MULUNGUSHI UNIVERSITY

INDUSTRIAL FIELD ATTACHMENT

REPORT

NAME: GWEN MBUNJI

STUDENT NUMBER: 201801645

PROGRAMME: BSc Agri III

YEAR: THREE

COURSE: ANR 303

ABSTRACT
This report contains all activities undertaken under an industrial attachment survey to Amadeus
International farm and Zango farm between 13th February to 20th March, 2021. The survey was
conducted for the purpose of collecting information on the cultural practises of the farms,
environmental and climate change mitigation practises while maximizing production and profits.

INTRODUCTION

Contained in this document are descriptions of the activities carried out at Zango farm in
Chililabombwe area owned by a retiree from civil service and Amadeus international farm in
Kabwe, owned by a career farmer.

OBJECTIVES

Were to Contrast farming practices of the two farms, assess environmental management issues,
and climate change mitigation practices implemented, and apply the theories leant.

ZANGO FARM

Zango farm is owned by Mrs Zango, who is a retired civil servant. The farm is a 3 hectare of
piece land in size. The main farming activity practiced is livestock production and crop farming,
specifically groundnuts, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, rain fed maize and cassava respectively. The
farm heavily relies on rainfed agriculture, but also diversify by using drought tolerant crops such
as cassava. She re-uses the litter from plant remains and those from poultry as manure in her
field thus, preventing environmental pollution and preserving and improving soils. Challenges
include lack of electricity for heat, unstable demand for his chickens and transportation to the
market which is the major problem or the farmer.

AMADEUS INTERNATIONAL FARM

Amadeus international farm is one of the well performing farms in Zambia. It is a 4000+ hectare
of land in size, which is more involved in crop production. The farm has evolved over the years
from growing tobacco occasionally, to huge production of soybeans, wheat, seeding maize and
commercial maize. It is for this reason that the farm is well equipped with machinery such as
maize planter, soybean planter, 7 Landini- tractors, modern John-Deere Model 9670 8-Row
Combine Harvester, Volvo Model EC210B LC Excavator, 5 centre pivots and a fully working
filling station on the farm.

Another interesting factor about the farm is that although Amadeus is hugely dependent on
conventional farming occasionally some fields are used to grow Sanyembe, a leguminous plant.
Later the grown plants are ploughed and left in the fields to decay and nourish the soil. The
forest life is conserved because the manager believes owning a 4000+ hector land can be a victim
of deforestation thus, the small forests within the farm are kept nature that even monkeys, world
birds and quarrels are found there.

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TWO FARMERS

Amadeus farms is hugely dependent on conventional farming. It also has some challenges such
as some fields been sloppy hence fertiliser gets washed away. The farm plans to invest in aerial
spraying as a replacement to human labor spraying in order to achieve efficiency and beat the
time factor. Drones are also been considered as a first step in this direction, while Zango farms
entire depends on human labor.

Zango farms re-uses the litter from plant remains and those from poultry as manure in her field
thus, preventing environmental pollution and preserving and improving soils, while Amadeus
international farm practices crop rotation as a way of addressing environmental land degradation,
and applies of lime and manure to deal with soil acidity and retain soil structure respectively.
Crops are sensitive to climate change so the farm uses tolerant varieties and irrigation. as a way
of mitigating climate change as well as conserving the environment, while Zango farms
diversifies crops planted.

In Amadeus farms, Certified seed is used as a preventative measure and chemicals are applied as
a control measure pest and disease management an example benzo extra to combat army worms
in maize which has proved to be problematic in the past few years and whether or not these pests
can be attributed to climate change is open for debate. Certified seed is used, and have an
overhead irrigation system is used to water, although there is a challenge of insufficient number
of sprinklers. On the other hand, Zango farm uses all animal waste in his field as an
environmentally sound waste disposal method and as a measure of climate change mitigation.

A career farmer usually uses scientific methods, and usually employs experts to evaluate the land
and the land use types suitable for the specific land, thus minimizes risks of loss and high costs
of input. Amadeus international farm prioritizes making profits by maximizing production as
compared to Zango farm. For example, farm livestock production is under high supervision so as
to meet the demand for its products. Amadeus farm uses both rainfed and irrigation to be able to
produce crops all year round for the chain store markets as well as other farmers. It uses suitable
varieties for different seasons e.g., winter maize while the latter depends on rain which implies
production is restricted to the growing season.

CONCLUSION
The information that was obtained from the two farms showed that Amadeus international farm
prioritizes making profits by maximizing production costs as compared to Zango farm. Amadeus
farm uses both rainfed and irrigation to be able to produce crops all year round and using suitable
varieties for different seasons e.g., winter maize while the latter depends on rain which implies
production is restricted to the growing season. Although the two farms differ in production
systems, they face similar climate change effects of unstable rainfall and extreme temperature.
They both employ efforts to reduce the impacts of these extreme conditions in both crop and
animal production, and they show knowledge of environmental issues such as waste
management.

BIBILIOGRAPHY

ZANGO Farm: MRS Zango Mulema, CHILILABOMBWE, +260968310741

Amadeus International Farm: Mr. Rajendrakumar Somabhai Patel, KABWE