- The document summarizes a workshop held in Johannesburg from June 24-26, 2014 that aimed to standardize approaches to collecting data on Conservation Agriculture (CA) farmers in Southern Africa. - Key outcomes of the workshop included developing a framework to categorize CA farmers, tools for collecting CA data, and a roadmap for conducting national CA censuses. - A standard CA data collection template was created, and consensus was reached on common definitions of CA farmer categories to allow for standardized regional reporting of CA adoption rates going forward.

1. Counting Conservation Agriculture farmers in Southern Africa:
Perspective from the Sub-regional Workshop held at Shumba Valley Lodge,
Johannesburg, 24- 26 June, 2014
CARWG Annual meeting, 29-31 October, 2014
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Sina Luchen, Agronomist, FAO SFS Resilience Office, Johannesburg

2. Background
• CA in the sub-region is being promoted by many players;
• This makes the determination of data on the number of
CA farmers rather challenging;
• There is no agreed objective criteria for determining CA
farmers;
• This information is important in understanding the
spread as well as the social, economic and
environmental impacts of CA;
• Knowing the exact number of farmers practicing CA is
also important for both planning and advocacy
purposes;

3. Promoting sub-regional dialogue
• In order to support the process of determining the
number of CA farmers in the region, CARWG with
support from FAO and CCARDESA conducted a
workshop from June 24-26, 2014 in Johannesburg;
• Five countries (Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia
and Zimbabwe) representing the highest number
of smallholder CA farmers in the sub-region
participated;
• Participants were drawn from the National
Conservation Agriculture platforms/National
Conservation Agriculture Taskforce and Ministries of
Agriculture.

4. Workshop Objectives
• The overall objective was to standards approaches
and methodologies in the collection and reporting of
information on CA farmers, and to specifically;
• develop a framework for categorizing farmers using CA principles
in southern Africa;
• develop methodologies and tools for collecting, analyzing and
reporting data and information on farmers using CA principles;
• develop a roadmap for conducting country CA census in the region

5. Workshop highlights
• The definitions and categorisation of CA varied
across the countries;
 Methodologies for household data profiling of CA
farmers varied across countries; Some countries
are leveraging on the existing government
structures and national surveys but others are
designing completely new surveys;
 Main stakeholders supporting CA were identified
for the various countries;

6. Workshop highlights
• Countries highlighted the various policy instruments
supporting CA and generally all have the government
(ministry of Agriculture) including CA in their main
policy documents.
• A standard template for CA data collection was
developed and this can be adopted or adapted by
countries accordingly (page 9-11);
• Countries shared or developed the road map for
counting of CA farmers.

7. Consensus on definitions/farmer categories
1. Conservation Agriculture Farmer: A farmer
practicing all three CA principles;
• Continuous minimum mechanical soil disturbance.
• Permanent organic soil cover.
• Diversification of crop species grown in sequences
and/or associations
2. Minimum Tillage Farmer: A farmer practicing
minimum soil disturbance only
3. Conservation Tillage farmer: A farmer practicing
minimum soil disturbance + soil cover or crop rotation

8. Conclusion/way forward
• Countries in the southern Africa block were
encouraged to adopt this definition and revise
the reported numbers accordingly;
• A regional database will be established that
captures information on various other aspects
including GIS information;
• Countries to embark on the determination of ca
farmers through support of the National
Conservation Agriculture Task forces and CARWG.

9. CA Farmer Census Questionnaire
Please complete this information as accurately and faithfully as possible. This will facilitate information
update on Conservation Agriculture (CA) practice you use on your land. It should be completed seasonally
by extension officers/ Lead farmers
Section A: Locality of CA Farmer:
Administration 1
(Name of the
Country)
Administrative
unit 2 (specify)
Administrative
unit 3 (specify)
Administrative
unit 4 (specify)
Administrative
unit 5 (specify)
Household ID
(Please assign)
Name of Farmer
Relationship to
household head
1 = Head 2 = Spouse
3 = child 4 =Parent/In law
5 = Sibling 6= Other relatives
Year of birth
(e.g. 1980)
Cell number:
(include country
code)
Sex 1 = Male 2 = Female
Extension center: Employment
status
1 = Permanently employed
2 = casual worker
3 = Self employed
4 = Unemployed
Marital status 1 = Married
2 = Divorced
3= Single
4 = Separated
5 = Widowed
Education level 1 = Primary
2 = High school
3 = Tertiary
4 = Never Attended school
5 = Non formal education
HH size

10. CA Farmer Census Questionnaire
Section B: CA Field details:
GPS South: East: Elevation:
Total Area
(ha)
Irrigation: (yes/no) Agro-ecological zone:
Techniques
Used (tick all
that apply)
Minimum tillage:
1 = Basins
2 = Ripper line
3 = Direct seeding
Crop
Rotation/Association:
1 = Mixed cropping
2 = Relay cropping
3 = Rotation
Permanent Soil Cover:
1 = Crop residue
2 = Imported organic
material
3 = Cover Crops
Equipment/In
puts and
Training/
Extension
(tick all that
apply)
Manual equipment:
1 = Hand hoe 2 = jab planter
3 =hand planter 4=dibble stick
Animal drawn:
4 = Magoye ripper 5 = Ripper
planter 6=direct seeder
Tractor Drawn:
7 = Ripper 8= Direct Seeder
Source of Inputs:
1 = Government 2 = UN
agencies 3 = NGOs 4 =
Private sector 5 =
Purchase 6 = Retained
seeds 7 = Gifts &
remittances
Did you receive any
training/ extension: 1=
yes 2=no
(if yes, please specify
source)
1 =Government 2 =
NGOs
3 = Private Sector
4 = Lead/fellow famers
Crop grown under CA (max four crops)
List of crops planted Date of Planting
(Month/year)
Area (ha) Producti
on
Crop grown under Conventional (max four crops)
List of crops planted Date of Planting
(Month/year)
Area (ha) Productio
n

11. CA Farmer Census Questionnaire
Section C: Field activities, who is responsible and time of day activities are done
Activities
Who is responsible
(multiple
response)
(1=Men, 2=women,
3=children)
Time of day
the activity is
done
1=morning,
2=mid-morning
3=afternoon,
4=late afternoon
Soil Cover Establishment
 Planting cover crops
 Mulching
 Crop residue cover
Land Preparation
Planting of Crops
 Cereal: Maize/Sorghum/millet etc
 Root and Tuber (Sweet Potato, Cassava Taro
etc)
 Legumes (Beans Cowpeas, Groundnuts etc)
 Cotton
 Trees and Other Crops (Agroforestry
Fertiliser Application
 Basal Dressing
 Top dress
 Manure (Compost, Animal manure, etc)
 Liming
Crop Protection
 Hand weeding
 Herbicide/Pesticide application
Irrigation
Harvesting
Marketing

12. END
Thank you for listening
!