Farmer Perceptions of Conservation Agriculture in Maize-Legume Systems for SmallHolder Farmers in Sub Saharan Africa-A Beneficiary Perspective in Zambia

A survey was undertaken in three districts of Zambia namely; Monze, Mpongwe and Chipata which are hosting the Agriculture Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) Sub-project titled “Developing Conservation Agriculture (CA) in Maize-Legume Systems for Smallholder Farmers in Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique”. The overall objective of this study was to get farmer perceptions of CA practices in the study districts for key information and research gaps that will contribute towards the development of CA based research agenda. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect data from the respondents. Data generated was subjected to analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results revealed that the major hindrances to the application of CA practices lay in biophysical, technological, land, institutional and agro-climatic constraints. Generally, farmers reported weeds as a major biophysical constraint to the implementation of CA technologies with Monze standing at 81.6% of the respondents followed by Mpongwe 58.1% and Chipata 52.1% respectively. This study recommends strengthening social networks of the community in order for them to have access to CA technologies information. Enhancing institutional linkages between Research, Extension and Meteorology departments is critical for dissemination of weather information which would aid in decision-making as to when farm operations would be carried out for improved agriculture productivity and production in the APPSA Project areas of Monze, Mpongwe and Chipata districts.


INTRODUCTION
Studies have shown that the use of Conservation Agriculture (CA) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is limited generally.However, its use in Zambia is relatively considerable where an estimated 40,000 ha are cultivated using CA practices.This represents a greater amount than in any other SSA country (Friedrich et al., 2012).The number of farmers who practice CA is not clear as different scientists have provided different figures depending on how CA is defined.Neubert et al. (2011) for instance reported that in 2007 around 120,000 Zambian farmers used some form of CA, (approximately 10 percent of smallholder farmers), while the Conservation Farming Unit puts the estimate around 170,000.The practice of CA has been reportedly highest in the southern, semi-arid parts of the country (with annual rainfall between 650 and 1,000 mm) due to the greater suitability of CA techniques there.Farmers in these areas are known to undertake mixed crop and livestock farming systems and grow mainly maize and cotton (Baudron et al., 2007).This relatively widespread adoption is a product of agricultural crisis (Rockström, 2007;Haggblade and Tembo, 2003) and sustained promotion, mostly including subsidized inputs (Umar et al., 2011;FAO, 2011b).Economic difficulties led to the defunding of Government financed agricultural subsidies and extension programs in the 1990s, which had previously underpinned maize production in Zambia.Between 1991 and 2003 there was no explicit agricultural policy held by the National Government.At the same time, Zambian farmers were struggling with soils depleted from years of monocropping, a serious drought, an outbreak of  (Haggblade and Tembo, 2003).In response, the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) began promoting CA to small-holder farmers in 1995 through a newly formed Conservation Farming Unit (CFU).Commercial farmers had used CA previously to reduce fuel expenditure, but discovered yield and soil conservation benefits also.These practices were adapted for small-holder operations and promoted with demonstration plots (Haggblade and Tembo, 2003).
The promotion of CA to smallholders was endorsed as an official priority by the Zambian Government in late 1999 and was included in the 2004 'National Agriculture Policy' (Neubert et al., 2011)

II.
JUSTIFICATION FOR THE STUDY CA is one of sustainable intensification that is increasingly promoted by various international research centres, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), faith based organizations and governments of southern Africa among others to overcome the problem of soil degradation, drought, low and unstable crop yields and high production costs.CA is defined by three principles which must be applied simultaneously (i) minimum soil disturbance (ii) permanent soil cover with previous year's crop residues and (iii) diversification of crop species in sequence and/or in association (FAO, 2013).CA takes away the unsustainable components of conventional agriculture such as tilling the soil, removing organic material and monoculture and includes all other principles of sound crop management.While efforts have endeavoured to implement all the three principles of CA, often one or two of these principles have been applied by smallholder farmers.Spreading of crop residues as soil surface mulch has been a major challenge in Zambia (Umar et al., 2011).Consequently, partial application of the principles of CA do not lead to the desired modification of various agro-ecological functions such as soil health benefits, increased crop productivity and sustainability.Maize accounts for more than 60% in Zambia.Food security in resource-poor households is critically linked to the productivity and sustainability of maize-based cropping system.However, productivity of maize in southern Africa is hampered by declining soil fertility and low and variable rainfall.Farmers in agro-ecological regions II and III of Zambia predominantly intercrop maize with beans and maize with cowpeas while rotating maize with groundnuts.Maize/cowpea intercropping is more predominant in region I, the southern part of Zambia, which is host to the Regional Centre of Excellence for cowpea research at Mochipapa Regional Research station.There is also a growing trend in southern and eastern Zambia to rotate cowpea with maize.This has been observed after the project by Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) that promoted cowpea as a food legume at household level in drought prone areas of Zambia.In this paper we have attempted to discuss the farmers' perception regarding their experiences with CA practices in three pockets of Zambia namely Southern, Copperbelt and Eastern provinces.

