For Nothing Ko

Beckham Joshua Chaile
Candidate Number: 1703 0460/32 Coursework

Research topic:
An investigation into the benefits of conservation farming: a case study of Solwezi, Zambia.
Aim: to establish the benefits of conservation farming in Solwezi for farmers who have changed
from the traditional shifting cultivation. “Slash and burn produce” in Solwezi.
Research question
To what extent has conservation farming improved the standards of living for local farmers in
Solwezi?
Hypotheses
The introduction of conservation farming has resulted in increased yields and lower production
costs for local farmers.
Conservation farming will not be sustainable in the absence of internal support from the local
industries especially the mine.
Background
In 1962 Brian Odreive the founder of conservation farming left school and began a twenty-year
career in tobacco farming where he learnt the dynamics of farming. He was change by the word
of God and instead of tobacco he started growing food. He noticed that modern ploughs caused
soil structures to break down therefore he used a technique called zero tillage which was started
in the great dust bowl of Texas in the 1930s.
Initially Brian started small with only one hector of wheat, he the expanded it due to the
outstanding results and crop yields. He described God telling him to teach Africa to make profits.
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Brian Oldreive shared his idea to the Zimbabwean and it expanded and was called Conservation
farming. (The story 2011)
Conservation farming began in Zambia in the year 1995. Later in April 1996 with the assistance
of George Grey and Ben Kapita of Zambia National Farmers Union an organization was
established to promote conservation farming in Zambia which as the Conservation Farming Unit.
(Conservation Farming Unit)
According to Guy Hammond founder and coordinator of FQM supported conservation farming
in Sowezi, Kansanshi Foundation. Conservation farming started in 2010 when he appealed for
money from FQM and he was given a trail run at his project in retrospect Mr. Guy Hammond
was a miner in the Congo where he noticed that most of the people did not grow their own food
in spite Congo’s large area of land. He took the opportunity of going to Zimbabwe to learn
conservation farming for three days then he came to Solwezi and managed to establish a
conservation brunch in Solwezi under FQM. (direct interview).
2
Area of study
Zambia north-western province
Solwezi town
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4
Significance of study
The researcher wants to know the challenges faced by farmers who practice conservation
farming and how they learn and improve their farming methods. The researcher wants to know to
what extent conservation methods are better than old ‘slash and burn’ methods of farming and to
investigate the things done by local industries like FQM to help farmers doing conservation
farming, compare conservation methods of farming with ‘slash and burn’ methods. The
researcher wants to know what factors affects chitemene Shifting Cultivation and how these
factors limit produce and increase expenditure. The researcher wants to understand what is done
by farmers and FQM to sustain production using conservation farming. The researcher wants to
know if conservation farming would be sustained without the mine. To know if conservation
farming has increased crop yields and at the same time lowered production cost or expenditures.
To know whether or not this way of farming has improved the lives of local farmers. The
researcher wants to find out how significant the mine is to conservation farming in Solwezi. The
researcher wants to know the steps taken by FQM to support conservation farming as well as
why FQM set up a conservation sector in Solwezi and how their support improves crop yields,
decreases unemployment and reduce on food shortages.
The researcher wants to investigate how FQM support into conservation farming is reducing soil,
air pollution, erosion and decreasing deforestation at the same time increasing food production in
Solwezi. The researcher wants to know by how much FQM support has contributed in crop
production especially maize in Solwezi. To know whether farmers have benefited from this type
of farming.
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Methodology
The researcher will be using a mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative). The researcher
will be using: observations, interviews, questionnaires, counts and surveys.
The researcher will use observations because they will help clearly spot differences and
similarities by looking at evidence on pictures, they will also help the researcher pick out
significance of the mine(FQM) by looking at the standard of crops between two farms. The
researcher will be using a camera to take pictures of a farm that is supported by FQM that uses
conservation farming and do the same on another farm using conservation farming but not
supported by FQM and one using chitemene shifting cultivation. The researcher will do this
every two weeks. The researcher will also be taking note of the methods of farming used and the
equipment used on all three farms. The equipment used will help deduce the expenditure.
Observations will help the researcher clearly identity, analyze and compare conservation farming
to chitemene shifting cultivation because the researcher will be there looking at farmer using
conservation and chitemene shifting cultivation.
The researcher will also have a recorded interview because the information that will be received
will be primary data. The researcher will have a structured and unstructured interview. The
unstructured interview will bring out random information that the researcher might be interest
but did not think of. The researcher will have a structured interview in order to get answers for
specific and necessary sections. The researcher will carry out random and appointed interviews.
The interview will be most vital because it will be a way that the researcher will get answers for
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things the researcher has doubt of and it will be a good way of collecting raw data from both
FQM and the farmers personal views about conservation farming.
The researcher will use counts because having number will better show representation of how
much is being produced and how many farms are using both conservation and chitemene shifting
cultivation. The researcher will simply move around and by using the researcher’s own
knowledge about conservation farming the researcher will count the number of farms using
conservation methods and chitemene shifting cultivation. This will help the researcher to
investigate how far conservation farming has spread determine its significance to the farmers
using it.
The researcher will use questionnaires because they will help get farmers personal opinion about
conservation farming and it will be a backup resource in case the interview fails. They will be
sent out to 50 different homes.
The researcher will also use pilot survey to test out the questionnaire.to make sure it is
understandable before it is sent out. It will also act as a backup in case questionnaire fails. The
researcher will randomly ask farmers questions.
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DATA PRESENTATION
Fig.1A
Crops Grown Conservation farming (%) Shifting Cultivation (%)
Maize 62 50
Groundnuts 4 2
Cassava 1 18
Beans 20 9
Potatoes 6 11
Vegetables 4 8
Other crops 3 2
The different farming method have percentage of crops that they grow. Conservation farmer
grow more of maize, bean and groundnuts while shifting cultivation grows more of maize but not
as much as conservation farmer, cassava, vegetables and potatoes.
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Fig.1B
Crops grown in conservation farming

