Presented by Christian Thierfelder (CIMMYT) at the Climate Resilient Agriculture Success Stories Webinar, 28 November 2019

1. Transforming maize-legume value chains
a business case for climate-smart agriculture
in Southern Africa
Christian Thierfelder
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Climate Resilient Agriculture Success Stories Webinar – Making a Case for Scale Up
28 November 2019

3. Projected change in agriculture productivity, 2080
Source: Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal.

4. Traditional African smallholder farming systems
• Based on tillage (manual/animal
traction)
• Residue removal
• Monocropping of maize
• Limited fertilizer use
• Based on traditional varieties
• Affected by variable climate
• Inherently poor soil fertility

5. The consequences
Source: Sonder, unpublished

6. Landscapes with multiple CSA options
Agroforestry
Nutrition security
Povertyalleviation
Natural resource
management
Improved cook-
stove
Conservation
agriculture
Increased yields
Soil quality & carbon
Reduced
degradation &
erosion
Dietary diversity
Intercropping
Market access
Increase income
Participatory approach

7. Out scaling climate-smart technologies to
smallholder farmers in Malawi, Zambia & Zimbabwe
Adaptation to Climate Change for Smallholder Rural Areas (ACCRA)
Project funded by GIZ/CCARDESA
• Undertake a climate change
Vulnerability Assessment
• Piloting CSA technologies on-
farm
• Prioritization of CSA
technologies
• Feasibility study
• Development of out-scaling
Proposals for CSA scaling

8. Vulnerability assessment - process
Vulnerability status of communities
Rural assessment
Definition of adaptation
practices (Proactive/
Reactive) to impacts
Assessment of
risks/impacts of
climate hazards
Identification of
climate hazards

9. Piloting in CSA in on-farm communities of
Southern Africa

10. Maize-legume rotation under ca with pigeonpea
alley cropping

11. Prioritization of CSA technologies
Process:
• Local meetings with key stakeholder in
target communities
• Regional meeting in Lusaka using the GIZ
tool
• Ranking based on a ranking matrix
Southern MAL
Adaptation option
Effective
ness
Cost
Feasibility
for Farmers
Political/
social
acceptance
Relative
speed to
benefit
No regret
potential
Alignement
to donor
support
Alignement
with Policy
Sum of
score
Rank
weighted
rank
Mitigation
co-benefit
Gender
Sensitivity
InterCropping 5 3 5 5 4 4 5 5 36 4.50 4.35 + +
Crop Diversification 5 3 4 5 4 5 5 5 36 4.50 4.25 0 +
DT Vars 5 2 3 4 5 4 5 5 33 4.13 3.85 0 0
CA 4 3 4 4 2 4 5 5 31 3.88 3.6 0 +
Organic Manure 4 3 3 4 4 4 2 5 29 3.63 3.55 - 0
Supplementary Irrigation 5 1 2 4 5 5 5 5 32 4.00 3.55 0 0
Cap Building 4 1 5 4 1 3 5 5 28 3.50 3.15 0 +
IPM 3 1 2 3 4 4 3 4 24 3.00 2.7 0 0
Agro Met Info Sharing 2 1 4 4 2 2 4 5 24 3.00 2.55 0 0
Small livestock production 4 1 1 4 3 2 4 4 23 2.88 2.45 - +
Rainwater Harvest 4 1 2 2 3 3 1 3 19 2.38 2.45 0 -
Policy Implement 2 1 2 3 1 2 5 5 21 2.63 2 0 0

12. A feasibility study on climate-smart agriculture
systems
For an investment proposal we need data on:
• Agronomic performance
• Economic viability
• Environmental impact
• Social impact (gender)

13. Conservation agriculture – a CSA system
•Basin planting
•Jab-planter
•AT Direct seeder
•Dibble stick
•Hoe-planter
•Magoye ripper

14. Maize-soybean rotation
Groundnuts under CA
Maize-Gliricidia intercropping
Cowpeas under CA
Maize under CA
Maize-groundnut rotation

15. Why focus on Conservation Agriculture?
• Combines all positive technologies
prioritized above
• CA can help to adapt production to
climate variability and change ….!
• CA is more water-, nutrient-, and
energy-use-efficient
• CA improves the productivity of current
farming systems
• Availability of long-term data to do the
study

16. Productivity benefits – On-farm pilots in Malawi, 2019
MaizeGrainyield(kgha-1
)
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
a
Chibgukuwe Chipeni Mwansambo Zidyana Herbert Lemu
Central Malawi Southern Malawi
ab
b
b a
a
a
a
a
a
a
b
b
b
b ab
ab
Malula Matandika Songani
a
a a a
a
a
ab
a a
Conventional ridge tillage Mz-leg rotation
CA-Direct seeding Mz-leg rotation
CA Direct seeding Mz/int-leg rotation

18. Productivity benefits – long-term
Maizegrainyield(kgha
-1
)
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
11000
12000
b
a
a
b
a
a a
b
a a
b
a
a
b
a ab
C
R
T,m
aize-rot
D
iS,m
aize/legum
e-rot
DiS,m
aize-rot
C
R
T,m
aize-rot
D
iS,m
aize/legum
e-rot
D
iS,m
aize-rot
C
P,m
aize
D
iS,m
aize/legum
e
intercrop
D
iS,m
aize
D
iS,m
aize-rot
C
P,m
aize
R
I,m
aize-rot
R
I,m
aize
CP,m
aize-rot
D
S,m
aize-rot
R
I,m
aize-rot
Central Malawi
(manual)
South Malawi
(manual)
Eastern Zambia
(manual)
Eastern Zambia
(animal traction)
Southern Zimbabwe
(animal traction)
Southern Zambia
(animal traction)
b
a
c
D
S,m
aize-rot
C
P,m
aize-rot
D
S,m
aize-rot

