be followed w/out question. I think our constant struggles with CA come from the fact that everyone wants to harmonize the methods (e.g., basins and ripping), rather than understanding the goals likely have multiple opportunities for realization.

Whatever we do, whatever we earn from mining and other sectors, without meaningful developments in agriculture, we are going nowhere and we  will not be able to move our people out of poverty. 

Let's move them out of hunger first. 

May 18, 2015 - Zambia Has Enough Maize

(from the ZNFU weekly update)

ZAMBIA HAS ENOUGH MAIZE DESPITE LOW YIELDS

According to the Crop Forecast Results released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock yesterday, Zambia’s 2014/15 maize production dropped by 21.86 to 2.6 million tons. Despite an increase in the area planted, the national average yield dropped from 2.36 tons per hectare to 1.75tons poor hectare. The yield reductions have been attributed to the poor weather experienced during the seasons.  The country is however expected to have a surplus of around 877,000 MT due to a large carry over stock from the previous season.

During his announcement of the crop forecast results, the Minister of agriculture and Livestock- Honourable Given Lubinda, stated that the Food Reserve Agency would only purchase 500,000MT of maize at a price to be announced later. He further encouraged private sector participation in the 2015/16 marketing season and indicated that the borders would remain open for maize exports as long as national food security is not compromise.

Meanwhile the national Soya beans productions has been forecast up by 5.7 percent to 226,323 MT as the increase in area planted is expected to outweigh the yield reductions. Cotton production has been pegged at 103,889MT. The crop forecast results generally reveal that most crops suffered yield losses. There was however notable increase in the plantings of Irish potatoes especially by the large scale farmer.  

TRADITIONAL LEADER STRATEGIZES FOR INCREASED AGRICULTURE PRODUCTION 

Senior Chief Nkula of the Bemba speaking people of Chinsali has come up with strategies to scale up agriculture in his Chiefdom because the majority of his subjects never take agriculture seriously, resulting into high poverty levels. The traditional leader has put up some strategies which include:

• Setting up of a village committee which will be responsible for giving out traditional land to individual farmers for agricultural purposes, starting from 5 hectares going upwards
• Starting with the 2015/2016 farming season, all subjects will be forced to go to their various farms/fields. A scheduled alarm (bell) will be resounding around 08:00hrs every morning to notify farmers to go to their crop fields and this will be under the serious supervision of chief retainers.

The senior Chief has also encouraged all civil servants in his area to get land so that they become models to others. The people of Nkula Chiefdom have welcomed these strategies because a lot of people are not farming but concentracting on useless vices such as beer drinking. The Chief informed his subjects of his plans during an agricultural camp show held at Nkula camp in his chiefdom this week on Wednesday. 

TOBACCO FARMERS COMPLAIN OF HIGH TRANSPORT CHARGES

Japanese Tobacco International (JTI) and Alliance One have centralised the marketing points of Tobacco.  JTI will conduct Tobacco marketing at their newly built modern facility called Rosewood in Kaoma district while Alliance One will be at their main depot in Nkeyema. Sources have reviewed that the reason for centralising the marketing points was to reduce on possible risks of side marketing and reducing handling costs among others. But Tobacco farmers in Kalumwange and Chitwa Farming Blocs have complained of the cost of transporting Tobacco which will now be tripled. The farmers are worried that the rise in transport costs will negatively affect the profitability of their crop produce. JTI has completely done away with all their satellite depots.

ZNFU Bulletin, Week 24 - 2014

The Zambia National Farmers' Union (ZNFU) is the former Commercial Farmers Union (CFU, which now means Conservation Farming Unit, yay acronyms). I won't right now discuss the somewhat complex partnership we have with their district offices (our implementing partners in Mongu and Kaoma) or my thoughts on how they work, but they do publish a weekly bulletin that crunches everything into good and quick chunks; one such bulletin is shown below. As usual, I claim no responsibility for the content.

