New farming techniques bring hope for food security in Batoka, Zambia

Batoka is a small town in the southern province of Zambia. It has already experienced adverse effects from climate change, including a huge decrease in agricultural productivity, an increase in deaths of livestock resulting from loss of feed, dried-up rivers and other water bodies, and flooding. The government of Zambia and its partners are rising to the challenge by introducing sustainable farming techniques such as conservation agriculture, agroforestry, and intercropping that are helping to rebuild farming ecosystems, thereby improving crop yields and saving animals from dying.

We talked to Mr. Charles Nyangale, a farmer who, whilst practicing traditional farming methods, was vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but has now adopted new farming techniques, giving him a whole new story to tell.

Sir, you are welcome to the interview.

Thank you, Alice.

What kind of farming were you practicing before you adopted conservation farming?

I started farming in the 1960s when I was a teen. My father was a farmer and, because I didn’t go far in my education, he gave me a piece of land which I quickly settled on and took up farming as my occupation. In that year, I followed ways that I learnt from my parents whereby one prepares farmland by cutting down trees to clear a space for farming. Alongside my wife, I cultivated four hectares using ox-power and on another half-hectare made ridges using a hoe. My father gave me maize seed to plant from his previous harvests. I also bought groundnuts, sweet potato vines, and pumpkin seeds from our roadside market for planting. In the past, the first rains fell around late October, but we used to plant our seeds in the second week of November when the rains got serious. After planting, in the period around Christmas time or after, farmers were busy thinning and weeding crops in the fields.

What type of fertilizers were you applying then?

I never saw my father or any of his colleagues buy or apply any type of fertilizer the entire time I lived and cultivated with him, so I never bought or applied fertilizer in my field either. It was not necessary.

How were your crop yields then?

The yields were good. We used to harvest enough to feed my entire family through to the next season.

How long did you and your father plough with cattle and make ridges with a hoe?

From as early as the 1960s till around the late 1990s, though now we have adopted new farming techniques from conservation farming. We either dig basins using hoes or use a ripper to plough the land. Further, we place crop residues in the basins, which helps maintain moisture in case of inadequate rainfall or a drought, thereby sustaining the plants until they mature. We re-use the basins for several seasons, and also rotate crops to maintain or enhance soil quality for productivity, and also storing carbon in the soil. Where we use rippers, we do so every year.

We have also engaged in intercropping, where we grow different crops in the same field simultaneously.

Why did you change from the farming ways your father taught you to the new ones?

Southern province in general, which includes Batoka, has been experiencing little or no rainfall in the recent past. We also experience high temperatures such that if a farmer plants seeds without considering climate change and its effects, the crop dies before it reaches maturity.

What led to the low yields or crop failures more recently?

Farmers, including myself, were practicing the Chitemene system, which includes cutting down trees indiscriminately every year to prepare land for cultivation. Before the rains started around August, we would burn our fields, believing that weeding would be easier for us after the crops germinated. We didn’t know that we were doing a lot of harm to our environment.

When did you start experiencing the effects of climate change such as the increased heat and drought you’ve mentioned?

Around the year 2000, we started experiencing high temperatures, erratic rainfall, and in some instances heavy downpours and flooding. But we continued with our way of doing things and ignored all the warning signs. We used to hear climate change issues being discussed on radio stations, and I personally thought it was just a problem that affected western countries and us Africans didn’t have to worry about it.

But the Zambian government sent extension officers who taught us about the dangers of our traditional way of farming and educated us on the benefits of modern farming techniques by establishing demo plots on our farms.

So to answer your question on when we started experiencing the effects of climate change, although it started much earlier, I remember vividly in 2017 when there was a heavy downpour which led to floods. The floods swept away our crops and damaged infrastructure like bridges, houses, and roads. We were confronted with soil erosion and stagnant water that didn’t run off and became stinky or polluted, and our livestock had no access to clean drinking water. Most of them died due to starvation as grazing grass was also swept away or underwater. We also experienced an infestation of mosquitoes, which led to an increase in malaria cases amongst farmers, including some deaths. In short, it was a very trying time for us in Batoka.

What lessons did you learn?

The extension officers and the Conservation Farming Unit agriculturalists passionately and consistently helped us and we learnt that the problem could only be resolved if we changed our way of thinking, replanted the trees that we had cut down, stopped burning bushes to clear the fields, and adopted conservation farming practices.

So we prepared the land by digging planting basins and adding grass or crop residues to the basins so that when the rains came, we could plant in those same basins. And if you wanted to apply fertilizers, you applied them right in those basins to avoid wastage of inputs.

They also encouraged us to engage in intercropping, growing different crops in a field at the same time—for instance maize, sunflower, and legumes like beans and cowpeas.

What changes did you see after you adopted those new farming techniques?

Many! My harvests have improved in quality and in quantity despite the extreme high temperatures and droughts Batoka still experiences. In parts of the field, we intercrop maize with cowpeas and/or sunflower.

I grow my crops on four hectares, but my harvest surpasses farmers still using old methods on seven or eight hectares of land. I have also noticed that my maize crops are sweeter in taste, bigger in size, and richer in colour than those grown with fertilizers.

Thanks to conservation farming and intercropping, as long as I conduct early land preparation, plant good certified seeds, and use proper crop management in terms of weeding and thinning, I am positive that despite the hot temperatures, I shall go to the bank smiling at the end of that season. (LAUGHS)

Thank you so much, Mr. Nyangale, for your time.

You are welcome.

We move to speak to Mrs. Lovely Kakuba, an agriculture extension officer based in Batoka camp.

Thank you very much.

