Browsing by Subject "Mechanized conservation agriculture"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Utilizing sustainable agricultural mechanization to unlock the potential of conservation agriculture in Zambia
    (2022) Omulo, Godfrey Omondi; Birner, Regina
    Conservation agriculture (CA) has the potential to improve agriculture’s resilience to climate change, reduce environmental degradation, and improve food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, despite this potential, adoption rates of CA have remained relatively low in SSA, as CA is faced with major challenges. Due to low mechanization rates, the high labour requirements of CA constitute an important obstacle to the adoption of CA. The low adoption of CA in SSA has sparked national and international debates about the suitability of CA for African farming systems and about the strategies that have been used to promote it. The rise of medium-scale farmers across SSA, who use tractors and implements, offers a new perspective for CA. These farmers do not only cultivate increasingly large land areas, but also provide machinery services, share knowledge, and act as role models to small-scale farmers. However, it remains unclear whether mechanized medium-scale farmers, who typically cultivate between five and a hundred hectares of farmland, can play a key role in the upscaling of CA in SSA. Previous studies have focused on socio-economic and psychological factors in studying farmers’ decisions to adopt various CA practices. Yet, the interests of medium-scale farmers regarding mechanized Conservation Agriculture (MCA) have remained largely unexplored. Further, even though mechanization may incentivize CA adoption in SSA, little research has focused on the performance of MCA using four-wheel tractors. Against this backdrop, this research sought to investigate the extent and how sustainable agricultural mechanization can unlock the potential of CA, focusing on medium-scale farmers and using Zambia as a case study country. The study had three objectives, which are addressed in three different chapters: 1) to analyze the perceptions and intentions of medium-scale farmers with regard to MCA in Zambia; 2) to analyze the discourses about CA expressed by Zambian farmers and various key stakeholders; and 3) to investigate the short-term agronomic and economic differences between mechanized conventional tillage and MCA. To achieve these objectives, a mixed-method research approach was used, involving qualitative and quantitative methods. The introduction of the thesis presents the study rationale, discusses CA status in SSA and Zambia, and examines the literature on the increase of medium-scale farmers in Zambia as an important opportunity for MCA adoption. To address the first objective, the second chapter employs Taylor and Todd’s socio-psychological framework of the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior to examine the intentions of medium-scale farmers towards MCA. Three constructs are considered: normative issues, attitudes and perceived control behaviour. The chapter is based on responses from a survey that was conducted with 119 medium-scale farmers from selected districts in Zambia. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. This chapter reveals that medium-scale farmers have very strong intentions to apply mechanization on their farms, which is linked to strong subjective norms, attitudes and perceived control. The favourable attitude towards MCA is based on its perceived usefulness, easiness and compatibility with their current practices. Further, perceived resources and efficacy also influence farmers’ intentions to adopt MCA. Other important factors in determining farmers’ intentions to use MCA include social and media influence, technical training and extension services, as well as farmers’ background characteristics. To address the second objective, presented in Chapter 3, a discourse analytical research approach was applied to examine actors’ viewpoints on CA. The chapter is based on in-depth interviews, interviews with key informants, focus group discussions and a review of selected local media reports. Based on the analysis, six CA narratives were identified in the Zambian context, which can be labelled as follows: (1) Yield stability of CA is attainable within a few years; (2) CA is the farming choice of the future; (3) Opinion leaders and key stakeholders are pushing the new CA frontiers; (4) CA is Africa’s ancient way of farming; (5) The Youths is getting inducted to apply CA; and (6) The number of CA adopters is higher than reported. The chapter reveals that despite the numerous discourses in favour and against CA that are reported in the literature, there are unreported context-specific CA discourses that are inherent to the study sites in Zambia. The fourth chapter, which addresses the third objective, presents a large-scale on-farm experiment to explore whether there are short-term agronomic and socio-economic differences between mechanized conventional tillage and MCA. This question is relevant because short-term differences can have a stronger influence on the adoption of CA than effects that only become manifest in the long run. The experiment was conducted using a randomised complete block design trial to compare three treatments: (1) disc harrowing (DH) plus residue burning, which represents the widely used conventional practice; (2) ripping tillage (RT); and (3) direct seeding (DS) plus soil cover. The experiment focused on maize and soyabean and covered two years, of which the first was more “dry” and the second more “wet”. All operations were performed using a 60hp four-wheel tractor. The analysis shows that, as compared to conventional DH, DS leads for both crops to time and fuel-saving. This effect is also observed, though to a lower extent, in RT. The cost of production was for both crops highest for DH and lowest for DS, whereas RT fell in-between. MCA treatments led to relatively higher grain yields in the dry season for both crops. However, in the wet season, DH and RT resulted in significantly higher maize yields than DS. The analyses also show that DS resulted in higher profitability for soyabean in both seasons, while the profitability of maize was higher for DS in the dry season and higher for DH in the wet season. MCA treatments led to higher returns per unit of investment and higher returns to labour compared to DH. Overall, the chapter demonstrates that, even in the short term, MCA has multiple agronomic and economic benefits. Considering the findings regarding the three objectives together, the study indicates that deciphering the discourses and perceptions of key actors about MCA improves the chances of identifying nuanced policies and interventions that may accelerate MCA uptake by medium-scale farmers. The findings of the mechanized experiment show that the agronomic and economic gains of MCA can even be achieved even if adopters hire all tractor operations. However, to harness the synergies between CA, mechanization, and the rise of medium-scale farmers for increased agricultural productivity and sustainability in SSA, more research on the enabling environment for MCA and appropriate policies is still needed.