NARO equips farmers with skills in conservation Farming

NARO equips farmers with skills in conservation agriculture

By: Prossy Nandudu

Pix:Prossy Nandudu

As effects of climate change continue to present themselves in Uganda, there is a concern among stake holders that this could affect production hence plunging the country into a state of food insecurity.

This so because it is the agriculture sector that is mainly feeling the effects which include prolonged droughts ,abrupt and heavy rains, pests and diseases, reducing soil fertility, low yields among others.

The above have been made worse by some farmer practices that don't allow the soils to rest or that expose them to all the above the factors.

The observation was made by Dr.Drake Mubiru a senior research officer at NARO during a training session of farmers on Conservation Agriculture at Namalere, Kawanda.

The training was aimed at equipping farmers with skills under conservation farming to help them cope with effects of climate change.

Through conservation agriculture, farmers are trained how to manage the soils by conserving the environment, soil moisture, fertility, and reduction of exposing the soil without covering it, said Mubiru. Two districts which also use cattle for farming were targeted and these include Lira and Nakasongola.

He explained that the training was conducted under two programmes. One of them is Sustainable Intensification of Maize and Legume Production in Eastern and Southern Africa (SMLESA) a regional involving eight countries which include Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique in addition to spill over countries that joined later like Uganda, Rwanda and Botswana.

The second project is sustainable land project which is supported by Global Environment Facility with back stopping from the World Bank and are running all the agri-ecological zones of the country.

"We have trained farmers, they now have the skills because as NARO we cannot go out and reach out to every farmer in the country hence the few youth groups who will go and train others in their areas of operation," said Mubiru.

The youth were taken through the economics of conservation agriculture and how to run and manage the tools under conservation agriculture and the training was conducted by a Kenyan farm called the African Tillage Conservation Network.

Principals through which conservation agriculture works

According to Mubiru, Conservation agriculture operates on three principals which include minimum soil disturbance. The conventional way is by farmers opening up the soil, do the first ploughing, second and third before planting.

"In the process you loose soil by water through soil erosion, by wind, water because you have upturned the soil so this principal wants a farmer to conserve the water and ensure there is minimum soil opening of the soil. It means opening up only the part where one is going to place the seed," Mubiru explained further.

Second principal of conservation agriculture is keeping the soil covered throughout the year. This is possible using dead vegetables or materials, slashing and leaving the materials in the garden to prevent water from evaporating.

 "Keeping soil covered suppresses weeds but as they decay they bring fertility .The soils are not weathering any more to reproduce so you need organic mater to create the nutrients for the crops so they can get them from the surface," explained Dr.Mubiru.

The third principal is crop rotation. Farming is driven by different principals forexaple those neighboring Kenya will be tempted to grow maize over and over a practice that is discouraged under this kind of farming.

Apart from the soil losing fertility, pests and diseases come in sine the cycle is not being broken down.

If farmers grow maize in the first season and in the second season plant another crop in the same place, the cycle of the pests and diseases will be cut because those that have been feeding on maize will not be in position to feed on beans and the end they will die of starvation.

Mubiru adds that in addition to the training, farmers were given tools to use as a groups back in their districts which included animal drones that rip and also plant the seed and apply fertilizer at the same time, movable sprayers to replace the knap sacks and others like the jab planters among other tools that were handed over.

The advantage of these tools is that they protect the soil, reduces labor costs and time wasted in the gardens and are easy to use especially the peddle sprayer, added Stanely Muryoki a trainer from Kenya.

How to save when using CA.

Under conventional farming, the first plouging  costs 90,000 on one acre of which a farmer needs three passes to come up with a final seed bed.

The planting one will need sh80, 000 to hire a tractor to plant and this is likely to also take three passes in ad addition to costs of seed and fertilizers

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