Summary

Conservation agriculture (CA) is widely viewed a viable option for increasing and stabilizing crop yields particularly in the face of climate change. The three principles of CA are minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover through crop residues or cover crops, and crop rotations. There has been massive promotion of conservation agriculture (CA) in Zimbabwe since the year 2003 through scientific research and development projects. These massive efforts though seeming progressive, have been set back due to constraints in farmers following all the prescriptions and fully adopting the practice. A number of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) encourage farmers to practice CA by giving them input packages as an incentive. On the other hand research organizations have proved the benefits of CA. The government also sets aside funds each year in the national budget towards CA support through research, extension and also supports initiatives to promote implementation. The project characterises CA practices and evaluates crop yield performance of CA in Mbire district in semi-arid Zimbabwe. The data is gathered through a household survey done in Mbire, review of researches done in Zimbabwe and district level data from national crop assessments for the period 2008 - 2018, soil sampling as well as key informant interviews. Only 30% of the farmers said to be practicing CA follow all the three set principles. Around 80% of the farmers maintain the same land size to which they practice CA. The lack of appropriate resources to support CA has led to farmers’ maintaining a smaller area of between 0.05 – 0.2ha per household under CA while old practices are maintained on the rest of the land. Despite the alleged lack of resources for mechanization of CA practices, some of developmental organizations operating in the district deliberately emphasize on the use of hand-hoe basins. This leads to most farmers going back to this technology because of the incentive being offered for the practice. However the areas under CA practice have relatively higher yields of up to twice higher than conventionally cultivated areas within the same region. The conclusion from the research is that over years, yields under CA appear to increase due to improved soil quality; and hence eventually any initial yield reductions disappear after few years. There is need to consider CA not as an alternative development technology but rather the best option for a sustainable future. In order to develop CA it must be closely linked with all aspects of production such as climate, crop protection and other agricultural disciplines to insure the development of proper management practices. Agriculture practitioners need to work closely with the farmers in order to design the appropriate technologies. There is need to engage private sector to design and promote CA machinery that the farmer can use.