4% 3%
6%
Maize
20%
is the
62%
1%
most
4%
grown
crop
by
Maize Groundnuts Cassava Bean Potatoes Vegetables Other crops
conservation farmers because it grows favorably to the climate, it is Zambia's staple food and is
most likely to sell on the market, followed by beans which also grows favorably to the climate
and is used for crop rotation. Crops like potatoes, cassava, groundnuts, vegetables and others like
pineapple, sun herp, chilly are grown on a much smaller scale. Groundnuts are used for crop
rotation, fight pests and to fix nitrogen in the soil.
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Fig.1C
Crops grown in shifting cultivation
8% 2%
11% Maize
Gronndnuts
50% Cassava
9%
Beans
Potatoes
18% Vegetabes
2% Other crops
Farmers practicing chitemene shifting cultivation also grow maize the most, these are mostly
subsistence hence they grow it to feed their family, followed by cassava because it is drought
resistance and potatoes that grow favorably to the soils. Groundnuts, beans, vegetables and other
crops like pineapple, sun herp, chilly are grown on a much smaller scale.
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Fig.1D
CROPsb Gr own
Conservation farming Shifting cultivation
70
60
50
Percentage
40
30
20
10
0
Maize G-nuts Cassava Beans Potatoes Vegetables Other crops
Crops grown
Farmer practicing conservation farming grow the more maize, groundnuts, beans and other crops
like pineapple, sun herp and chilly compared to those doing chitemene shifting cultivation who
grow more cassava, potatoes and vegetables.
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Fig.2A
Land Preparation
250
200 200 200
160
150 150
(Kwacha)
140
Cost
100 100 100

