Training for Grain Gain

One Malawian scientist takes home lessons to benefit many.

“For countries like Malawi that suffer from drought, harvests can change with things like zero-tillage,” says Amos Ngwira, an agricultural scientist from Malawi and recent participant in a CIMMYT course on conservation agriculture. Now back in his homeland, Ngwira practices the techniques he learned, such as zero-tillage and retained residues. The training course came at a time when over 10 million people in southern Africa need food aid, according to the UN’s World Food Programme.

“This course was very helpful for me. We learned how to plant directly into the soil without plowing, how to calibrate machines for plants, and how to properly layout a plot,” Ngwira says, from his base at the Chitedze Research Station in Lilongwe, Malawi. Working on behalf of some of the world’s poorest farmers, he is a source of knowledge on permanent raised beds, where plants are grown on beds with furrows in between, and zero-tillage—conservation agriculture technologies that can keep moisture in the soil and increase yields. Maize, including CIMMYT maize bred for drought tolerance, is grown on over 70% of land under cultivation in Malawi.

Seven farmers, seeing the results of a CIMMYT demonstration plot, teamed up to try zero-tillage last year. Their success in the face of the drought has inspired others. Now their group numbers 30. It is small, but it is a start. “Although we haven’t convinced many yet, farmers are catching on to zero-tillage,” says Ngwira, who has been working with a project funded by BMZ. As farmer Kingsley Kamwendo told agronomists recently: “The residues helped to conserve moisture, because other crops seeded at the same time without residues died during the drought. I’ll harvest nothing from my [conventionally tilled plot], but I’ll get something from this one.” For most farmers in Malawi, hopes for a good harvest were dashed by a prolonged dry spell at the flowering stage, when the maize plant needs it the most.

CIMMYT agronomist Ken Sayre, who led the course, thinks that conservation agriculture can go far in country like Malawi: “If we look 10 to 20 years down the road, there is a tremendous possibility for appropriate small-scale technology to make a difference. Machines like the two-wheel tractor, which has already revolutionized agriculture in Bangladesh, could change the way Malawians grow maize—for the better.”

For Ngwira, this course allowed him to share experiences and learn about intercropping, crop rotations, and retained residues, all of which play a part in conservation agriculture. A month long, it included a balance of class and fieldwork, meeting with other scientists, using the library, and collaborating with fellow students. “I’ve been exposed to the life experiences of conservation agriculture, and I am very happy to learn more,” says Ngwira.

Drought continues to plague southern Africa’s food security. Before the 2006 harvest comes in, the World Food Programme estimates that 4.2 million Malawians will need food aid. By providing training courses for people like Ngwira, CIMMYT hopes that more and more farmers will be able to make Malawi more food secure.

For more information, contact Ken Sayre (k.sayre@cgiar.org) or Pat Wall (p.wall@cgiar.org).

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