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Good practice Imported

Zambia's Conservation Farming Unit — National Smallholder Conservation Agriculture Programme

Zambia · Lusaka · See the Zambia profile · See the Lusaka profile

Evidence: Quasi-experimental Top 76% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Since 1995 Zambia's Conservation Farming Unit has trained smallholders in minimum-tillage, crop-rotation farming. Multi-year on-farm trials (2016-2021) found maize yields 24-39% higher than conventional ploughing, driven by better use of scarce rainfall.

24-39%
Maize yield gain vs conventional ploughing (2016-2021 trials)
+360 kg/ha (28%)
Yield gain from residue retention
100,000+
Farmers trained per year
86%
Monitored plots using at least one CF practice
26%
Monitored plots adopting full CF package
Zambia's Conservation Farming Unit — National Smallholder Conservation Agriculture Programme

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Conservation Farming Unit (Zambia National Farmers Union)
Period
1995-present
Keywords
agriculture, soil conservation, smallholder farming, climate resilience, food security

Context

The Conservation Farming Unit (CFU) was established in 1995 by the Zambia National Farmers Union, with early funding from Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to promote conservation farming among Zambia's smallholder maize growers via a lead-farmer extension model teaching minimum tillage, crop-residue retention and legume rotation instead of annual ploughing.

Results

A multi-year programme of roughly 100 on-farm trials across Zambia (2016-2021), comparing conservation-agriculture plots (maize rotated with soybean) against conventional ploughed plots, found maize grain yields were 24% to 39% higher under conservation agriculture. A separate study found crop-residue retention raised maize yields by up to 360 kg/ha (28%) even under fall-armyworm pressure.

Conclusions

CFU now works with GIZ and CIMMYT and reports training more than 100,000 farmers a year. Adoption is real but partial: a national survey found 86% of monitored plots used at least one conservation-farming practice, but only 26% had adopted the full package, meaning the strongest yield and soil benefits are still concentrated among a minority of participating farmers.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Conservation Farming Unit (Zambia National Farmers Union), GIZ, CIMMYT, lead farmers

Conditions for success

  • lead-farmer extension model
  • minimum tillage combined with legume rotation and residue retention

Common failure modes

  • only 26% of monitored plots adopted the full conservation-farming package, concentrating the strongest benefits among a minority of participants

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes LIFE Programme

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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