Agricultural tips - Crops, Livestock & Fisheries

  By Gloria Siwisha CLIMATE change is a concern in Sub-Saharan Africa because of its adverse impact on the environment. In Zambia, climate induced hazards such as increase in frequency and severity of seasonal droughts, occasional dry spells, increased temperatures in valleys, flash floods and changes in the growing season, always have a direct impact on farmers’ lives with unforeseen consequences on food, nutrition status, and incomes. For these reasons, the Zambian government, working with collaborating partners, is integrating climate change concerns into its agriculture policy agenda. Under its Zambia climate smart agriculture (CSA) strategy framework, the government is promoting the roll-out of CSA practices that will sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience of farmers towards climate related effects, and reduce or remove greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (CSAIP/World Bank, 2019). Conservation agriculture (CA) and agroforestry, are the most w...

  By Gloria Siwisha GROUNDNUTS are one of the most important crops grown in the Eastern province of Zambia. According to Chapoto and Zulu-Mbata (2015), nearly two-thirds of households in the region produce groundnuts as both a food crop and source of income. In the last two decades however, smallholder farmers in the country have experienced a decline in groundnuts production and productivity. During the 2011/2012 agricultural season for instance, the total quantity of shelled groundnuts produced by smallholders significantly reduced to 113,000 metric tonnes from about 160,000 metric tonnes recorded in the 2009/2010 agricultural season (IAPRI, 2013). Groundnut yields also remained low, ranging between 0.5 and 0.7 metric tonnes per hectare, compared to the global averages of around 1.7 metric tonnes. Experts in the region, attribute the low productivity levels to inappropriate farming practices, seed recycling, pests and diseases, as well as climate variability. ...

Participants discuss the importance of effective communication - Picture By Bright Sakala By Gloria Siwisha, Notulu Tembo and Mary Mweemba Lusaka, 10 July, 2020………DESPITE the huge potential that Zambia’s agricultural sector has in food production, it continues to face challenges of low productivity per unit area especially among smallholder farmers. According to a 2019 Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) baseline survey report, yields for maize were currently around 1 to 1.5 tons per hectare against the potential of 5 to 8 tons per hectare. Low crop yield trends also hold for grain legumes whose yields are said to be stagnantly at 0.7 tons per hectare against a potential of 2.3 tons per hectare. Experts say that one of the reasons for the status quo is that specific information needed by smallholder farmers to increase yields is not packaged nor disseminated effectively. In view of this, the Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Farming Systems (SIFAZ) project in Zambia conven...