How easy was it for you as an extension officer to change the mindset of farmers in Batoka who were used to traditional ways of cultivation, taught by their forefathers, to new ways?

To be honest, it was an uphill battle as year after year farmers still clung to traditional ways of farming.

What exactly did you and your team of experts teach the farmers?

From the onset, to deal with drought in Batoka, we clearly and strongly condemned cutting down trees, which was rampant in the area. Instead, we encouraged farmers to engage in agroforestry. We also discouraged them from burning crop residues in their farms.

We also taught farmers to keep a sufficient amount of the harvest for home consumption and sell the surplus. When anticipating floods, we encouraged them to shift crop production, livestock, and houses from low-altitude lands to higher lands, which are less likely to be flooded. At all times, we emphasized early land preparation and incorporating crop residues rather than burning them. And we highlighted the importance of growing more drought-tolerant crops, crop rotation, and intercropping with crops like sunflower, cowpea, pumpkin, and others.

How many farmers did you work with, and of these how many were women?

In this community, we work with a total of 1,997 farmers and out of that number, half are women farmers who have already adopted these modern farming techniques and are very serious with what they are doing. From my own observation, women are quicker to learn and implement things than men. Most of the demo plots in Batoka are owned by women and they prefer to cultivate their fields using conservation farming because it is not labour-intensive and gives them better yields.

The women are also incorporating agroforestry and intercropping.

What methods did you use to get the farmers to adopt these practices?

We first formed groups, each with a lead farmer whose farms we used as demo plots to showcase what we were teaching them, and used languages they understood. Later on, other farmers gradually started getting interested and adopting the new ways of farming.

How does the future look for Batoka?

Considering how serious the farmers are with the measures we have been teaching them to adopt, the future is bright for Batoka. I can see regenerated forests, I can see the only river and a few streams in this community having water throughout the year and not turning into a bed of sand between September and December. And I can see farmers producing bumper harvests of maize, groundnuts, cowpeas, sunflower, and soya beans, among others. Eventually, this place may become the food basket of Zambia.

Thank you for your time, mom.

Welcome and thank you for having me.

Charity Mwanangombe is a farmer also based in Batoka who, apart from practicing intercropping with cover crops, is also using agroforestry. Welcome. Please tell us what crops you grow in your field.

Thank you very much for this opportunity. I grow maize, soya beans, pumpkins, sunflower, and cowpeas. As you have correctly mentioned that I am into agroforestry, I have also incorporated musangu trees, scientifically called Faidherbia albida, into my field.

Why did you particularly incorporate musangu trees in your field?

Because of the many benefits I get from this tree. From about May until October it has leaves, but as soon as we get to December when farmers start to plant seeds, it sheds all its leaves and remains as though lifeless with just branches. But the leaves are of great benefit to the soil as they add fertility. So if I plant maize under these trees, I will not need either basal or top dressing fertilizer. And because it has dropped all its leaves, the tree does not compete for sunlight with the crops growing under it.

I also turn the bark into powder and add it to the feed for my chickens and cows. My animals rarely get sick. Even when animals in neighbouring farms are dying of all sorts of diseases like swine fever or foot and mouth disease, mine never get sick. Those are the benefits I have seen in musangu trees.

I have also named myself number one intercropper as I am fond of this method because, apart from curbing the effects of climate change, my pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and maize have a unique taste. I love the idea of intercropping because while I am in the field weeding or thinning, I can also harvest vegetables to cook at home.

Have you ever grown your crops using chemical fertilizers?

I used to when my husband was still alive, but after he died, as a widow with four grown-up children who have since gotten married and have left, I couldn’t afford fertilizers. So after I saw the opportunity to use the musangu tree to boost my soil’s fertility, I didn’t regret it. I don’t think I would want to spend my money on chemical fertilizers when there’s a God-given source of fertilizer in the musangu tree which is far more beneficial to my health and my livestock and costs nothing.

Do you face any challenges in your field?

Musangu trees take between 10 to 20 years to establish a full canopy though benefits are already experienced years earlier. Many farmers give up on it and don’t have the patience to wait for it to establish a full canopy and get the full benefits. Also, at the seedling stage, if it is not properly protected, animals like cows and goats eat it. This is why some people give up and go for the easy way of buying chemical fertilizers instead of replanting and protecting the trees.

Another challenge is that many customers prefer to buy different types of farm produce from me—a situation that doesn’t sit well with my fellow farmers in my community. They start getting jealous and suspect me of practicing witchcraft. But I am not bothered by what they say. Rather, I encourage them to adopt agroforestry and intercropping so they can see the benefits I have been enjoying over the years. They say if you can’t beat them, join them (LAUGHS)!

We appreciate this opportunity to speak with you.

You are welcome and thank you for visiting me.

Well, listeners, we heard from Mr. Charles Nyangale of Batoka in the southern province of Zambia, who emphasized that unsustainable methods of farming have been detrimental to the environment and difficult. Farmers may put in a lot of money and labour but harvest little or nothing, resulting in food insecurity. Lovely Kakuba, an extension officer under the Ministry of Agriculture, clearly showed us the roadmap to recovery in the face of the challenges that come with climate change. Some of the solutions she shared include conservation farming techniques and intercropping, as well as agroforestry.

Finally, we talked to Charity Mwanangombe, another successful farmer and trader. She highlighted the benefits of using a tree called musangu which not only adds fertility to soils but whose bark can be used as feed supplement to improve animal nutrition and health.

Climate change is here and the damage it has caused is already difficult. The onus is on you and I to change our way of life and adopt strategies like these to reduce or completely change the situation for the benefit of all of us and future generations.

From me, Alice Lungu, it’s good bye.