Have a great Monday.
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FRIDAY BRIEF

WEEK 24, 2014

THIS Week’s Highlights

·         FARMERS URGED TO KNOW THEIR WATER USER RIGHTS

·         PIG GENETICS FARM SOON TO OPEN IN ZAMBIA

·         GSI/AFGRI CONDUCT GRAIN SILOS DEMONSTRATION

·         2015 NATIONAL BUDGET SUBMISSIONS TO MINISTRY OF FINANCE

…... SEE DETAILED UPDATES BELOW……

INDUSTRY UPDATES/ALERTS

FARMERS URGED TO KNOW THEIR WATER USER RIGHTS

The Director for Water Resources Management Authority (WARMA) has reiterated the need for sound legislation and water management structures among all major water users as provided for in the new Water Resources Management Act No. 21 of 2011.  Mr. Kakotwe informed the National Catchment Delineation workshop in Chisamba that his Authority was putting up water management structures at all levels to help calm the growing inter-sectoral water use conflicts among major users, i.e. farmers, mines, manufacturing industry, environment and domestic consumers. WARMA is calling on all water users to organize and recognize themselves into Water Users Associations as provided for by the law in order to claim their water user rights and obligations. The new WARMA Act provides for, among other things, an integrated, interactive, participatory, gender-sensitive; multi-sectoral and stakeholder approach to water resources management aimed at enhancing equitable water use allocation.

PIG GENETICS FARM SOON TO OPEN IN ZAMBIA

A Pig Genetics farm will soon start its operations in Zambia. This came to light when a team of Zambian Industry experts from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock as well as the Zambia National Farmers’ Union visited a pig genetics farm in South Africa to familiarize themselves with the operations of such an investment. The farm which will be fully automated is expected to cater for the supply of breeding stock to other countries such as; Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania. Ground work has already commenced and the farm is expected to be operational in September, 2014. The farm will initially start with a 500 sow unit and is expected to offload more than 200 weaners per week to grower farms.   ZNFU is happy with this development as new Pig Genetic farm will help resolve current problems faced by many pig farmers when sourcing for improved genetics for their breeding stock.

GSI/AFGRI CONDUCT GRAIN SILOS DEMONSTRATION

GSI Zambia Ltd in partnership with AFGRI recently unveiled their new grain storage technology to Mkushi farmers at the AFGRI Bunker. The company showcased different storage facilities which included steel farm bins, commercial storage grain bins, grain silos and a low cost bulk grain storage solution for smallholder and emergent farmers. Speaking to farmers during the function, Mkushi District Commissioner Mr. Luka Mwamba expressed delight at the fact that some of the storage facilities are now tailor made for small scale and emergent farmers a move that will enhance storage and reduce post-harvest loses.

2015 NATIONAL BUDGET SUBMISSIONS TO MINISTRY OF FINANCE

The Ministry of Finance has started receiving tax and non-tax proposals for the 2015 National Budget and the 2015 to 2017 Medium Term Expenditure Framework [MTEF]. In this regard the Union is requesting members to submit tax and non-tax proposals across the agricultural value chains to ZNFU Head Office by 15^th July 2014. This will enable the Union have ample time to compile all submissions prior to submitting to the Ministry of Finance on behalf of members.

The format of the proposals to be submitted to Ministry of Finance is as follows:

1. Clearly outline the expected impact in terms of;

·         Proposed measure,

·         Justification; and

·         Expected revenue impact (i.e. gain or loss).

2. All proposals on improvement of tax administration must clearly outline anomalies/challenges in current statutes which are proposed to be corrected and justify expected improved outcomes, especially in revenue collection.

Kindly send all your submissions to: judy.hamonzwe@znfu.org.zm

NEWS FROM THE REGIONS

CENTRAL REGION

MKUSHI DFA TO HOLD ITS 2014 AGM

Mkushi DFA has set 27^th June 2014 as the date for this year’s Annual General Meeting. This year’s date is intentionally set to coincide with the District agricultural show starting the same day so that farmers can interact with exhibitors before the meeting. To facilitate this, the AGM will be held at the Council chamber instead of the usual country club at 14 hour.

I-CONNECT TO EXTEND COVERAGE TO MKUSHI

I-connect one of the internet service providers established in 2005 and who are now a part of the Vodacom group has expressed interest to extend its internet coverage to Mkushi district. During their discussions with the ZNFU Officials, the I-connect officials indicated that they were looking forward to partnering with the Union in their drive to modernize internet connectivity and offer competitive services to the farming community. Meanwhile, the ZNFU has welcomed the development as it will enhance communication efficiency.

