OVER 2,500 FARMERS ENGAGED IN SIFAZ PROJECT IN CHIPATA

By GLORIA SIWISHA

A TOTAL of 2,593 smallholder farmers in Chipata district are benefiting directly from the Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Farming Systems in Zambia (SIFAZ) project, aimed at increasing crop production on a small piece of land.

Chipata district Senior Agricultural Officer(SAO) Jane Miti disclosed the development when a delegation of agronomists from the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI), and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in Zimbabwe, conducted a study tour of the SIFAZ ‘on-farm’ trials in the district.

Ms. Miti said five agricultural camps had been validating sustainable intensification practices which included growing a wider range of crops on a small piece of land; intercropping and crop rotations usually including legumes such as groundnuts, cowpea, and pigeon pea, to boost the fertility of soils, and integration of agroforestry, since the project commenced in 2019.

“Chinjala and Kanyanja camps, are implementing research component, while Manjakazi, Mnoro 1, and Feni camps, are implementing the promotional components,” she said.

Ms. Miti described the farmer trial sites as being generally impressive saying those smallholder farmers that had utilized the sustainable intensification approaches, had hope of harvesting something despite the severe drought experienced in the district during 2023/2024 agriculture season.

“Looking at this year’s drought; it is evident that those farmers that tried the technologies are somewhat rejoicing because the technologies have helped their production and are assured of harvesting something unlike those that didn’t,” she said.

Mr. Mulundu Mwila, who is Principal Agricultural Research Officer at ZARI, said the study tour was undertaken in order to comprehend the status of the SIFAZ ‘on-farm trials’ that had been established in selected districts of Eastern Province, in the wake of the drought situation.

“The purpose of this study tour is to look at the status of the plots in the different interventions that we are validating or trying-out with farmers in farmers’ fields whereby; it presents an opportunity for us to understand the science behind the performance of  technologies so that we can offer feed back to farmers, extension officers, and researchers as well,” he said.

Mr. Mwila said feedback was necessary for the various stakeholders in the agriculture value chain to make informed decisions.

“The things that we learn during the tour, are discussed thoroughly and we build opinions based on the things that we find in the field. It’s also important to give feedback to farmers on the technologies they can employ in their fields to enhance their productivity,” he said.

Mr. Mwila urged smallholder farmers to make use of the various technologies that were being tested under the SIFAZ project as they had performed very well this year, especially with regards to helping farmers cope with the effects of climate change.

“As we have seen in this 2023/2024 season, we have had a bit of a struggle in terms of crop production owing to the phenomenon of Elnino. I think one of the things that we are learning under this study tour is the fact that the validation of these technologies offers farmers prospects to overcome or mitigate the challenges of climate effects such as we have seen this year, because conservation agriculture has opportunities for maintaining moisture and enhancing soil fertility and that is why we are recommending to farmers that they pick on some of these technologies; to utilize them, so that they can enhance their resilience against the effects of climate change,” he said.

Meanwhile, a cropping systems agronomist at CIMMYT in Zimbabwe Isaiah Nyagumbo, commended the extension service system of the Ministry of Agriculture for ensuring that participating smallholder farmers were conversant with the technologies that were being tested under the project.

“We are going into the fifth year of project implementation and what we see is progressive improvement in performance; the farmers are now fully conversant with the technologies. This is very good in the sense that we get to learn much more,” Dr. Nyagumbo said.

John Banda, a lead farmer of Kanyanja agricultural camp in Chipata district paid tribute to the SIFAZ project for working with farmers to test technologies that were increasing their yields.

“The dry spell that we have experienced this season has proved to us that climate smart agriculture works. I would like to thank the project for engaging farmers in on-farm trials as this is helping us learn how practices work in our own cropping systems, and hence we are able to choose for ourselves the best technologies,” he said.

The SIFAZ project is funded by the European Union and is implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, CIMMYT, and the Ministry of Agriculture, in five provinces, and 27districts of Zambia.

The project has established on-farm trials where adaptive research is carried out to ensure enhanced farmer participation invarious interventions, aimed at promoting increased crop production on a small piece of land.

It strives to test, promote and enhance the uptake of sustainable intensification practices (SIPS) including mechanization among smallholder farmers while fostering market linkages and creating an enabling environment for sustainable agriculture growth.

NAIS

‍