Natural Resource Management
Natural resource management has two basic components:
- Conservation agriculture and environmental conservation
- Landcare systems
Principles and concepts of conservation agriculture
Smallholder African farmers as much as commercial farmers who have been exposed to conservation agriculture (CA) in recent years prefer to refer to it as the "New Approach" or even "Modern Farming". This is despite the fact that CA really is about going back to the same old needs and basics for sustained crop, human and soil life, and how these three relate and interact with each other. Previous development in agriculture has been led by professionals, who like to think about their specialty areas, alone.
CA is about inclusiveness and an approach to development where we asked ourselves what the farmer and her animals, crops and the soil need for active and profitable harmonious co-existence. Indeed it is about being sensitive to the needs of the environment and protecting it for our own sake.
CA is about refocusing your mind, to think like farmers, who see all the sub-systems together. Farmers have much more broader thinking than our vibrant research plot on thir farm. They would rather look at that plot in kine with the rest of the farm, their crop, livestock, infrastructure markets etc. As researchers and extensionists we spend days talking and exposing farmers to (single, or a few) disciplinary issues to a farmer who like to think in an assortment, rather than singular way. The truth is, for many years we have left smallholder farmers where we found them, overwhelmed by our abilities to be detailed, yet a little confused about looking for the linkages and how to fill the gaps imposed by ourselves. Such gaps are between:-
- agriculture and livestock
- no-soil turning, no-till and minimum tillage against direct-seeding
- manure and fertilizer
- terracing and strip cropping against contour farming
- costs and benefits
- crop rotation and cover crops
- manual and animal power
These gaps are academic and they quickly disappear when we begin to think like the farmer, practically and systematically. Farmers like to see life from risk-eliminating and savings point of view rather than profits-accrued. Profits come from markets and we may have to start by establishing these.
Back to the basics: A farmer (Julius Aenda of Siaya, Kenya) described CA as a "short-cut" farming. After only three months of exposure and even before harvesting his first CA plot, he had already noticed they planted without ploughing and his wife had reduced weeding by 95 percent. Julius already talks like an experienced farmer who has seen the solutions to many sources of frustration in the past. Although a successful farmer by the standards of the neighbourhood, and although he has had some agro-forestry practices on his farm, Julius seems to be hearing a new and re-awakening message from the CA extensionist. For the first time someone is relating tillage to weeding, seed to soil, soil to organic matter and manuring, crop mix and soil cover to yields and marketing: all in one visit. |
Conservation Agriculture is defined in line with three basic concepts:-
- No mechanical soil disturbance, hence direct seeding or planting
- Permanent soil cover particularly with the use of crop residues and cover crops
- Judicious choice of crop rotations multiple cropping, agroforestry and animal integration
As much as the first principle refers to no soil disturbance, it should be understood that some minimal disturbance may be needed especially to break hard-pans where they exist. Direct seeding may also be understood to imply sophisticated machinery, yet a simple hoe can conduct direct seeding, if the farmer is trained to understand the principles involved.
Permanent soil cover for most Africa's farms can only be taken strategically or as a target as many are already awfully bare and in semi-arid and arid areas where biomass is not so readily available. Cover can come from crop residue mulch and selected cover crops with benefits to the farmer, livestock and the soil can be used with dramatic impact on biomass available for cover. Some cover crops with different rooting systems enhance the capacity to recycle nutrients and therefore they should be naturally considered.
Crop rotations have much cultural history and are a sweet subject for promoters of the integrated nutrient management approach. Depending on a farmers system, what is available and growable, some special procedures (selection of rotations) are needed to better understand and improve the amount and availability of different nutrients to the crops.
For all three principles to apply a desirable environment for crop growth is needed. The chart above shows the various entries to a Conservation Agriculture system. Different farmers or groups will choose a theme of emphasis depending on their current development status. They will ensure that all three aspects are carried forward together, some pushed harder than others depending on existing status. Some pre-conditions may be necessary, before the process can begin. For example surface runoff needs to have been controlled (say by terracing slopes), as chemical activity in the soil is checked for say aluminum and manganese, which bring about acidity effects which curtail nutrient availability. Rocky and hardened conditions need be eliminated where possible as these are some of the physical constraints to availability of nutrients. Hard and rocky conditions limit root development, introducing overall biological limitations. The aim is to have a "happy crop and soil relationship" and we humans should be held responsible for making this possible, considering we have the God-given say and control over them.