EASTERN B REGION

LEAVE FISP FOR THE VULNERABLE, CHIEF NYAMPANDE ADVISES FARMERS

 Chief Nyampande of Petauke District has warned farmers to stop depending on FISP because the program was meant to help only the vulnerable people. Speaking during the Mechanization Road Show field day organized by CFU on 10^th June 2014, the Chief advised the farmers to join ZNFU if they were to reap the benefit of Agriculture because ZNFU was there for farmers and their service delivery was more efficient. He cited the Lima Credit Scheme as one of the major benefits among other services that farmers can access from the Union. He said that he had confidence in the Union because he has seen how farming has improved in his Chiefdom due to interventions which ZNFU has brought in his area. He however, advised the DACO to quickly address challenges surrounding the allocation and distribution of inputs under FISP in the District. He further appealed to Government through the District Commissioner’s office to quickly announce the maize floor price as farmers were running out of patience.

FARMERS ADVISE TO EMBRACE CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY

Petauke District Commissioner has advised farmers in the Province and particularly Petauke District to embrace the modern Conservation Agriculture Technology which CFU and other stakeholders like ZNFU are promoting .Speaking at the Mechanization road show field day, she advised farmers to have a positive mind that can quickly adapt to change and take advantage of technologies that are being offloaded on the market. And also speaking during the same event, Petauke DFA chairperson, Mr. Joseph Lungu said “the Union does not only speak for farmers but also provide solutions to increase production and productivity.”

PETAUKE BEE KEEPERS HAPPY WITH HONEY PRICE

Farmer’s in Petauke have expressed satisfaction with the market linkage that the Zambia Honey Council has established in the district for bee keepers. The private buyer Agri-world is currently offering K6.50 per kg to the farmers and has been consistent in both payments and collections.

NORTHERN REGION               

 

CHILUBI RICE FARMERS STUCK WITH THE COMMODITY

Rice farmers in Chilubi have no market where to offload the commodity they have grown in area and have appealed to the government to quickly intervene. Kampombo Cooperative secretary Mr. Pride Kaunda observed that rice farmers are frustrated in Chilubi because the current marketing policy did not favour them as they are left to organize market linkages on their own. Despite Rice farmers in the area responding to government calls of diversification, they had been facing challenges in selling rice because government has not been buying the commodity from them as they are doing for maize farmers. Meanwhile, Chilubi mainland this year has produced estimated 7,000 x 50kg bags of rice. 

ALL IS SET FOR THE MBALA DISTRICT SHOW

Mbala district held its District Agricultural show today and the ZNFU participated through Mbala District Farmers’ Association and Nondo Information Centre which was represented Nondo Block. The theme for this year’s show was ‘Breaking the new grounds’.

SOUTHERN B REGION

MAZABUKA FARM WORKERS TO BENEFIT FROM LCS

Farm workers at Rafeen Farm among other farms in Mazabuka district have expressed interest to join the Union and participate on the Lima Credit Scheme program. Speaking at a meeting today, Mr. Ivor Evans encouraged his workers to join ZNFU in order for them to double their production by participating on the Lima credit scheme.

In a similar development, another meeting at Northern Zambezi Traders (PAMA MEAT) was organized with the same view of helping the farm workers to access inputs through the ZNFU’s Lima Credit Scheme and that they will not have to look for an off taker, as the company is ready to buy off the commodity from its workers.

WORLD VISION ZAMBIA TO COLLABORATE WITH ZNFU

World Vision is implementing a number of agricultural activities in Namwala and has since approached Namwala DFA so that all the trainings they intend to conduct with the farmers are channeled through the Information Centres. The trainings will be conducted for all the contact farmers in the following ; conservation farming,  post-harvest technologies and sensitize farmers on the importance of crop diversification in commodities such as cow peas, Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes.

The organization has also challenged ZNFU and NAIS to come up with radio forums programs at the Macha’s vision broadcasting community radio. The programs will aim at educating and informing the community on what ZNFU and World vision are doing in the area. 

NORTH WESTERN REGION

ALL IS SET FOR THE NORTH WESTERN PROVINCIAL SHOW

The North Western Provincial Agricultural, Mining and Commercial Show will to be held in the showground from 20^th - 22^nd June under the theme “BREAKING NEW GROUNDS.”  In relation with the theme, the technology of the ZNFU e-extension is definitely breaking new grounds some farmers have since started accessing extension services using this system. The show will therefore be a platform at which the system will be exhibited and shared with more farmers as they visit the ZNFU stand.

