1) The study examined the effects of conservation agriculture (CA) systems on smallholder farms in Zambia facing challenges of declining soil fertility, lack of crop diversity, food and fodder shortages, and cash constraints. 2) CA systems introduced included no-tillage practices, intercropping and rotating maize with legumes like cowpeas and soybeans. 3) Results showed that CA systems led to increased maize yields of up to 81% and profits, as well as environmental benefits like reduced erosion and increased soil carbon over time.

1. Research on conservation agriculture and associated practices
Christian Thierfelder1 and Mulundu Mwila2
1International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center,and 2Zambia Agricultural Research Institute
Challenges & Study objective
 Declining soil fertility and the need to adapt to climate change
 Lack of crop diversification leading to soil degradation and lack of dietary
diversity
 Food and fodder shortages
 Cash constraints in current smallholder farming systems
Main study objective: To study the effects of conservation agriculture systems
on increase in productivity, profitability, diversification and climate resilience.
This poster is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
September 2018
We thank farmers and local partners in Africa RISING sites for their contributions to this work. We also acknowledge the
support of all donors which globally support the work of the CGIAR centers and their partners through their
contributions to the CGIAR system
Introduced technologies
Conservation Agriculture (CA) and associated practices
i. Use of manual and animal traction CA seeding systems.
ii. Rotation and intercropping strategies of maize planted with cowpeas and
soybeans.
iii. Research on associated practices under CA: (a) doubled-up legume
systems; (b) use of Gliricidia leaves in intercropping systems; (c)
maize/pigeonpea intercropping; (d) maize/lablab intercropping; (e)
pigeonpea ratooning.
Evidence
• CA systems may lead to maize yield benefits of up to 81% (1788 kg ha-1) and
66% (1380 kg ha-1) yield increased if farmers rotate with cowpea or
soybean, respectively (Figure 1).
• Increased net benefits over time due to increased returns on investment
(1.3 USD more per USD invested) and returns to labor and (13.3 USD more
per labour day invested) than conventional practices.
• Environmental benefits are reduced erosion and water run-off, increase in
soil carbon and climate resilience over time (Table 1).
• Social and human benefits documented so far are mainly reduced drudgery
and labour for seeding and weeding (25-35 labour days ha-1) which benefits
women and children. However, the data is scanty and is a major research
gap that need further attention.
Approaches of taking the technologies to scale
• Since 2011, the project extended CA systems and associated practices to
more than 50,000 farmers in Eastern Province of Zambia in the different
phases of SIMLEZA and Africa RISING.
• Since 2015, CIMMYT works closely with Catholic Relief Services and
Grassroots Trust to scale maize/pigeonpea systems to 5000 farmers. So far
1350 registered growers are planting the crop and more than 300 have
already marketed it.
Proposals for the future
Research
• Long-term evidence-based research on different CA and
associated practices has to be continued and amplified to
better understand farmer decision making, profitabilty, social,
human and environmental benefits and impacts on soil
quality.
Scaling (Strengthen partnership with CRS):
• Engage with input and output markets who are willing to
provide high quality seed and buy off large legume quantities
produced under the joint project.
• Strengthen market aggregation systems through village-based
agents and engage new development partners.
Harvest year
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Maizegrainyield(kgha-1
)
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
Conventional ridge tillage, sole maize
CA, maize/cowpea intercropping
CA, maize-cowpea rotation
No-tillage, sole maize
Harvest year
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
Conventional ridge tillage,
sole maize
CA, maize-soybean rotation
No-tillage, sole maize
Figure 1: Long-term productivity in manual and animal traction CA systems, Eastern Zambia,
Picture 1: Soybean outscaling plot planted
under CA in Kawalala, Eastern Province
Picture 3: Maize-Gliricidia intercropping,
an avenue to reduce fertilizer dependency
Picture 4: Effects of long-term CA (right) on
productivity as compared CP (left), Hoya
Picture 2: Groundnut-maize doubled-up
legume system under CA
Productivity Environment Economics Human Social
Yield
increase
Water
productivity
Erosion
reduction
Soil quality
improvement
Net
benefit
Reduction
in labour
Nutrition Food
security
Gender
equity
% change +2-81% +20-50% +111-140% +5-40% +5-150% +350% no evidence no evidence no evidence
Table 1: Evidence of biophysical and socio-economic benefits from practicing CA
Partners