THE ZAMBIAN STORY:

The worst drought in recorded history, in the region of Central Southern Africa, occurred in 1991/92. The drought was so bad that even the sugarcane on the estates with highly developed irrigation systems virtually all died. In Zimbabwe the national cattle heard was reduced by more than half. The crop failure was so bad that almost all food had to be imported that year.

On Hinton Estates we had recently reached the full-farm scale for the first time and amazingly we achieved profit-making crops in that year and in the years that followed. In my mind this will always remain an indelible testimony to the effectiveness of CA.

The full devastation of that drought for our nation was felt over the next few years. Then in mid 1994 two men walked into my farm office. The first was Mr. Chaim Helman who was from the head office for the World Bank in Africa and was stationed in Cape Town. The other was from the World Bank bureau in Zimbabwe.

Mr. Helman told me that they had heard that we had proved that CA was feasible for large-scale commercial farmers in Zimbabwe and that we had also being trying to take the technology to the small-scale farmers for the previous seven years. He wanted to know our experience and whether or not I could say categorically that CA was feasible for the small-scale farmers in our region.

I was able to tell Mr. Helman that I did believe that CA was both feasible and viable for the small-scale farmers, but that I did not yet have the quantifiable evidence that he required. So between us we composed a comprehensive questionnaire and took it to 103 small-scale farmers who we had contacted throughout Zimbabwe at that stage.

We then asked a prominent soil-scientist in Zimbabwe, Dr. Henry Elwell, to analyze and collate the answers from the questionnaire into a document. The conclusion from the analysis was that CA is feasible for small-scale farmers in our region. This document was then forwarded to Washington DC.

Mr. Helman explained that banking is all about “Risk Management”. The World Bank had observed the effects of the recent big drought and the indications of the probable increased frequency of droughts in the region due to global warming etc. They also recognized that the national economies in the region are agriculturally based and that an increased frequency of droughts meant that their loans to those nations were at increased risk.

The World Bank recognized our claim that CA technology increases the capture and infiltration into the soil of rainfall and that it also helps to hold that moisture in the soil and facilitates the transmission of that water more efficiently to the plants. They also recognized our claim that yields are increased and costs are lowered resulting in better profitability. They then reasoned that if this were the case, there would be a decreased risk to their investments into the region.

Mr. Helman further explained that bank interest rates are determined according to the “risk factor” involved. Washington had given the ‘go-ahead’ that if any nation in the region would implement CA as a national policy and promote it vigorously, then that nation would draw a lower interest rate on their borrowings from the World Bank.

Mr. Helman was very excited about the proposition and told me that because the initiative had come from Zimbabwe, it would be good to set up a “Conservation Farming Unit” (CFU) in Harare and make Zimbabwe the national model for the region. I was also excited because this was the first CA incentive at a national level.

Mr. Helman set about the negotiations in the country for this to happen. But however hard he tried, he could not get the appropriate stakeholders to discuss the initiative round a table. After many months of fruitless effort Mr. Helman came to me and asked me to go to Zambia with him to try and set up the national model there.

In July of 1995 we flew into Lusaka where all the stakeholders were assembled including the Minister of Agriculture and top members of his staff. There were leading members of the research community, the extension service, the Zambia Farmers’ Union, the Donors, the NGOs, civil society, the private sector and some prominent farmers.

I explained the concept of CA to all of these stakeholders and shared some of the results of our experience. The next day I demonstrated the technology in the field at the Golden Valley Agricultural Research Trust station at Chisamba north of Lusaka. There was a very enthusiastic response from the Minister himself as well as from all the other stakeholders. There was a determination to make ago of it.

Zambia requested I come and run the project for them to which I refrained, explaining that there was still much work to be done in Zimbabwe. I gave them a copy of the “Green Book” and recommended that they employ a project driver who would be totally convinced about the concept of CA and would promote it wholeheartedly.

I sent my assistant Ian Jamu to put in demonstration plots in all of their provinces in Zambia. The Zambians employed two project drivers, an ex-Kenyan farmer, Peter Aagaard, and an Irishman called Dutch Gibson. I had also struck up a friendship with a prominent Zambian farmer/businessman Ronnie Landless who immediately caught the vision and has enthusiastically guided the Conservation Farming Unit and other stakeholders over the years. We returned to Zimbabwe and let them get on with it.

I am sure that Ronnie Landless would agree that Peter and Dutch are the real heroes of the national breakthrough into Zambia. They embraced CA as a complete package and did not contaminate it at all. They stuck to the Green Book and made a more concise Handbook of their own with excellent illustrations and photographs.

They began simply by concentrating on the hand hoe model with no overall soil inversion. They designed and manufactured the “Chaka Hoe” which is a robust, narrower hoe that is well suited to digging out the planting basins in hard soil to depths that can penetrate below any compaction layers or plough pans. They also designed the broom-like “Zamwipe” which is ideal for the application of Roundup herbicide. (See pages…..).

The work began slowly and carefully with thorough teaching and insistence on the highest of standards. Their programme was very well disciplined and they declared five non-negotiable points that they deemed essential for Conservation Tillage:

1. No burning of crop residues or mulch.
2. Correctly spaced permanent planting basins established before the rains.
3. Early planting of all crops.
4. Early weeding
5. Rotation with a minimum of 30% legumes in the system.

Participants must adhere to these five non-negotiable conditions if they want to continue in the programme.

In 2000, five years after the start of CA in Zambia, my wife and I were invited back to see their progress. There was another meeting in Lusaka with many of the same stakeholders there who had been at the initial visit in 1995 including the same Minister of Agriculture.

We were very touched to see the wonderful progress and how faithful they had been with the concept. In his speech the Minister declared that “Conservation Tillage is the answer for Zambia and for Africa”, and he graciously gave me a plaque thanking me for the pioneering work of bringing CA to Zambia.

In late 2003 FAO Zambia contacted FAO Zimbabwe to come up to Zambia to have a look at the transformation going on there. The FAO organized for some Donors and NGOs to visit. Some of those NGOs were astounded to see that the yields they saw in the south of Zambia, where they visited, had gone up from 0,5 t/ha to 2,5 t/ha, and the small-scale farmers themselves were telling them with conviction of the methods and benefits of the system.

The Zambian authorities told the delegation that in 2000/1, 25,000 small-scale farmers were practicing CA, then in 2001/2 there were 50,000 and in 2002/3 there were now 100,000, a doubling of numbers each year. Subsequently it has been reported that Zambia has exported 400 000 tonnes of maize for the first time. The delegation was very impressed.