WESTERN REGION

MUMBWA FARMERS AWAIT THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF MAIZE FLOOR PRICE

Farmers in Mumbwa are eagerly awaiting the announcement of the maize floor price. This came to light during an Information Centre meeting in Keezwa IC's Shibunji District held on Tuesday this week. Speaking on behalf of the farmers, information centre Chairperson Adam Kipupu said the delay in the announcement of the Maize floor price will give an upper hand to the private buyers whose dealings with the farmer are not fair. Mr. Kipupu further said all farmers in the area are expecting that the floor Price to be announced will be higher than K65.00 per 50 kg bag considering the rise in the cost of inputs.

SUPERIOR MILLING STARTS OPERATIONS IN MUMBWA

The long awaited Superior Milling branch officially opened its doors for business on Tuesday the 10th of June, 2014.  Gracing the opening Ceremony was Mumbwa District Commissioner Mr. Sunday Shamabanse. Mr. Shamabanse said that the venture that Superior milling has launched is in line with governments endeavour in terms of Job creation. He also thanked the company for looking towards Mumbwa district in their quest to increase and the companies’ outlets. He further said ‘Superior Milling will add to the already existing agro off takers of maize in the district.’ The opening Ceremony took place at the ZNFU's Agriculture Service Centre where Superior Milling will be operating from.

JTI TO PROMOTE A NEW TOBACCO CURING METHOD

JTI is now promoting a more environmental friendly and cost effective way of curing the tobacco to farmers in Kaoma. JTI is trying to come up with ways of preventing environmental degradation which has seen a lot of wood lots cut down for fire wood which is used for curing purposes. The new technology called Matope Balm will also help in reducing the colours of the crop to two; reduce on the quantity of firewood used and days for complete curing. This will help improve on quality and reduce the cost of curing while addressing environmental sustainability through the promotion of Afforestation by planting selected tree species that can help in firewood and poles for construction. Furthermore, farmers are motivated by receiving a payment of 8 cents per surviving tree annually.   

Greetings my few readers! 

Here is an example of what we refer to as a political (and economic) agroecological context. 

Slightly over two months ago, the Zambian government (for reasons that remain a well of speculation) entirely dropped the subsidies on fuel and cut the subsidies for maize production / consumption. It was greeted at first with confusion that soon turned into anger, particularly with the 15% jump in fuel prices. The Zambian economy, including the small-scale farmers who are still consumers of things like sugar, cooking oil, clothes, etc., etc., suddenly saw their costs jump 20% literally overnight, as everything in this country depends on fuel. This was abetted in no small part by the fact that every can use fuel prices as an excuse to squeeze out some more profit, particularly as the chain from producer to consumer involves on average, four or five exchanges of goods (manufacturer -> regional wholesaler -> local wholesaler -> rural trucker -> retailer [tuck shop] -> consumer).

The maize subsidy reduction didn't kick up that much ruckus; however, my suspicion is that the cuts to FISP (Farmer Inputs Support Programme) won't be recognized until much closer to the farming season; oh, how will people holler when they have to pay half (rather than a fifth) of the price.

Anyway ... suddenness of the announcement caught everyone off-guard (including the government representatives, who appeared not to know about it). The sudden bump in consumer prices got everyone buzzing, and their was an order issued for government ministers to explain the reason for the reduction in subsidies; it is claimed that the money freed up will be used for rural development. 

As a guest in this country, I don't cross some lines of discussion, particularly in a public forum. I can say though that in my past experiences working around FISP, maize production and purchase subsidies have created a forcing context that seems to discourage crop diversification; this is particularly acute in the areas (esp. the current region, Western) that I've worked in that are marginal at best for maize production; to whit, our district average maize yield in Mongu was 0.38 t/ha ... that is like planting two football fields to maize and getting 8 x 50kg bags. To put that in context, farmers in Iowa achieve something like >8t/ha; even commercial farmers here achieve 5~6t/ha. Farmers grow maize due to it's historically monolithic support by the government, and any move away from that is a step in the right direction. Mark my words ... it will be a shock to the agricultural system of Zambia as significant as an ecological event. 