III. OBJECTIVES
This study was conducted with a view to answer the following four-fold objectives; (i) to understand the status of CA at small-holder farm level in Chipata, Monze and Mpongwe districts; (ii) to establish the common CA based practices among farmers; (iii) to aid towards the identification of key constraints to the application of CA

IV. METHODOLOGY 4.1 Research Sites
Three districts were chosen in Zambia for the study that included Monze, Mpongwe and Chipata.The host districts were selected on the basis of their agroecological and farming systems settings which are more representative of their respective provinces.The districts are predominantly maize growing coupled with high practice of CA.Monze is located in region II and receives medium to low rainfall (600-800mm) and farmers in the region are engaged in ox-drawn-maize systems.On the other hand, Mpongwe is located in region III with occasional high rainfall (>1000mm) with farmers mostly using a hand hoe/ox-drawn-maize based farming systems.Chipata in eastern Zambia receives medium rainfall (800-1000mm).Farmers in the area also use a hand hoe/oxdrawn plough-maize based systems

Research Process
The study was conducted in three stages in a chronological way in order to respond to the stated research objectives.Firstly the research team held key informant interviews in the respective study districts with public and private key decision-makers from Government departments and NGOs to get their views regarding CA practices in those particular areas.Secondly, focus group discussions were held with farmers with a view to get insights on their experiences with CA technologies and lastly a quantitative data collection exercise was undertaken from the community in order to get data from variables of interest which were to form basis for data analysis

Sampling Strategy
The study employed a systematic farmer sampling strategy by village, based on Agricultural Camp Register.A sample of 100 farmers in each district were selected in 4 Agricultural Camps/district with 25 farmers/ Agricultural Camp being interviewed on a structured questionnaire of which 30% were women to carter for gender empowerment as enshrined in the Gender Policy by the Government of the republic of Zambia

Data Analysis Strategy
All the data from qualitative interviews for this study was sorted out using triangulation method while that from structured questionnaires was subjected to the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).MS Excel was used for graphical representations and special computations.

Common CA based practices among farmers across the Study districts
Fig. 3: Major Crops and Area under Conservation Agriculture Technologies (CAT) In terms of household type in this study, Monze had a higher percentage of households (HHs) headed by males (92.9%), followed by Mpongwe (75.8%) with Chipata recording a percentage of 70.4% (Table 1).The higher percentage of HHs headed by males has a bearing on the decision making and adoption of the CA technologies being promoted by various extension agents.Further, the study noted that the average family size was highest in Monze (9), with Mpongwe and Chipata recording 8 and 7 respectively (Table 2).Size of the family at HH level contributes to labour requirements for farm activities and ultimately contribute to enhanced production and productivity Results obtained in the sampled HHs, also revealed that the percentage of farmers acknowledging practicing minimum tillage was highest in Monze (99%), compared to Chipata (91%) and Mpongwe (87.5%).(Fig. 1).4) as compared to other districts, 10.2%, 8.2% and 11.2% in Monze and 20.8%, 28.1% and 24% in Chipata.This could probably be attributed to poor extension services in the area.Limited access to land for CA implementation in the study areas was more pronounced in Chipata and stood at 32.3% followed by Mpongwe (24.2%) and Monze (17.3%) respectively (Table 5).Most farmers in Chipata face this constraint probably due to the customary system being practiced in the area.Institutional and agro-climatic constraints in form of access to research and extension services were found to be higher in Mpongwe (22.6%) while Monze and Chipata reported 11.2% and 10.4% of respondents acknowledging the constraint (Table 6).Anecdotal evidence reveals that ZARI Mochipapa has been the first research station to carry out agriculture experiments in Mpongwe during the 2014/15 agriculture calendar.As for agro-climatic constraints, poor rainfall was reportedly a major incentive to CA implementation in Monze standing at 71.4% while sampled respondents in Chipata and Monze were reportedly statistically at 47.9% and 32.3% in that order.

VI.
CONCLUSIONS This study has revealed a number of issues that require immediate attention at both farmer, institutional and policy levels in order to scale out CA practices for improved agriculture productivity and production in the APPSA Project areas of Monze, Mpongwe and Chipata districts.The following are the recommendations made to address some of the constraints at different levels: (i) Farmer Level: Farmers need to engage themselves more in social groups e.g cooperatives, community clubs etc at community level to get information on CA practices (ii) Institutional Level: In order to scale out the CA technologies, there is need for strong linkage between the researchers, extension agents and the Meteorological department in order for correct CA technologies to be disseminated to farmers.Making available weather information is also critical for decision making.This should be in simplified form.Probably engaging and training community weather agents on weather interpretation would help the communities to prepare themselves for CA practices to implement for a particular season (iii) Policy Level: Policy makers should take keen interest in carrying out frequent monitoring visits to get feedback on the policies formulated on CA practices to see where changes can be made to suit the prevailing socialeconomic conditions in the country