Project Detail

Promotion of indigenous crops for and sustainable farming systems

The ultimate objective of the project is to enhance capacity building of small holder famers in the promotion and preservation of Agricultural Biodiversity. To this end the project intends to improve and enhance local communities' indigenous knowledge for sustainable use of agro-biodiversity i.e. incorporation and valorisation of indigenous crops into their farming systems. This will result in conservation and sustainable use of indigenous crops as a key strategy for food security, generation of income through sale of crops and environmental conservation.

At the end of the project, at least 180 farmers and 10 extension workers will have been trained on the adoption of simple technologies related to soil and water conservation and plant nutrition management for agro-biodiversity protection and sustainable use.

The project is planned for 2 years and is split into 2 phases. The first phase (January 2003 - 2004) focuses on training "teacher farmers" who are local representatives on the promotion, production and preservation of indigenous varieties. This will include the setting up of demonstration plots. In the second phase, the teacher farmers will now be training the community at large and these farmers will be required to scale up the project by implementing what they will have been taught. This will culminate in the conducting of field days to show-case the successes.

Emphasis will be laid on promotion of indigenous crops which include sorghum, millet, mambara nuts, cow peas, groundnuts and some vegetable crops whose local names are (nyevhe, mowa (amarathus) and derere (okra) ).

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Africa Centre for Fertiliser Development

Country:

Zimbabwe

Area Of Work:

Biodiversity

Operational Phase:

Phase 2

Grant Amount:

US$ 50,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 18,000.00

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 19,000.00

Project Number:

ZIM/02/02

Start Date:

12/2002

End Date:

8/2005

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

A major component of the programme will be on sensitization and awareness raising on the benefits of simple technologies and sustainable farming systems. Awaeness raising will be through training workshops, establishment of demonstration plots and conducting field days. Global environmetal benefits include:- - Reduction of use of chemical fertilisers which are hazardous when washed into water sources. Sustainable farming focuses on use of organic matter. -Protection and sustainable us of agro-biodiversity. In addition sustainable farming helps in the preservation of oil micro-organisms which help in nutrient recycling and decompostion of organic matter. Under conservation tillage, there is no more vegetation and crop residues burning and no mechanical soil disturbance. This will therefore limit considerablly carbon mon and dioxide gas emissions into the atmosphere which result in global warming.

Gender Focus

In the rural areas of Zimbabwe 70 - 75% of the households are women headed and they are the ones who are actively involved in agricultural production. As a result this project also focusses on assisting these women and among the farmers to be trained at least 55% are women. Women have also been actively involved in the selection of the indigenous crop varieties to be grown.

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

One of the key elements of the programme is the use of indigenous knowledge systems and the promotion of indigenous crops. This has opened up an opportunity for the participation of indigenous people especially the Zezuru and Korekore who are resident in the selected areas, in Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland West

Notable Community Participation

Small holder agricultural development in Zimbabwe is facing serious challenges due to over-population, high soil and land degradation and gradual destruction of indigenous resources including valuable crops. It is against this background that the farmers approached African Centre for Fertiliser Development to seek assistance in the preservation of Agrobiodiversity. As a result the community has participated in the following ways:- - problem identification and proposal development - designing of the training programme together with ACFD -selection of local epresentatives to be trained as "teacher farmers" -they will set up their own demonstration fields in each of the three selected areas - participate in organising and conducting the field days will be involved in setting up and running "farmer field schools" in each of the villages.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

The adoption of simple, efficient and affordable technologies through sustainable farming systems will enable farmers to improve their productivity levels thereby enhancing food security. In addition there is promotion of indigenous crops which are resistant to drought which will enable farmers to have better harvests given the prevalence of drought especially for the past 3 years in the Southern African Region. Farmers will be able to generate income from the sale of crops and improve their standard of living. There is another component on integration of livestock production into sustainable farming by making better use of crop residues and recycling of plant nutrients

Capacity - Building Component

The integral part of the project is on capacity building particularly sensitisation and training of farmers and other stakeholders on the need to preserve and rehabilitate agricultural biodiversity. This specifically includes the indigenous crops, trees and vegetation in order to rebuild soil fertility, prevent further land degradation and achieve food security. The selected communities will be capacitated in the 4 main areas:- - proper and timely use of agricultural inputs (seeds, inorganic fertilisers, pesticides, etc) - conservation farming (includes conservation tillage, soil and water conservation) - multiple cropping systems such as strip cultivation, intercropping using indigenous crop varieties - agroforestry approaches incorporating indigenous species such as jatropha, castor beans, tephrosia vogell

Policy Impact

There has been an impact in terms of influencing the farmer groups from being heavily depended on chemicals by promoting sustainable farming practices that include natural ways of soil fertility enrichment together with moisture conservation. The research and extension officer in the area has mainstreamed these practices in their convetional training programmes given the results achieved in conserving agro-biodiversity.

Policy Influence

Through the field days the policy makers at district level were exposed to the success of the project. the then deputy minister of agriculture expressed interest to seek more resources for the project

Project Results

The project results include the following:

i) There was a selection of farmer trainees in the three working areas that include Nyamweda, Musinami and Ngezi
ii) Development on the curricullum for the Farmer Field Schools and setting up of three demonstration spots in Nyamweda, Musinami and Ngezi.
iii) Training of farmers on sustainable farming practices together with conducing exchange visits among the farmer groups.
iv) A training workshop was also conducted covering areas of processing the indigenous products for improving livelihoods and for sale in order to improve the livelihoods.

PROJECT IMPACT
This programme has helped in the production and conservation of indigenous crops that are of high nutritional value but were facing extinction. It has helped to bring back these vegetables together with the indigenous knowledge practices. The workshop on processing of foodstuffs has enabled the groups to produce various foodstuffs that can be sold to raise income thereby enhancing programme sustainability.

Given the results that have been scored in Mhondoro, the programme is going to be replicated in other areas that include Goromonzi and Seke in Mashonaland East and Bindura in Mashonaland Central provinces respectively.

ACFD have plans to scale up the programme and have already developed the project concept.

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