Learning Conservation Agriculture the Innovation Systems Way Article

Learning Conservation Agriculture the Innovation Systems way

Corresponding author: info@mahlathini.org

brought farming in this sector almost to a standstill (Smith, et al., 2017). This calls for a paradigm

shift focussing on mainstreaming sustainable agriculture systems in South Africa.

Sustainable agriculture systems, such as Conservation Agriculture (CA), are social constructs or

innovation processes which function as on-farm, farmer-centred Innovation Systems (IS’s),

embracing all the actors involved within the value chain. It is not just a model or production

package to be used but is a system of continuous learning (Smith, 2014).

CA is an approach for managing agro-ecosystems to improve and sustain productivity, increase

profits and food security, while preserving and enhancing the resource base and the environment. It

provides potential solutions to a wide-ranging number of challenges, including economic viability,

ecological sustainability and the social acceptability of farming. The success of CA under diverse

Methods and Materials

For the past five years, Grain SA and Mahlathini Development Foundation have been implementing

a Smallholder Farmer Innovation Programme for promotion and adoption of CA. This IS process

combines elements and learnings from previous implementation experiences (Smith et al., 2010)

and uses a combination of a number of different approaches, processes and tools, including

Participatory Innovation Development (PID) (Kruger and Gilles, 2014) and Farmer Field School

(FFS) (Braun and Duveskog, 2011) approaches that enable participants to share, act, observe,

reflect, plan and learn, creating a culture of learning that allows people to be innovative and

interactive in managing natural resources in a sustainable manner.

production aspects, harvesting and storage, processing and marketing. The learning groups also

form the launching point for management of group owned tools and equipment, collaborative work

sharing, Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) who undertake bulk buying of inputs and

setting up of local small businesses within the value chain including farmer centres, threshers and

small mills.

The farmer level trials are usually 100, 400 or 1000m2 (small areas to reduce risk). Farmers are

trained practically in the implementation of CA; pre- planting spraying (use of knapsack sprayers)

and field preparation, use of herbicides, layout of plots and planting in basins and rows using a

range of no-till tools (hand planters, animal drawn planters and or two row tractor drawn planters;

summer and winter) and crop rotation options are introduced. Researcher managed trials are also set

up, to work alongside the more enthusiastic and committed participants and to explore issues such

as soil health, carbon sequestration, soil fertility, water productivity, moisture retention, run-off and

specific aspects of the CA system – such as seeding and seeding rates of cover crops for example.

As a minimum, 2-4 learning sessions are held yearly for each learning group, building in

complexity and content every year. Review and planning sessions are held yearly for each learning

group. Local farmers days are organised, jointly with the learning groups. CA forums and

innovation platforms are promoted where all stakeholders, involving government, agribusiness and

civil society in a region join these forums to share, discuss and plan together.

In this way more than 3 000 community members have been exposed to CA practice in their areas

Development Foundation, Zimele, the Institute of Natural Resources, the Farmer Support Group,

Growing Nations, TWK Agricultural Cooperative, AGT Foods, FarmSave, Afritrac and Eden

Equip, as examples.

Each year new farmers are brought on board using a horizontal scaling model. After 3 years farmers

are graduated from the learning process, but continue in the learning groups and with their own

experimentation

Results and Discussion

Results can be presented within three categories, namely, social agency, value chain development

and increased productivity (Table 1).

substantially. Initially most households had food only for 0-3 months of the year; now 53% of

participants have food for 7-12 months of the year. Local sale of produce has increased from 0-

10%. VSLA participation has increased form 5% to79% of participants and of these 28% are saving

for inputs. All participants feel CA is cheaper than conventional farming, 78% feel that this practice

has reduced their labour requirement and 39% feel that CA has reduced their weeding requirement.

Increased productivity

In addition to the implementation of intercropping, crop rotation and summer and winter cover

crops outlined in Table 1, yield results have been summarised for the 4 seasons for maize and bean

Effects of soil health

Soil health indicators have been monitored for 20 participants using a range of indicators, of which

most are part of the Haney Soil Health Test (Gunderson, Accessed: 2018/05/20). Trends over a

three- year period indicate that the Organic Carbon and Nitrogen content of the soil has increased

for all 4 participants from the Bergville area, monitored over this time frame and C:N ratios have

decreased for one participant only (i.e. Ms Phumelele Hlongwane), as she has most coherently

implemented the diverse cropping and crop rotation process (including legumes).

Soil health scores have increased significantly between 2016 to 2017 (Table 3). These results

indicate that the combination of crop rotation with crop diversity (intercropping and cover crops,

including legumes) provides the best option of increasing soil health over the short term.

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Table 1: Innovation System indicators for CA implementation in KZN and EC, 2013-2017