75 70 65
50
0
2010 2012 2014 2016 2017
Year
The money spent for land preparation by conservation farmers is decreasing. It was 100 Kwacha
between 2010-2012 then it decreased from 100 to 75 Kwacha by 2014. It further reduced to 70
Kwacha in 2016. The researcher has predicted it to reduce to 65 Kwacha by the end of this year.
The decreasing cost for land preparation is because farmer using conservation methods use the
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same piece of land, the spend more the first time when to prepare the land but once it done there
is less preparing hence they spend less money.
The money spent for land preparation by farmers doing chitemene shifting cultivation is
fluctuating. It was 200 Kwacha in 2010 it then dropped to 150 Kwacha in 2012 and further to
140 Kwacha in 2014. It started to increase and by 2016 it was back to 200 Kwacha. The
researcher predicts it decreasing by the end of the year. The reason for the fluctuating costs is
shifting from one land to another. This means the farmer have to spend money to clear the piece
of land again.
Fig.2B
Seeds
200
180 180
160 160
145 150
140 140
120
(Kwacha)
Cost
100
80 75
60
40
20
0 0 0 0 0
2010 2012 2014 2016 2017
Year
Cost for seed is increasing for farmer using conservation farming methods. 140 Kwacha in 2010
then it increased to 145 Kwacha in 2012 and 150 in 2014. In 2016, it was 160 Kwacha and the
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researcher has predicted it to get as high as 180 by the end of 2017. This will due to the
economic changes.
Cost for seed for farmers practicing shifting cultivation is 75 Kwacha in 2010 when they started
their farming but in 2012 it dropped to 0 Kwacha and it maintained the value until 2016 this is
because farmers are reusing the seed that remains from harvest.
Fig,2C
Fertiliser
400
380
350
300
250
(Kwacha)
230
Cost
200
165
150 150
123 125
100 100 110
85
50 50
0
2010 2012 2014 2016 2017
Year
Cost for fertilizer is increasing for farmers that are practicing conservation farming this due to
changes in the country’s economy. Farmer use a lot of fertilizer hence they spend more money
on fertilizer.
Cost for fertilizer is also increasing for farmer doing shifting cultivation but they do not spend
more on it because they use less of it.
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Fig.2D
Labour
2500
2000
1500
(Kwacha)
Cost
1000
500
0
2010 2012 2014 2016 2017
Year
The cost on labour in conservation farming is decreasing between 2010 to 2016 and it remains
constant and low from 2016 to 2017. The cost is also decreasing for shifting cultivation but the
amount spent on labour for conservation farming is lower than shifting cultivation from 2010-
2014. This because they use the same piece of land. It is slightly higher than shifting cultivation
from 2016-2017 because they are starting to cultivate hence more people are needed
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Fig.2E
Average cost over 7 years

Cost(kwacha)
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Shifting cultivation Conservation farming
The researcher found the average cost for labour, seed, land preparation and fertilizer then found
the total. The graph shows that farmers have spend more doing shifting cultivation than
conservation farming from when it started in 2010 until 2017.
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Fig.3A
Conservation farm
120
100 100
number ofBags/hector
80 82
75
70
60 60 60
51
40 37 40
33
25 24
20 17
12
9
0
2010 2012 2014 2016 2017
Year
Maize G-nuts Beans
The number of bags are increasing over the years.
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Fig.3B
Conservation farm
250
200
40
150 33
24 60
100 17 51
37
9 25
12
50 100
70 75 82
60
0
2010 2012 2014 2016 2017
Year
Maize G-nuts Beans
The number of bags produced from maize, beans and groundnuts are increasing every year
because of crop rotation which improves the soil fertility every year.
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Fig.3C
Shifting cultivation farm

70
63
60 60
50 50 50
40
30 30 30 31
28 28
23
20 20
15 14 13
10 11 11 12
5 6 7
3
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Year
Maize G-nuts Beans
The number of bags are fluctuating, they are high number bags then they decrease gradually then
increase again.
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Fig.3D
Shifting cultivation farm

