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

Background

• CA in the sub-region is being promoted by many players;

• This makes the determination of data on the number ofCA farmers rather challenging;

• There is no agreed objective criteria for determining CAfarmers;

• This information is important in understanding thespread as well as the social, economic andenvironmental impacts of CA;

• Knowing the exact number of farmers practicing CA isalso important for both planning and advocacypurposes;

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.

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

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;

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.

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

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.

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

CA Farmer Census QuestionnaireSection 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

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

END

Thank you for listening

!