Agricultural tips - Crops, Livestock & Fisheries

By Gloria Siwisha SMALLHOLDER farmers in rural  parts of the country often face difficulties in providing enough food for their livestock especially during the long dry periods of the year when there is a decline in both quantity and quality of livestock food or forage. This is mainly attributed to the limited information and skills in the production of forage or fodder for livestock, as well as, the economical utilisation of these products. As a result, there is usually chronic nutritional stress on grazing livestock that in turn leads to reduced productivity and incomes from the sale of such animals. For this reason, the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, through the Enhanced Smallholder Livestock Investment Programme (E-SLIP), has embarked on the ‘sustainable forage and forage seed production and utilization programme’ among smallholder farmers across the country. The programme targets to reach 80,000 smallholder farmers and aims at addressing the need for them to correctly fe...

Pot filling: Members of Kasega association fill-up polythene plastics with a mixture of soil and manure By GLORIA SIWISHA EASTERN Province is an agricultural hub contributing a substantial amount of its crop produce to the national food basket. In the 2019/2020 agriculture season alone, the province produced about 600,000 metric tonnes of maize which accounted for 19 percent of the country’s total production. Over the years however, agricultural activities have had a devastating effect on the environment through deforestation, as smallholder farmers seek to open up more farm land in search of fertile soils so as to increase production and productivity. According to a 2016 World Bank report dubbed “Drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Eastern Province”, 54,027 hectares of forests were lost in Eastern Province between 2000, and 2010, and 102,087 hectares lost between 2010 and 2014. The report attributes the quick depletion of forests in the province to the heavy d...

  The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development in Southern Africa (CCARDESA), has held its inaugural media awards with a call for journalists in the southern African region to take the lead in disseminating climate smart agriculture (CSA) information in order to help tackle the problem of climate change. According to CCARDESA, climate change has been identified as a major threat that is affecting the SADC region including the agricultural sector which relies heavily on rain-fed agriculture.  Gabriel Masvora of Zimbabwe emerged winner of the awards which were introduced this year, while Gloria Siwisha of the National Agricultural Information Services (NAIS) in Zambia, and Dickson Mmaba of Botswana emerged first and second runners up respectively. Botswana’s Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security Karabo Gare announced the winners of the inaugural awards during CCARDESA’s 10 th anniversary commemoration last Friday. Mr Gare congratul...

Dilika Ward Councillor Samuel Phiri (Left), and Chipata District Administrative Officer Kapembwa Sikazwe (Second from Left), listen to a seed company representative as he explains the benefits of winter maize production during the field day - Picture By GLORIA SIWISHA By GLORIA SIWISHA HAVING a strong agricultural production unit doesn’t just ease the teaching of practical subjects like agriculture; it also helps skills training colleges to contribute significantly to national food security. Colleges that embrace agriculture in its broadest sense, also remain self-reliant since they are able to generate income from the sale of agro-produce. With this realization, Chipata Trades Training Institute (CTTI) has ventured into winter maize production. In June this year, the institute planted vitamin A orange maize on a one Lima field through irrigation farming and expects to harvest between 9,000 and 11,000 fresh cobs of maize this October. This is because it employed conservation ag...

  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...