Conservation farming

Conservation farming picks up where the agricultural movement leaves off. Whereas the topics discussed in this issue of TABJ’s ‘Left in the Dust’ involved biotechnology and soil management, conservation methods tackle the effective use of that soil. In general, the benefits of conservation faming include controlled soil erosion, reverse land degradation, more stable yields and reduced labour. But specifically, the considerable positive socio-economic repercussions of conservation farming are creating financial and social autonomy for famers and communities, which is the driving force behind Michael Mailloux and his work bringing proven conservation farming techniques to sub-Saharan Africa.

Michael Mailloux works for his consulting business specializing in agro-business and bringing conservation farming techniques to farmers. The philosophy behind his work is “no farmers, no future”, and as such, Mailloux believes in the power of education and training as the foundation for African farmers gaining financial and social power. The benefits of conservation farming (CF) take time to emerge, so dispensing information and educating farmers now will sow benefits in time.

The principal aim of CF is to restore and maintain the fertility of the surface area of the land and associated rooting zone occupied by the planted crop. Conservation farming involves adopting a number of husbandry practices that together comprise a complete farming system. CF is suited to all commonly grown annual crops, including maize, bulrush millet, sorghum, cotton, sunflower, groundnuts, soya beans, cowpeas, gram, pigeon pea and sesame. Although individual CF systems have been developed for either hand hoe or oxen farmers, the principles are fundamentally the same.

The basic technologies involved in CF are:
- The retention of crop residues (as opposed to the widespread practice of burning).
- Restricting tillage of the land to the precise area where the crop is to be sown i.e. only 10-15 per cent of the surface area of the land is tilled to establish crops. Tilling only to a depth sufficient to break through plough or hoe pans.
- The completion of land preparation (in Agro-ecological Regions I & II) in the dry season.
- The establishment of a precise and permanent grid of planting basins, planting furrows or contoured ridges, within which successive crops are planted each year and within which purchased or organic nutrients are accurately applied.
- Early and continuous weeding that inhibits seeding and in time reduces the soil weed bank.
- Rotations or inter-cropping with nitrogen fixing legumes that occupy a maximum of 30 per cent of the cultivated area.

Today in Zambia over 120,000 farmers have already benefited from the adoption of CF. By 2011, Mailloux and his colleagues ( amongst them, Peter J. Aagaard , National Coordinator or the Conservative Farming Unit) aim to increase adoption to 250,000 families or about 30 per cent of Zambia’s small-scale farming community.

TABJ was fortunate to have Michael Mailloux take time to inform us on his work and what it will mean to the future of Africa.

Anna Guy: What first got you interested in agro-business?
Michael Mailloux: I fell into it. I was finishing up a 2.5-year stint as a Peace Corps Small Business Volunteer in Mauritania in 1997, when the Cooperative League of the USA (CLUSA) was looking for a Deputy Coordinator to help manage their small holder outgrower scheme in Zambia. An outgrower scheme is one where a large number of small holder famers or farmer groups are contracted out to grow a certain crop from a large commercial buying partner. This commercial buyer in addition to buying the crop and offering a ready market for those contracted farmers may also provide agricultural extension training, inputs (seed, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides) and credit. We were contracted out by a combination of private and public sector money to:

- Organize the farmers into cohesive and commercially oriented groups—this lowered transaction costs across the board—bagging, weighing, and transport as well as supply of inputs.
- Commercial training—all farmer groups received a series of very simple but critical business training so they could become more viable business partners with the company that had contracted them out in the outgrower scheme.
- Conservation Farming Training—due to the low yields and destructive farming practices in place within the small holder sector, we also provided a very comprehensive CF technical training package for farmers in the outgrower schemes.

AG: Please explain the basis of the tillage system and its advantages for agriculture.
MM: CF is not a crop based technology. It is a farming system that increases the yields of a wide range of annual rain-fed crops when correctly applied. It also increases returns to labour, purchased inputs and profits. Unlike current conventional tillage practices within the majority of small holder farming systems across Africa, CF does not require the farmer to repeatedly turn over the whole of his field’s surface area. CF is governed by three basic principles: Minimize soil disturbance to the extent possible; maximise soil cover to the extent possible; rotate other crops with legumes to the extent possible.

CF involves adopting a number of crop husbandry practices—early and continuous land preparation, properly dug and precisely laid planting basins (hoe farmers) and rip lines (tractor and ox farmers) that allow for the precise outlay of all inputs, crop rotation and timely and continuous weeding that together comprise a complete farming system. If these practices are followed correctly, a number of important benefits arise:

- Farmers can plant larger areas since they are not turning over and moving the whole surface area of their fields. This also saves time and money.
Land preparation can start as soon as they have harvested. This enables the farmer to plant with the first planting rains in order to take advantage of the nitrogen flush that occurs at the onset and only at the onset of the first planting rains. This early land preparation also enables a farmer to weed early—when the weeds are smaller, easier to weed and are not competing with the emerging crop for sunlight, water, air and nutrients.
- Labour requirement for land preparation is spread over several months rather than being done all at once. This makes it suitable for women and households whose household labour has been decimated by HIV.
- The retention of crop resides minimizes soil and water loss—critical during dry seasons. Planting basins and rip lines concentrate early rainfall around the seeds—accelerating crop emergence and improving overall crop stands.
- Since planting basins and rip lines are permanent, subsequent crops benefit from any residual fertilizer or manure left in the planting area.
- Because the inter-row is never disturbed, weed seeds in those areas never emerge. Overall weed populations start to diminish by the third year under CF.  
- Rotations with legumes decrease the need for a farmer to purchase costly inputs. Crop diversification also reduces the risk of total crop failure since risk is spread out across 1-2 other crops.
- For hoe farmers there is no additional and expensive equipment that needs to be purchased.