19. Regional yield response to CA in southern Africa
from 2005-2016
Conventional tillage yield (kg ha-1
)
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
Conservationagriculturetreatmentyield(kgha-1
)
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
1:2line
1:1
line
Planting basins, Mozambique
Ripline seeding, Zambia
Manual direct seeding, Mozambique
Direct seeding, Zambia
Manual direct seeding, Malawi
Manual direct seeding, intercrop., Malawi
Ripline seeding, Zimbabwe
Direct seeding Zimbabwe
Thierfelder et al. 2015a

20. Manual sustainable intensification practices - net
benefits (2012-2016), Eastern Zambia
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Ridge & furrow
Maize continuous
Dibble stick Maize
continuous
Dibble stick-
Maize/Cowpea intercrop
Dibble stick-
Maize -Cowpea rot
lowrainfall&mediumelevation
2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015 2015/2016
Net benefits (in USD)
Mutenje et al. 2016

21. Economic benefits – Eastern Zambia
• NPV – Net present value
• RoL – Returns to labour
• RoI – Returns to Investment
• IRR - Internal Rate of Return
Region Community CSA NPV1
12%
NPV2
30%
ROL
$
ROI
$
Payback IRR %
Eastern Zambia Vuu Conventional maize 251.97 172.99 1.1 7.6 1.4 69
CA sole maize 685.47 548.12 2.2 18.7 0.5 102
CA maize-cowpea intercrop 777.83 613.24 2.4 20.5 0.5 97
CA maize -cowpea rotation 673.38 534.05 2.3 20.9 0.6 99
Eastern Zambia Hoya Conventional maize 277.72 221.95 0.9 6.5 2.2 82
Ripper CA, sole maize 500.50 380.97 1.6 14.1 0.8 87
Ripper CA maize-soy rotation 620.24 460.35 2.0 17.8 0.6 102

22. Labour reduction – a key benefit!
CP-maize CA-maize CA-maize/legume
Labourdays
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
2nd Weeding
Land clearing
Ridging
Sowing
Mulch appl.
Basal fertilizer appl.
Herbicide appl.
1st Weeding
3rd Weeding
Top dressing
Harvesting
Thierfelder et al. 2015b

23. Time (min)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65
Infiltration(mmh-1
)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
Conventional ploughing (CP)
Rip-line seeded (RI)
Direct seeding (DS)
Rip-line seeded + leg intercrop (RI+ leg)
Basin planting (BA)
a)
Time (min)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65
Infiltration(mmh-1)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
Direct seeding, maize-cotton
Conventional ploughing, maize
Direct seeding, maize-cotton-sunnhemp
Direct seeding, maize
b)
Environmental benefits – improved Water
infiltration

24. Environmental benefits – increased soil moisture
Conventional ploughing, maize (CP-M)
CA-Direct seeding, maize (DS-M)
CA-Basin planting, maize (BA-M)
Rainfall
FC
50% avail. moist.
PWP
Date
10
/1
1/1
4
1
5
/12
/
14
19/01/15
2
3/
02/
1
5
30/0
3
/
1
5
0
4/05/
1
5
0
8/0
6
/15
13/07/15
1
7/0
8/
15
21
/
09
/
1
5
26/10/1
5
30/
1
1/1
5
04/
0
1/16
08/02/16
14
/
03/16
18
/
04/16
23
/
05
/1
6
2
7/06/
1
6
01
/08
/1
6
05/09/16
10/10/
1
6
14/11
/
1
6
19/12/1
6
2
3
/
0
1/1
7
27/02/17
03/04/17
08
/0
5/1
7
Rainfall(mmd-1)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Availablesoilmoisture(inmm)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150
160
170
180
190
200
210
220

25. Environmental benefit – reduced soil erosion
Year
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Rainfall(mma-1
)
0
300
600
900
1200
1500
1800
Soilerosion(intha-1
)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150
Rainfall
Conventional ploughing (CP)
Direct seeding (DS)
Ripline seeding + legume intercrop (RSL)

26. Environmental benefit – gradual increase in soil carbon
Year
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Totalcarbon(Mgha-1
)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
Conventional ploughing, maize
CA- direct seeding, maize
CA- direct seeding, cotton-maize
a
a
a
b
a
ab
b
a
a
b)

28. Some pertinent challenges...
• Residues: How can we feed both livestock and crops?
• Weeds and their control – a major challenge if no
herbicides are used
• Lack of fertilizer use – what are the alternatives?
• Limited crop diversification – too much focus on maize
• Lack of evidence and data taking – believe in myths

29. • Targeting the wrong systems to the wrong farmers
• Donor driven adoption - one-size fits-all approaches
• Low adoption – lack of understanding of underlying issues
• Ignoring farmers rationale and decision making
• The need for new knowledge and co-development of
technologies

30. Scaling is more than the technology

31. We are ready…….!
Project results have been summarized in 4 project reports in
contemporary design –
This is our Business Case!

32. We are ready…….!
A regional proposal has been developed for southern Africa and will be
presented at a COP25 side event:
• Work package 1: Scaling out Climate-Smart Agriculture
• Work Package 2: Knowledge generation and dissemination
• Work Package 3: Aligning policies
We depend on country support

33. YES
We
CAN!

34. Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation
africa-rising.net
This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.