120
number of Bags/hector
100 15
80 11 6
30
14
13
60 23 3
12 7
40 5 31
11 28
60 63
50 50
20
30 28
20
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Year
Maize G-nuts Beans
The number of bags being produced are fluctuating because the farmer shifts to another land
after soil loses fertility. In 2010 there are more bags and a high soil fertility, 2011 the bags
reduce because the soil fertility decreases and in 2012 soil fertility is lost. In 2013 the farmer
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shifts to a new land with high soil fertility therefore the number of bags increase from the
previous number and this goes on…
Fig.4A
FQM Support
Farmers
2500
F QM sp o n ser ed
15000
o n e s p r a c ti c i n g c o n s e r v a ti o n f a r m i n g
30000
Tr ai n ed fr am er s
There are 30 000 farmers that have been trained to do conservation farming by FQM. 15000 of
these are practicing conservation farming and only 2500 farmers are practicing it and being
financially sponsored by FQM.
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Fig.4B
F Q M S UP P O R T
FQM Sponsered Practicing Conservation Farming
Trained to do conservation farming
FQM Sponsered
5%
Practicing Con-
servation Farm-
Trained to do ing
conservation 32%
farming
63%
There is a higher percentage of farmer who are doing conservation farming and little being
sponsored.
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Conservation farm:
Fig.5A
G-nuts
Very green ground nuts due to rich nutrient soils.
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Shifting cultivation farm:
Fig.5B
G-nuts
Groundnuts are not that green, this shows the soil is not very rich in nutrients or infertile. This
might be because the farmer has been planting crops for a long time and is most likely to move
soon.
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Conservation farm:
Fig.5C
Maize
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Green and healthy because the farmer rotates the same piece of land with groundnuts that fixes
nitrogen in the soil and make it more fertile.
Shifting cultivation farm:
Fig.5D
Maize
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The leaves are yellowish because the soil is infertile and lacking nitrogen.
Most of conservation farms are found in areas near the mine. Shifting cultivation farms are found
in areas abundant with trees to cut down further from the city and the mine. There is a mixed
type of farming which is a transition from shifting cultivation to conservation and it found in
areas between conservation and shifting cultivation farms.
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Fig.6A
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Farmer doing conservation farming has built permanent and good standard house.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, conservation farming has increased crop yields especially maize and farmers
spend less money on average and get out profitable products. The crops produced are directly
proportional to how much is planted, the more the inputs used the more the outputs received and
less damage is done to the environment because only one piece of land is reused. This has
proven the researcher’s first hypothesis to be right.
FQM support is very crucial to conservation farming but according to the more farmers doing
conservation farming without their support it suggests that even without their support
conservation farming can be sustained but without FQM it wouldn’t have been known or
practiced by farmers in Solwezi. This proven the researcher’s second hypothesis to be wrong.
The living standards of farmers doing conservation farming have improved due to their high-
quality yields. This answers the researcher’s question.
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Beckham Joshua Chaile

Candidate Number: 1703 0460/32 Coursework

costs for local farmers.

industries especially the mine.

in the great dust bowl of Texas in the 1930s.

farming. (The story 2011)

(Conservation Farming Unit)

conservation brunch in Solwezi under FQM. (direct interview).

Zambia north-western province

decreases unemployment and reduce on food shortages.

will be using: observations, interviews, questionnaires, counts and surveys.

conservation and chitemene shifting cultivation.

FQM and the farmers personal views about conservation farming.

sent out to 50 different homes.

researcher will randomly ask farmers questions.

Crops Grown Conservation farming (%) Shifting Cultivation (%)

as much as conservation farmer, cassava, vegetables and potatoes.

Crops grown in conservation farming

rotation, fight pests and to fix nitrogen in the soil.

Crops grown in shifting cultivation

grow more cassava, potatoes and vegetables.

200 200 200

100 100 100

Conservation farming Shifting cultivation

is less preparing hence they spend less money.

Conservation farming Shifting cultivation

Conservation farming Shifting cultivation

more on it because they use less of it.

Conservation farming Shifting cultivation

Average cost over 7 years

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Shifting cultivation Conservation farming

conservation farming from when it started in 2010 until 2017.

Maize G-nuts Beans

The number of bags are increasing over the years.

Maize G-nuts Beans

Shifting cultivation farm

Maize G-nuts Beans

Shifting cultivation farm

Maize G-nuts Beans

previous number and this goes on…

financially sponsored by FQM.

Very green ground nuts due to rich nutrient soils.

Shifting cultivation farm:

nitrogen in the soil and make it more fertile.

Shifting cultivation farm:

areas between conservation and shifting cultivation farms.

proven the researcher’s first hypothesis to be right.

quality yields. This answers the researcher’s question.

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