An Evaluation of the uptake of conservation agriculture practices among smallholder farmers: a case for Mudzi district in Mashonaland East Province

Abstract

The study explores the uptake of Conservation Agriculture practices among smallholder farmers in Mudzi District, Mashonaland East Province. The adoption of conservation agriculture is increasingly becoming important in southern Africa to sustainably increase food security, manage the degraded lands and increase resilience of agricultural systems to climate change. The practices are relevant to the smallholder farming systems of Zimbabwe, where productivity is constrained by lack of access to agricultural inputs, decline in soil fertility, and increasing rainfall variability. However, despite years of research and tension, the adoption of the practice is very limited and piecemeal in Zimbabwe. Therefore, the main objective of the research was to get an tin depth understanding of the barriers to adoption of conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe with specific reference to smallholder farmers. The study employed participatory approaches to collect data in Mudzi districts. A pre-tested questionnaire was administered to three selected wards in Mudzi District. The questionnaire was triangulated through focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and personal observations to enhance the richness of the tour findings. Household survey data was analysed using the Statistical Packages for Social Scientists and Statistical Analysis Software, while the information obtained during the key informant interviews and focus discussions was analysed through thematic analysis. Results revealed that despite agriculture contributing to the livelihoods of the majority of smallholder farmers, less than 10% of the respondents had any formal agricultural training. On the other hand, the level of knowledge on conservation agriculture was high amongst the respondents. However, the non-adopters had an indifferent perception about the technology. The significant (P<0.05) explanatory variables of the knowledge attribute were age, gender, education, and years of practicing the technology, while the perception attribute was explained by age, gender, education, visit to demo sites, experience in conservation agriculture, and agriculture. On the other hand, the study found a weak but significant correlation between knowledge and perception (Rs = 0.36, P < 0.05), knowledge and adoption (Rs = 0.484, P < 0.05), but a strong and significant correlation between perception and adoption (Rs = 0.808, P < 0.05). The latter points to a very important point, that adoption of conservation agriculture can be improved by increasing the positive perception of the farmers towards the technology. It was also established that the respondents adopted conservation agriculture through the knowledge (mean score of 2.13t; standard terror = 0.043)) and compliance (mean score of 2.02; standard terror = 0.043) pathways. The explanatory variables of the knowledge pathway were education, experience in agriculture, agricultural training, and visit to demonstration centers, while the significant variable in explaining the compliance pathway. The study recommends closing negative perception gaps, understanding appropriate adoption pathways in the promotion of conservation agriculture and providing guidelines on “true” conservation agriculture, linking farmers to markets and improved access to conservation agriculture equipment as the main drivers of adoption of the technology among smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe.

Key words: Conservation agriculture; small holder farmers; uptake, evaluation