Below are scans of the leaflet released two weeks ago (the English version and the Lozi translation).

Osmotic Adoption

Relaxing in the Korea Gardens hotel in Lilongwe, Malawi ... traveled east for work and enjoying a restful Sunday of deleting emails, reviewing reports, and typing some advocacy documents.

I'm being a bit lazy today, but I wanted to post this paper (unpublished as far as I know) by a friend of mine in Malawi by the name of Stephen Carr; if you really dig into African agricultural literature, you might come across the title Surprised by Laughter, a quasi-autobiographical book he wrote about 10 years ago. You might also, if you Google the name, find that he was a relatively large voice in the quest to reinstate fertilizer subsidies in Malawi in 2006, largely due to his correct assertion that subsidizing inputs was far cheaper than sending food aid.

The paper is incredibly relevant to the work I do in that quality of delivery and appropriateness of interventions beats great inputs any time. Great read for those in ag. development.

Anyway, here goes:

---------------------------------

Author:           Stephen Carr

Date:               2004

Title:               OSMOSIS OR PROJECT ACTIVITY? THE SPREAD OF AGRO-FORESTRY IN MALAWI

ABSTRACT:

Unlike a number of new technologies and crops introduced into Africa in the past, the agro-forestry initiatives intended to improve soil quality are not spreading rapidly from farmer to farmer. This paper reviews the reasons for this failure in Malawi and describes current activities aimed at remedying this situation.

African small scale farmers have shown themselves eager to adopt innovation which they see as offering obvious benefits. In many parts of the continent farmers mainly plant crops which have been introduced from the Americas together with exotic trees from various parts of the world. They have also adopted new technologies such as ox-ploughing and the use of inorganic fertilizers. Most of this rapid spread of new crops and technology has been by a process of “osmosis” from farmer to farmer with little or no formal extension. Why then are agro-forestry technologies for improving soil quality not spreading in the same way? The reasons include faulty technology, a lack of appreciation of farmers’ labour constraints and the absence of a striking short term impact on productivity. The response to this situation has been the development of more appropriate technologies and the intensification of formal extension. As a result there has been increased uptake of the technology by farmers associated with projects but little osmotic spread. Fresh initiatives are now need which make greater use of the extensive informal networks which exit in the Malawian rural sector.

Key Words: crop productivity, extension, small-scale farmers, soil fertility, technology adoption

INTRODUCTION

The dramatic changes which took place in Sub-Saharan African small-scale farming during the first half of the twentieth century were largely due to the rapid spread of new ideas from farmer to farmer. These changes all provided obvious immediate benefits in terms of increased productivity per unit of labour or access to additional sources of food and cash. The challenge face a growing number of smallholders in Africa to-day is of a different nature. Counteracting the slow but steady loss of soil fertility on permanently cultivated land involves the use of quite unfamiliar concepts and offers benefits and returns which are less immediate and obvious than the switch from sorghum to maize or hoe to ox-plough. At the same time the people who shouldered the responsibility for developing appropriate technologies to meet the challenge of declining fertility of the often difficult soil conditions of Africa were moving into unfamiliar territory. In consequence, some of the early advice was faulty and this has also served to limit adoption by farmers. The technologies are now being further refined, but experience to date shows that intensive extension effort has been required in order to elicit farmer response. As a result the level of adoption remains far too low to have any impact at the national level. Malawi with its high population density and degrading soils offers a good example of the challenges posed by the factors described above.

EAGER ADOPTERS

Few countries in Africa were not touched by the spread of new crops from the Americas in the first half of the last century, but it is the rapidity of that spread which is particularly striking. Examples can be drawn from a wide range of ecological conditions which demonstrate this point. Cocoa was introduced from Central America to the Gold Coast (Ghana) at the end of the nineteenth century and spread rapidly from farmer to farmer so that production grew from 2,400 tons in 1902 to 176,000 in 1919 (Hill 1956). Cassava was not a major food crop in Nigeria in 1920 (Faulkner and Mackie 1933) but was the staple food of millions a couple of decades later. Sweet potatoes were so rare in Northern Uganda at the start of the last century that the vines could be used to replace cattle as a dowry (Driberg 1923) and yet by 1935 about 250,000 ha. Were recorded (Tothill 1940. Maize also spread rapidly across the East and South of the continent replacing sorghum and millet as the staple food of millions of families. There was not only a switch to more productive crops but quite new technologies, such as ox-ploughing, were also taken up with remarkable alacrity. An example of this can be drawn from Eastern Uganda where a handful of chiefs’ sons were trained in ox-ploughing in the early 1920’s. No further government help or encouragement was given and yet by 1936 it is recorded the 15,388 ox-ploughs were in use in Teso country alone (Tothill 1940).

