– Soil organic matter plays a crucial role in maintaining soil health and its productivity potential.
However, most of the world’s agricultural soils have become depleted in organic matter compared with their state under natural vegetation. This is because the dominant form of agriculture is based on tillage, which accelerates the decomposition of soil organic matter. Namibia’s crop production soil is no exception and it is becoming increasingly apparent that tillage-based production systems should therefore be transformed so that the future production intensification can be achieved sustainably. Conservation Agriculture (CA), a system avoiding or minimising soil disturbance, combined with soil cover and crop diversification, is considered to be such a sustainable production system and it is gaining ground in the northern communal areas after producing bumper harvests in the past few seasons.
Future food security relies not only on higher production and access to food but also on the need to address the destructive effects of current agricultural production systems on ecosystem services.
CA addresses the problem of low and erratic rainfall through the use of practices that reduce water losses and increase infiltration. It also helps in cases of low soil nutrient status by increasing soil carbon and nitrogen through the use of organic soil cover and legumes in rotations and interactions. CA enables the sustainable intensification of agriculture by conserving and enhancing the quality of the soil, leading to higher yields and the protection of the local environment and ecosystem services. As a practice for sustainable crop production it has made great inroads in farming communities across Zimbabwe by various stakeholders, including the Ministry of Agriculture.
CA is actually applied on about 10% of the world’s cropland and adoption is growing fast. However, it is not growing fast enough to face the challenges ahead, such as the need to eradicate hunger and food insecurity for a growing population and to address the threats of climate change, land and environmental degradation, resource scarcity and increasing cost of food, production inputs and energy.
Namibia is once again trapped in a drought and the government recently announced its N$300 million package to ensure food security in the interim stage.
CA practices focus on hand and animal powered systems of direct planting, permanent soil cover and crop associations, successions and rotations. Agroforestry practices incorporate trees into agricultural systems to ensure a steady supply of fruits and other cash crops, which diversify the income streams and nutrition of the farming families. Finally, the importance of forest managements and reforestation are emphasised to ensure that deforestation is combated and reversed and that forestry exploitation is both profitable and sustainable.
The ability to generate diverse, flexible and innovative technical solutions for different categories of farmers has put the agricultural machinery industry of Brazil amongst the leaders of the global market. International organisations are raising awareness about CA.