Getting Smart About Farming in Zambia
Climate-smart agriculture addresses the combined challenges of food security and climate change by increasing agricultural productivity and income, adapting and building resilience to climate-driven impacts. The DAI-managed project in Zambia— USAID Scaling Up Nutrition Technical Assistance (SUN TA)—is unsurprisingly, therefore, incorporating CSA in its efforts to tackle the drivers of poor nutrition in young children.
Specifically, the four-year USAID SUN TA project provides the Zambian Government with technical assistance and direct support for initiatives to reduce stunting among children under two years old. The focus is on integrated activities across four provinces covering agriculture, livelihoods, nutrition, health, water, sanitation and hygiene, and social and behavior change.
The agriculture and livelihood component of the project is introducing communities and households—particularly women—to CSA practices that address household food, income, and nutrition security. This involves introducing smallholders and subsistence farmers to new, readily adopted approaches that will help them enhance crop production.
Three CSA approaches
The first of these initiatives is introducing varieties of certified seed that are early maturing and offer increased yield and resistance to pests. Farmers, however, need access to these seeds so USAID SUN TA has been working with private-sector agricultural companies to improve availability and strengthen the links between farmers and seed suppliers such as Good Nature Agro , Osho Chemical Industries Ltd , Kamano, Zamseed , and SeedCo Zambia Limited .
USAID SUN TA is also encouraging the use of technology, linking farmers to companies offering affordable irrigation equipment such as treadle pumps (Kickstart), which are easy to manage and make it possible to grow vegetables all year round.
Thirdly, the project is working with farmers and communities to change traditional practices: encouraging crop rotation; using moisture-holding planting basins when drought or poor rains are anticipated; and encouraging more use of affordable, soil-improving, and environmentally friendly fertilizers such as chicken or other livestock manure. USAID SUN TA also trained 80 lead farmers and district staff on integrated pest management, encouraging farmers to use natural ways to repel pests and insects by adopting more ecologically friendly practices, such as companion planting for crop protection.
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Changing traditions
A well-proven system for stopping or changing long-held farming practices is through what are known as ‘positive deviants’. These are community-based farmers who have independently adopted new CSA practices and can then talk to and show their peers how it works for them. Although switching from traditional ways can be difficult, the project is seeing high adoption rates among farmers given the already evident impact of climate change, such as the timing and frequency of rains.
By the end of 2022, USAID SUN TA could confirm that 56,024 farmers were trying out improved farming options, which has resulted in 14,083 hectares of farmland growing certified seeds and improved land management practices, such as mulching, crop rotation, and intercropping.
“The resulting high yields from CSA practices have improved livelihoods, increased income, and strengthened resilience at the household level,” said Alice Namuyamba , Agriculture and Livelihood Expert for the project. “Most importantly for the project, this has increased the availability and intake of diverse, nutritious foods for families, particularly pregnant and lactating women and young children.”
For more information about the project, visit Zambia—Scaling Up Nutrition Technical Assistance (Zambia SUN TA) · DAI: International Development