All over the continent farmers demonstrated their eagerness to adopt new crops, new technologies, new foods and new trees and this adoption was almost entirely unrelated to any formal extension service but was the result of the flow of information from farmer to farmer by what can be described as osmosis. A much more recent example occurred in Malawi in the 1990’s when the government lifted its ban on smallholder production of burley tobacco. Within five years of the change in policy some 250,000 farmers were growing a crop which requires considerable skill in both production, curing, and marketing.

When African farmers have demonstrated so clearly their eagerness to adopt new crops and technologies together with the effectiveness of their own networks, why is it that there has been so little spread of agro-forestry innovations intended to deal with the problems of soil fertility with which many farmers are now 

faced?

FAULTY ADVISORS

One reason for the slow spread of the agro-forestry approach to raising soil quality was the weakness of some of the initial recommendation given to farmers in Malawi. The earliest work concentrated on alley cropping with Leucaena. The hedges grew strongly on the exceptionally fertile soils of Chitedze research station and gave encouraging results. After several years of research there was a major push to popularise this approach on farmers’ fields. It soon became obvious that the levels of growth at Chitedze were totally different to those obtained on the degraded soils available to farmers and after a few years the initiative was dropped. Unfortunately many farmers and had planted the hedgerows, seen no benefit from them and been made suspicious of agro-forestry. A range of different plants were then tried in alley cropping experiments both under the national research programme and by ICRAF. From these Senna spectablilis was selected as the plant of choice for the next major extension campaign. From the earliest stages of this work there were doubts in some quarters as to whether the plants were really drawing fresh nutrient supplies into the upper layers of the soil rather than simply recycling them. More importantly it soon became apparent that for poor families with no access to paid labour this was too risky an approach. Just a couple of weeks delay in pruning in the early part of the growing season could lead to a level of competition between the hedgerows and the young maize which seriously depressed crop yields. Attention then moved from alley cropping to inter-planting with Sesbania as the shrub of choice. ICRAF pioneered this work which consisted in raising thousands of seedling it polythene pots and transplanted them in a short “window” of time which clashed with the crucial first weeding of the maize. The whole process required unreasonable amount of expenditure and labour in relation of the benefits it produced and was impracticable for small scale farmers. Thus another three years was lost on a course which had been embarked upon with insufficient appreciation of the real conditions faced by farmers.

Throughout this time efforts were made to popularise the planting of Faidherbia albida in farmers’ fields as a long term contributor to soil fertility. Thousands of farmers were encouraged to establish nurseries in small polythene pots and the transplant the seedlings into their fields at the start of the rains. The results were disappointing. Most of the young trees put on virtually no growth in the first year and the tiny seedlings were walked on or hoed out because they were not noticed in a weedy crop. The occasional plant made excellent growth and survived leading to a situation where a farmer might have two or three Faidherbia plants actually growing in a field out of a hundred which had been planted. This was obviously not encouraging and the interest in Faidherbia faded.

These failures panned about fifteen years and have certainly contributed to the lack of widespread enthusiasm for the use of agro-forestry for raising soil fertility.

A FRESH START

These failures led to the development of new technical strategies of which the three most importer were:

1. A move from alley cropping to inter-planting to increase biomass and reduce the loss of area planted to the main crop;
2. The choice of Tephrosia vogelii for the inter-planting because it thrives under poor soil conditions in most of Malawi and can be planted directly in the maize crop rather than being raised in nurseries and transplanted;  
3. A change in the method of growing Faidherbia to overcome the problems of root damage caused by raising seedlings in small pots on the ground. This involved both direct seeding and the production of seedlings in much larger pots placed on racks to provide air pruning.

