Conservation agriculture in southern Africa : regional conservation agriculture dialogue meeting, Lusaka, Zambia

1. Sina Luchen, Agronomist
SFS Resilience Hub
Johannesburg
Conservation Agriculture in Southern Africa
Why Now?
Regional Conservation Agriculture Dialogue Meeting
September 25, 2019
Neelkanth Sarovar Premiere Hotel, Lusaka, Zambia

2. Re-counting the steps
● About two decades ago, CA was introduced into Southern Africa to address
low productivity/production due to droughts and inappropriate production
practices.
● Many CA promoters emerged across the region supported by various donors
including Norad who are here with us today.
● Great strides were made by way of innovations and building a body of
knowledge that would result in scaling up of the approach among farmers.
● Unfortunately CA promoters at times had totally different or conflicting
messages for farmers.
● In 2007, the Conservation Agriculture Regional Working Group (CARWG) and
National Conservation Agriculture Taskforces (NCATFs) were born to facilitate
stakeholder coordination and harmonization of messaging, as well as
exchange knowledge.

3. Achievements
● CA political buy-in and increased awareness by decision makers.
● CA packages tailored to specific contexts and farmer profiles
developed
● Evidence on the multiple benefits of CA has been well documented-
stories on how lives have been transformed
● Some level of sustainability in CA Coordination through the CARWG
and NCATFs
● Important deliverables were made including two CA Congresses and
various products by individual stakeholders at country level.
● Farmer outreach targets set

4. Challenges
• CA farmer numbers are still too low to meet set targets and to mitigate
the impact of climate change and variability
• Confusion caused by new related buzz words reducing focus on CA
• Existing opportunities for scaling up CA have not been fully utilized
• Silo mentality is still prevalent among CA stakeholders
• In the last couple of years, CARWG and NCAFT have operated at a
slowed down pace due to lack of adequate financial support

5. The verdict
• More smallholder farmers are falling victim to climate change and
variability in the region.
• At least 26 million people were food and nutrition insecure in the
2015/16 El Nino while in 2018/19 there are 41 million people-SADC.
• A substantial number of people are in Integrated Phased Food
Security Classification (IPC)

6. The verdict Integrated phase Food Security
Classification

7. We need to act Now!
• Access to food is a human right
• Food and nutrition security is a peace issue.
• It can not be business as usual and urgent action is needed.
• CA needs to be scaled up to reach the set targets.
• Coordination and Partnerships are critical for collective impact to
increase CA traction in the region