Environmental Justice

Resilience in Farming
By Paul Hagerman and Carol Thiessen

Zimbabwean farmer in neatly mulched field with established planting stations. As soon as the rains begin, this farmer will be able to plant her crop without needing to plough her land. ©Canadian Foodgrains Bank

Each year Essie Khumalo tends the sandy soils of her small farming plot in the Nkayi district of northwestern Zimbabwe, toiling to grow enough food for her five young children. Her rows of maize are vulnerable to the vagaries of weather, to the difficulty of securing inputs (feed, equipment, seeds, energy,etc.) and other disruptions.

Khumalo is not unique in her farming challenges. Across Zimbabwe, smallholder farmers are struggling.  Their crops and livestock suffer in drought years, which seem to occur more often than they used to.  Farm inputs are getting scarcer and more expensive, due to rising oil prices, global economic woes, and the domestic political reality. The farmers are looking for a solution that will help them withstand multiple shocks.  For many, conservation farming is that solution.

Khumalo first tried conservation farming (CF) on a small plot in 2007. She was initially sceptical, unsure of the claims that this new technique would enable her maize to thrive in drought conditions, but she worked hard to follow the particular conservation farming practices of southern Africa.

She prepared evenly spaced, permanent planting stations in her field using a hoe, rather than ploughing the whole field. She added manure to each station and covered it with a thin layer of soil, concentrating the nutrients in the root zone. As much as possible, she covered the field with a layer of mulch to trap moisture, reduce soil erosion, prevent weed growth and add organic matter to the soil. When the rainy season began, she planted an open-pollinated variety (not hybrid) of maize seed that can be re-used in subsequent years.

At harvest time, Khumalo’s abundant yield from her CF plot – three times that of her conventional plot’s yield – dispelled her doubts.

   
Conservation farming is fostering resilience for smallholder farmers and their communities. Three key features of resilient agriculture are:

• respect for local knowledge and innovation;

• commitment to maintaining diversity; and

• emphasis on building trust and mutual reliance.

Farming practices that build resilience are especially important in light of the growing vulnerability and uncertainty caused by climate change.

Weather has never been very predictable, and it seems to be becoming less so.  Climate change models indicate that in the coming decades farmers will see more droughts, more intense storms (which could lead to both soil erosion and flooding), warmer nights (which could reduce crop yields), and more damage by crop pests.  Farmers will have to find ways to adapt to these changes if they are to maintain their livelihoods and continue to produce and sell food.  It is estimated that smallholder farmers (two hectares or less) produce half of all the food the world consumes.  If their production declines, there are grave consequences for their ability to feed themselves, and for global food security.

Resilience in agriculture relates not only to climate shocks, however.  Our food production systems use large amounts of energy, for production of fertilizer and agricultural chemicals, for transport of farm inputs and products, and for farm machinery.  Most of this energy comes from fossil fuels, putting agriculture at risk of major disruption as oil prices rise, and as we reconsider our use of fossil fuels in light of climate change. A truly resilient agricultural system would minimize the risks from energy shocks. For Khumalo in Zimbabwe, her conservation farming draws nutrients from manure and uses mulch to suppress weeds, reducing her need for the high-energy input of fertilizer.

Farmers throughout the developing world, from Honduras to Ethiopia to Bangladesh, are facing climate shocks, energy shocks and more.  Though conservation farming works for Khumalo in Zimbabwe, it would be foolhardy to think it would work everywhere – there is no single technique which would help all smallholder farmers deal with the risks they face.  What would resilience in agriculture look like elsewhere?

The lives of most developing country farmers can be characterized by risk and diversity. Aside from weather risks, smallholder farmers are also subject to financial risks (volatility of input costs and food commodities, international competition, etc.).  Given the reality of weaker governance and poorer government services in many developing countries, smallholder farmers often have other risks to contend with, such as personal illness, social unrest, unreliable services (roads, irrigation) and theft from their farms. Diversity is one way of dealing with these risks.  It is expressed as a variety of crops and animals (for food, fuel, draft power, sale), different farm-related tasks (from preparing the land through to post-harvest processing and saving seed for the next crop), numerous ways of interacting with the land (cultural, productive) and numerous contributors to livelihood (consumption and sale of farm products, off-farm work, remittances, gathering of wild foods).

In contrast, the high-input agriculture commonly practiced in Canada is able to thrive because the risks to farmers have been minimized. In most cases, farmers can rely on seed and fertilizers for their crops, feed and medications for their livestock to be available when and where they are needed.  They can depend on the roads and rails to move commodities.  Farmers can access loans and crop insurance.  Even the age-old risks of weather and markets have been reduced by irrigation, greenhouses and marketing boards.  This has enabled farmers to specialize in one or a few crops or livestock species and take advantage of economies of scale.

Corn stalks surrounded by mulch conserves moisture from rain, protects the soil from erosion and reduces weed growth. ©Canadian Foodgrains Bank

Encouraging resilience in developing countries requires recognizing the diversity that developing country farmers deal with, and working with it to minimize the risks they face. It would start with the knowledge farmers already have: of their land, their cultural and their food. Farmers always experiment and are anxious to learn new things. They will always need new research and new knowledge, but the learning process must start with the farmers, rather than agricultural companies or research centres.

Several Canadian NGOs that work on global food security have been encouraging the Canadian government to focus more attention on the needs of smallholder farmers and to encourage resilient agricultural systems.  CIDA’s recently unveiled food security strategy, and the announcement (in July 2009) that Canada will double its investment in food security, are evidence that the government is taking this challenge seriously.  However, details on how Canada will promote food security are still sketchy.

It is significant that CIDA’s new strategy indicates a focus on smallholder farmers. But how will this play out?  Will CIDA’s stated goal of “increasing farmers’ access to agricultural technologies” result in heavier dependence on high-tech inputs, with an associated increase in risk?  Will the agricultural research that CIDA invests in be top-down, or will it be based on what farmers already know about their own soils and farming systems?  Investing in food security is a step in the right direction, but it is by no means clear that CIDA’s new strategy will encourage resilient farming systems. 

In Zimbabwe, resilient agriculture in the form of conservation farming not only helps farmers grow more food and adapt to their changing climate, but it also plays a role in preventing climate change. The mulch and manure used on farms are high in carbon; incorporating them into the soil is a form of carbon storage that reduces CO₂ emissions. Conservation farming has rightly been described as a win-win-win technique.  It helps with both climate change mitigation (reducing CO₂) and adaptation, and it improves the livelihoods of poor farmers.

Khumalo is increasingly confident this is what resilient agriculture looks like for her. She was so impressed with her first year’s results that she is continuing to increase the land devoted to conservation farming, and encouraging family and neighbours to do the same. With the added mulch, increased yearly from the crop residue left in the soil, she is seeing improvements in the soil of her CF plot. She is convinced that conservation farming is increasing her resilience and improving her livelihood at the same time.

Paul Hagerman and Carol Thiessen are with the Public Policy Team at the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

Find Out More

• Canadian Foodgrains Bank
• Pathways to Resilience