Once the technology had been improved the focus of attention moved to the challenge sharing it with farmers. The first major initiative came under a combined World Bank and IFAD project aimed at improving soil quality. This was a $17 million investment which used the 2,000 extension workers employed by the Ministry of Agriculture. At the end of five years very little had been achieved and the most optimistic estimate was that about 2,000 farmers had adopted some method of improving soil quality. This failure was blamed on the poor motivation and organization of the staff. Two bi-laterally funded projects subsequently took over the task. The Promotion of Soil Conservation and Rural Production (PROSCARP) project funded by the European Union works through the Ministry of Agriculture. The Malawi Agroforestry Extension Project (MAFE) works with the staff of 21 NGOS’s and 19 CBO’s. Both have outstanding senior staff who are not constrained by the limitations of a government department and are able to provide technical advice, training, leadership and encouragement to the front line extension staff of the government and the voluntary agencies. Both organisations encourage farmers to improve the quality of their soils through a range of activities including conservation, the use of manure and compost, crop diversification and agro-forestry. The main thrust of the last is inter-planting of Tephrosia and both have achieved remarkably similar results over the past four years as is shown by the following figures:

	Number of farm households involved	Number of ha. of Tephrosia planted
PROSCARP	66,780	5,134
MAFE	57,000	5,841

While these figures are a lot more encouraging than the results of the Ministry of Agriculture’s initiative funded by the World Bank they still represent a small fraction of the farming population and demonstrate that even the adopters are only using the technology on small part of their land. The limitations of this achievement is highlighted by the fact that some 35,000 additional families take up farming each year as a result of population growth so that the proportion using agro-forestry to improve soil fertility is actually declining.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

The “problem” needs to be seen form two perspectives. The first is that of the project managers who perceive it in terms of the quality and performance of extension staff. MAFE blames “low levels of expertise and motivation among extension staff, limited use of up-to-date extension materials, lack of co-ordination among service providers and inadequate monitoring and evaluation of what is working and why” (MAFE 2001). PROSCARP has similar perceptions. This focus on the problem as being institutional clearly demonstrates that the technology is not spreading from farmer to farmer by “osmosis” but is wholly dependent upon extension staff influencing individual farmers, which is inevitably a slow task which would take generations to have a nation impact even with an improvement in the quality of extension performance. The government has by far the largest cadre of field staff but even they have only one extension worker per 2,000 families while for the NGO’s the ration would be more than twice that number. Until the main route of adoption is from farmer to farmer there will only be a small proportion of the land under improved management using agroforestry.

The second aspect of the problem is, therefore, why are farmers not just copying from their neighbours as they have done with so many other innovations? It is certainly not a reluctance to plant trees. A recent survey revealed that 90% of farmers had planted trees at their homesteads and 86% had planted trees in their fields. (PROSCARP 2001). These were mostly for food, medicine, fuel or timber. This is further confirmed by MAFE’s recent experience with encouraging the planting of trees (as opposed to leguminous shrubs) where they have 210,000 participating families planting some 9 million trees per year (MAFE 2001). Why the reluctance to interplant Tephrosia? There are several fairly obvious reasons. The first is the shortage of examples of farmer success with the technology. Among the few thousand farmers who have attempted to use this technology only a small proportion have followed the critical rules for early planting, correct spacing and proper incorporation of the green manure during cultivation. Poorly developed stands of stunted Tephrosia plants do not provide an adequate boost to the following maize crop to convince farmers that the effort is worth the return. Really striking examples of enhanced fertility are few and far between, largely because of delaying planting of the Tephrosia. MAFE research indicates that where there has been a good stand of Tephrosia that in the first season it will raise the following maize crop yield by 20% (W. T. Bunderson, pers. comm. 2002). For an 800kg crop that is an additional 160kg. This is a useful addition but compares poorly with farmer experience of the impact of 100kg. of fertilizer which would more than double the yield. If the farmer persists then the second planting of Tephrosia will raise the yield by 40% which offers a more convincing example of the value of the technology. Poor experience in the first year means that examples of successful consecutive Tephrosia crops are even harder to identify. The second reason is that farmers are being asked to embark upon a quite new form of activity which does not relate to their previous experience. This is quite different to switching to an alternative food crop or planting a tree for timber or fuel. Instead of inter-planting pumpkins, beans or groundnuts the farmer is being asked to plant a crop which cannot be eaten, provides no human medicine and little fuel and yet must be treated with the same care and precise time as a food crop. Most smallholders in Malawi have little understanding of the role of rhizobia or the importance of organic matter in the soil so that it is not surprising that the technology is not spreading with the rapidity of an attractive new food crop or fuel wood tree. The switch from sorghum to maize required no totally new agricultural concept and therefore needed no education programme to foster adoption. The use of leguminous shrubs for green manuring does involve quite new concepts and therefore farmers need some basic education in soil fertility and not just a proposal to plant some strange seeds in between their maize plants.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Based on the two classes of problem outlined above what can be done to help many more farmers to discover effective ways of stemming the current degradation of their land with a low cost innovation? This paper makes three suggestions.

