NEWS:

29 Sep, 2016


Vaida Nelson showing the remaining groundnuts she kept for household use
Like several other districts in the country, Balaka is a drought prone area due to erratic rainfall patterns leading to relatively low agricultural productivity.

A recent study by scientists from Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) analyzing the extent to which the 2015/16 Season has impacted on small holder farmers, has shown that most of the districts covered by the study, including Balaka, were affected by the late on-set rains and that the early crop planting across the country was affected by prolonged dry spell in the months of February and January.

Not spared by these dry spells, farmers from the villages of Chipsali and Sumani in Ulongwe EPA in Balaka still had something to smile about. Despite all this, they had improved crop productivity in the last season, thanks to a Scaling Out Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) Approaches to Improve Crop Resilience to Climate Change project which is supported by Capacity Building for Managing Climate Change (CABMACC).

Zondani Michael, a lead farmer from Chipsali village T/A Amidu in the district hailed CABMACC for coming in with the project saying the trainings he attended organized by the ISFM project had enabled him to have more agricultural produce than any farming season before. “The project introduced different climate smart technologies to us lead farmers’ fields and (we) use these farms to demonstrate the benefits of the technologies to all our fellow farmers in our village,” said Michael.

He said since the introduction of the project in his area which is also promoting legume production, he has ventured into serious legume production which in turn has improved his family livelihood through selling of the produce.

“Previously I could not grow groundnuts thinking that it was just a luxury, but the project has opened my eyes and I have realized that I can make more money through groundnut farming. Despite the erratic rains in the last farming season, I managed to get 10 bags. I believe that the pass-on program of improved legume seeds will benefit the whole community. ,” he said.

He further said through conservation agriculture which the project is promoting, he managed to harvest enough maize for his family and that he is no longer facing food shortage this year. He added that he has already prepared for next farming season to continue with this type of farming.

Just like Michael, 64 year old Vaida Nelson from Sumani village in the same area thanked CABMACC for coming up with the project saying she gained a lot of knowledge and got an opportunity to practice ISFM interventions for drought mitigation against climate change hence this has improved her crop productivity.

“In the past I used to intercrop ground nuts and maize or cowpea and maize but the yields were not as much especially the legumes. However through this project, in the last (farming) season I grew these legumes on pure stands which have enhanced the production. For the first time, I managed to get 15 bags of groundnuts and sold some of them,” said Nelson.

She added: “These legumes have improved the nutritional status of my family as we are able to use it as relish as well as to make porridge.”

Patrick Gondwe, an Agriculture Extension Development Officer (AEDO) in Ulongwe EPA said through this research project, farmers were given leguminous seeds of cowpeas, groundnuts and pigeon peas. In the first year, they were supposed to plant these crops on pure stands and in the next (2016/17) farming season they are expected to rotate with , maize with an aim of observing if the legumes can really improve soil fertility and improve maize production per unit area.

“So far there is change in terms of productivity as the project is also looking at conservation agriculture. Here in Balaka especially in our EPA, we had dry spells in the 2015/2016 season but those farmers who practiced conservation agriculture got better yield compared to those who didn’t practice it. As of now we can say the results have been satisfactory,” said Gondwe.

He said the three-year project has inspired more farmers who are now willing to practice conservation agriculture saying so far they are registering more farmers who want to venture into this type of farming.

“This project is really helping farmers here to be food secure considering that weather conditions here are mostly associated with dry spells. We really believe that the coming in of this project will help farmers to be food secure and will improve their nutrition because legumes can also be used for food and on the other hand improve their economic wellbeing as they sell the produce,” said Gondwe.

According to ISFM Principal Investigator, Dr Vernom Kabambe, poor and low soil fertility are often cited as the main causes for low yield saying one of the reasons is that farmers fail to take a comprehensive approach to crop management, such as the adoption of Integrated Soil Fertility Management.

“A combination of improved varieties, appropriate fertilizer use, proper timing of planting, residue management and weeding can improve crop yields and make agriculture more robust to climate change,” he said.

Dr Kabambe said the project which rolled out in 2015 is using the ISFM approach in order to achieve adaptation to climate change in the district saying the benefits of the integrated approach is to build linkages between the technology components thereby increasing overall productivity and resilience.

“Given the drought-prone background of the district, the project’s main goal is to contribute to increased crop productivity and improved food security for smallholder farmers managing maize based farming systems in Malawi,” he said.

He said the main aim is to enhance knowledge and capacity of smallholder farmers and extension officers in the use of ISFM packages that are resilient to the varying climate under different clusters of soil types and resources.

“The innovative approach of the project is to identify all the promising and proven ISFM technologies and integrate them at the farm level. The project will evaluate the total farm productivity due to ISFM technologies and assess the components that contribute to this productivity,” said Dr Kabambe.

He further said the project introduced different ISFM technologies in the lead farmers’ fields and use the farms of the lead farmers to demonstrate the benefits of the technologies saying these lead farmers have a platform for scaling up the technologies.

“This research project which focusing on testing if using the multiple benefit entry point will stimulate better adaptation wider adoption of legume based ISFM approaches. We have established grain legume based and Conservation Agriculture learning Centers as farmer training tools and also to provide a basis for determining the performance of technologies,” he said.

Dr Kabambe further said there are 36 lead famers hosting learning centres (LC) on grain legumes. Each of these farmers has 10 follower farmers, thus making a total of 396 with grain legume learning in equal numbers of groundnuts, pigeon peas and cowpeas saying there are also another 40 lead farmers hosting LC on conservation agriculture.

“The project will also develop, use and evaluate different communication tools such as radio, digital storytelling, field days and brochures. This will facilitate dissemination and scaling up of technologies so the project can have a reach beyond the targeted farmers,” he said.


With the current trend of rising fertilizer costs, it is imperative that our farming practices should not only replenish nutrients removed by the crop, but also return quality organic matter for balanced nutrient and soil organic matter return to the soil. Therefore the use of climate smart agricultural technologies is a way to go.

Written By: Patricia Nkhoma