Commission for Africa Mailing List Archive

["John Landers" <<address removed>>]

Dear Sirs,

I submit the following text for your consultation on African agriculture.

Contribution from John N.Landers, director for International Affairs and New 
Projects, Zero Tillage Farmers´Association for the Tropical Savannah Region of 
Brazil (APDC) Fone/fax 55.61.366.1984

Point 1.    How can Africa's environmental wealth be better understood, valued 
and managed for economic growth and poverty reduction? 

    Better management of soil and water resources, with land use 
intensification to mitigate further de-forestation.The Declaration of Madrid 
from the First World Congress on Conservation Agriculture (2001) details 
recommendations for sustainable soil management worldwide, in which Zero 
Tillage (Direct Drilling or No-Till agriculture) is the preferred management 
system, should be a basis for this. It also makes the following statement :

"This Congress calls upon politicians, international institutions, 
environmentalists, farmers, private industry, and society as a whole, to 
recognise that the conservation of natural resources is the co-responsibility - 
past, present and future - of all sectors of society in the proportion that 
they consume products resulting from the exploitation of these resources. 
Furthermore, it calls upon society, through these stakeholders, to conceive and 
enact appropriate long-term strategies for Conservation Agriculture, and to 
support, further develop and embrace its concepts. They are the most 
appropriate means of ensuring the continuity of the land's ongoing capacities 
to yield food, other agricultural products, water, and environmental benefits 
in perpetuity. It follows that those environmental benefits provided by farmers 
practising Conservation Agriculture should be recognised and recompensed by 
society."

   Tropical Zero Tillage systems as developed in Brazil (by farmers and 
researchers) over the last 20 years have much relevance to Africa, but need to 
be developed in situ and adapted to local situations. Especially important is 
the undersowing of grasses in corn and other crops for dry season fodder and 
control of soil-borne diseases.  More farmer interchange is required.

Point 2.      How can poor people, whose livelihoods depend most upon 
environmental wealth, ensure access to it? 

   Farmer-led associations and other entities pressuring for environmental 
services benefits, which could be partly in the form of improved rural services 
and better marketing of their products. A second possibility would be a share 
in royalties or taxes on natural products from their region in return for 
community work.

Point 3.   What are the key challenges facing agriculture in Africa today? 

     (i)                        l oss of agricultural soils through erosion, 
soil                     fertility depletion, 

(ii)                        indiscriminate cattle grazing on crop land, 
impeding optimum soil and crop residue management, 

(iii)                     lack of rural labour through AIDS infection -  Zxero 
Tillage reduces significantly the labour/ha to produce a crop, but this will 
lead to greater areas planted and faster soil depletion, which needs to be 
foreseen and countered;

(iv)                      lack of research and local field-tested solutions for 
sustainable Zero Tillage systems;

(v)                        lack of a proper understanding of the principles of 
sustainable Zero Tillage.

Point 4.  What key issues would you like the Commission to focus on concerning 
agriculture and natural resource management? 

(i)                          generation of alternative dry season cattle fodder 
so as to make it socially acceptable to close crop areas to indiscriminate 
grazing and allow effective Zero Tillage management of crop residues for soil 
cover (to control erosion, increase rainfall infiltration and soil organic 
matter  i.e. carbon sequestration), with many more indirect benefits on- and 
off-farm) ;

(ii)                        incentives for land use intensification with Zero 
Tillage (including controlled grazing of crop residues) and other sustainable 
systems of Conservation Agriculture - these should include local farmer-led R&D 
and technical training programmes plus financial incentives as environmental 
services payments (or concessions);

(iii)                     a wide-ranging R&D programme to develop African Zero 
Tillage systems, focusing on  alternatives for dry season fodder, legume 
smother crops for weed control and nitrogen fertilizer (to reduce dependence on 
herbicides and fertilizers), improved ZT rotations, small-scale mechanization 
and also the use of conventional desiccant herbicides for comparison, with 
environmental accounting of impacts;

(iv)                      modify land capability classes to encompass Zero 
Tillage management, thus increasing the stock of areas suitable for cropping;

(v)                  making policy-makers aware of the wide-ranging benefits of 
Conservation Agriculture and the possibility to harness farmers as stewards oif 
the natural resources in their domain by transferring back to them part of the 
benefits which conservation agriculture generates for society as a whole..

 


John N. Landers
Diretor da APDC - Relações Internacionais / Novos Projetos
Phone/Fax: 55 (61) 366-1984/366-5307