The first is that the focus of the current extension efforts should be more on quality than on quantity. Until communities can see really successful examples of the use of a technology there is little likelihood of any farmer to farmer spread. Given the crucial importance of early planting, correct spacing and appropriate use of the resulting biomass it is essential that field staff are encouraged to have some well-distributed examples of the successful use of Tephrosia rather than large numbers of mediocre stands which have little impact on crop productivity. This will involve staff in hands on work with selected farmers to ensure that the job is done properly rather than giving instruction at a meeting. The same applies to the establishment of Faidherbia.

The second is that the extension effort will need to look more fundamentally at educating farmers in the basic concepts of soil fertility. Farmers whose ancestors have been able to rely on fallows to naturally restore fertility for them, have little traditional knowledge of what is happening to their farms now that they are under continuous cultivation. Without such an understanding it is unlikely that there will be any widespread adoption of technologies which seem quite alien to the farmers’ experience. For most extension staff this is something quite new. Farmers can be encouraged to switch to hybrid maize varieties without having to know the underlying principles hybridization, but dealing with the comparatively new problems of soil degradation does require a fresh understanding by farmers. Most extension staff in Malawi are not particularly good educators having been used to giving orders rather than embarking on a dialogue. There are ongoing efforts to change these deep seated attitudes but these efforts will also need to prepare staff to pass on more fundamental knowledge to farmers in an imaginative way.

Thirdly the widespread adoption of better soil management is going to depend on the better used of the thousands of informal groups which exist in the rural villages of Malawi. Throughout the Malawian countryside there are church women’s groups which meet regularly, mosque groups, choirs and traditional societies which are will defined and have widespread networks. These have the potential of providing thousands of volunteers to complement the work of formal extension officers. At present they have only been tapped by a small number of NGOs but they offer the one channel that could reach out to really large numbers of farmers. An extension worker who has worked with a few farmers to develop really successful examples of agro-forestry and then recruited a hundred volunteers who have had basic training in soil fertility and seen the successes, is likely to have a far wider impact than one who feels that he or she alone has the professional qualifications to carry out extension. Neither the government nor the NGO community can possibly employ enough staff to carry out this educational task without an army of volunteers. The groups are there in the rural areas. What is now needed is the courtesy, humility and understanding of the professional extension staff to elicit their support and through them initiate the osmotic spread of agro-forestry as a tool for counteracting the soil degradation which has become such an urgent problem for so many Malawian smallholders.

CONCLUSION

There is increasing evidence that currently available agro-forestry technology is capable of making a significant contribution to enhancing soil quality on the small scale farms of Malawi. It is currently being used by a small fraction of farmers and is spreading only though the direct action of formal sector extension workers despite abundant past evidence of farmers’ readiness to embrace new technologies. What is now needed are more obvious examples of the successful use of agro-forestry by farmers, more education of farmers in the basic principles of soil fertility and the use of the abundant network of village societies as a source of thousands of volunteers to supplement the work of formal sector extension staff. In this way the spread of the technology will change from being dependent on project activity to an osmotic movement from farmer to farmer.

REFERENCES

Driberg JH (1923) The Lango. Fisher and Unwin, London, UK

Faulkner OT and Mackie JR (1933) West African Agriculture. Cambridge University Press, UK

Hill P (1956) The Gold Cost Cocoa Farmer. Oxford University Press, UK

MAFE (2001) Annual report October 2000 to September 2001 Blantyre, Malawi

PROSCARP (2001) Information for management topic paper no. 25 Blantyre, Malawi

Tothill JD (1940) Agriculture in Uganda. Oxford University Press, UK