It was the end of a very long day. We had travelled to remote areas on bad roads, walked barefoot across a flooding creek and hiked nearly an hour both ways to reach one of the three farmers we were scheduled to visit. We were on the trail of conservation agriculture (CA) success stories, and
Can conservation agriculture save Africa’s soils?
Adoption rates are slow, but it may be the continent’s best — and last — hope
Editorial: Taking the bus — Malawi style
I’ve done a lot of things with chicken in my life, mostly related to eating. But sharing a bus with one was a first. When taking the bus in rural Malawi there’s no telling who you might be travelling with. In a country where few can afford a car and one of the few luxuries
In Zambia, investing in farmers keeps kids in school
Families who see improved yields under conservation agriculture use the extra income to pay school fees
Juliette, the eldest daughter of Olipa Tembo and her husband Dickson Nkata, came home from school early one day. She was crying. The child, who would have been about eight at the time, had walked the four kilometres to the local school, only to have the teacher promptly send her home again. The family had
Mulch, mice and ‘the man problem’ hold up CA adoption
Women are interested in producing food while men are more interested in growing cash crops using conventional methods
After three years of producing maize using conservation agriculture, Nkasauka Nthala is a convert. The yields from her tiny .16-hectare plot of maize grown using direct seeding instead of hoeing were 166 per cent above the yields of maize grown under conventional practices. Yet only a small portion of the farm she shares with her
Grow less maize and produce more food
Boosting yield allows seeding less maize as ‘insurance,’ and adding more profitable and nutritious crops to the rotation
Christian Thierfelder strides into a plot of maize, reaches down, and scratches through the mulch with his fingers to grab a clump of soil. Holding it up, the senior agronomist with CIMMYT’s Harare field station lets it crumble through his fingers — it is moist but not muddy, and the decaying plant material gives it
Dropping the hoe and doubling the yield
Minimum tillage makes for dramatic improvements for this family in Malawi
It’s raining, but that doesn’t stop Thomas Nkhunda from leading a group of visitors into his fields where he describes how he manages plots demonstrating the benefits of conservation agriculture. Rain isn’t unusual at this time of year. After all, it’s the rainy season in Malawi. What’s unusual is the fact that the rains they
Editorial: The (not so) great farm smackdown
If you’ve ever watched “smackdown” wrestling on television, you have to admit it’s entertaining, in a perverse sort of way, watching those muscle-bound burly sorts strutting around pounding their chests like apes and shouting insults. Even when they are throwing punches or tossing each other out of the ring, it’s pretty obvious that it’s all
Editorial: Farmland — always a good buy?
Keep renting, or buy that land now before it gets even more expensive? Alberta farm management adviser Merle Good provided some perspective on that for an attentive crowd at Ag Days last week. So far, it’s been a truism that farmland is a good investment. That’s not to say it is always the right investment
Editorial: Paperwork versus field work
Many readers may find themselves shouting out a hearty “heck, yeah” to this week’s release of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business annual survey of what farmers think of paperwork. In a nutshell, not much, which isn’t surprising. After all, who among us does the happy dance at tax time or when Statistics Canada calls
Editorial: On the right track
Beef industry leaders have outlined some gutsy goals for their sector to meet with their recently released National Beef Strategy. Boosting production efficiency by 15 per cent, increasing carcass cut-out value by 15 per cent and reducing cost disadvantage relative to global competitors by seven per cent by 2020 won’t be easy. But much of