AG: Please talk about the consequences of these advantages in broader terms, such as the farmer’s business and the larger community.
MM: For farmers who correctly apply CF practices experience immediate, mid and long term benefits. During May and September 2009, I carried out a large number of in-depth field interviews with farmers who had switched from conventional cropping practices to CF practices. Without exception, all the small holders who participated in these interviews reported that they had experienced higher yields leading to more household food security as well as surplus crop to market. While their overall yields dropped during wetter and drier than normal years, they still produced enough to satisfy their household food requirements as well as having a small marketable surplus. All of these farmers reported that during abnormal and difficult seasons, the vast majority of their neighbours experienced total crop failure and had to rely on NGO food relief to get by.

At the household level, this also meant having a house that had windows, doors and was made of cement with tin roofs as opposed to a mud hut structure with thatch. There was more available cash for school fees and medicine—all critical for families to have that better quality of life that families across the planet strive for.

On a village level, this means having better educated children and less ill people in the village, and, while hard to measure, would most likely increase overall productivity. It also engenders the community with a bigger sense of confidence—that they can in fact be better, do better and not are at the whims of their external environment. This usually leads to them becoming less risk adverse and more willing to venture into other commercial operations or field expansions.

AG: How is this system beneficial to the famer and the larger community?
MM: One farmer I interviewed was at wits end. He adopted CF because someone offered him a bag of maize. He went from 800kg on that hectare of land to just under 4 tons. He had more cash and more food than he had ever seen in around seven years. He was able to expand out his operations and actually start contract CF ripping with his newly acquired pair of oxen, thus creating an off-farm commercial service for his neighbours while creating a second revenue stream into his household. Without sounding too dramatic and hyperbolic, CF gave him a new lease on life.

In another case, this farmer told me that prior to CF he rarely got one ton of maize per hectare. He adopted CF and was getting around 5 tons per hectare. For an inexplicable reason that he could not explain to me or himself, he switched back to his traditional system and his yields dropped back to 1 ton. His wife was furious and actually threatened to divorce him. He went back to CF and the yields went back up. Whenever we are working in his area and talking to a new set of farmers, we would bring him along. His story is compelling and rather funny in a funny roundabout way as he explains it.

AG: How does this greater economic independence improve the lives of the workers?
MM: For farmers, getting higher yields is the name of the game. They have no control whatsoever over fluctuating commodity prices, getting quality and volumes up is what they can control. For farmers who are able to increase their on-farm revenues this allows them to venture (if they are so inclined to do so) into other agricultural based operations. Some of these farmers invest in cattle and spraying equipment and now provide fee paying CF ripping and spray services to their neighbours.

AG: What other benefits are there to spreading out the labour required?
MM: Spreading the labour across the seasons ensures that the farmer will be ready for those first critical planting rains. This is vital to taking advantage of that nitrogen flush that occurs with and only with those first planting rains. Every day a farmer is late, he or she loses 1-2 per cent of their potential yield. Regardless of how good that farmer is, how much capital and equipment they own, this loss is never recovered.

AG: Are you getting support in the private sector? How is this beneficial for outside companies?
MM: Private sector companies need to get higher crop volumes into their commercial buying and processing operations. This of course, means higher yields at the farm gate level. Private sector companies across the cotton, grains and coffee sectors have provided a wide range of support for us and will continue to do so. We in fact, actively seek out partners in the private sector—they have that all powerful commercial incentive to integrate CF into their commercial operations, unlike NGOs and government. Also, unlike NGOs, these private sector buyers are in the country for the long haul. NGOs are usually on 3-5 year project cycles—endlessly chasing the next round of donor and government funding. We tend to avoid NGOs as much as possible. Their on-the-ground track record in many cases across the African continent leaves a great deal to be desired despite the glossy reports sent back to Congress, Parliament etc.

AG: What is the long term goal of your company?
MM: We would like to expand out of Zambia and, in fact, have already started to do so with pilots now up and running in Senegal, Malawi and Kenya. We have targeted 6 countries and 1.2 million farmers to be reached over the next 7-10 years. If all continues to go as planned this will most likely be the focus of my professional career the next 20 years.

AG: Lastly, what drives you to do this work every day?
MM: It’s all in the case studies. The positive changes we can have and the satisfaction one derives from this is impossible to put a number to.

For more information about Conservation Farming, Conservation Agriculture, working with CFU or to discuss possible options for accessing CFU’s technical services, please contact info@conservationagriculture.org

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