Making Conservation Agriculture Ever Green

Dennis GarrityDirector General

World Agroforestry CentreNairobi, Kenya

Wangari MaathaiConservation Heroine

World Bank World Development Indicators

South Asia

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Kg

per

Hec

tare

Sub-Saharan Africa

Latin America

East Asia

Cereal Yields by Region

World Bank World Development Indicators

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

100

gra

ms

per

Hec

tare

Fertilizer Use by Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

South Asia

Latin America

EastAsia

Hoe Minimum-Tillage with Planting Basins, Zambia

Minimum Tillage with Ox-drawn Ripper

Cost 40% of ploughing

1ha 4 hrs. Ploughing 14 hrs

Improved Magoye Ripper

Conservation Farming with Faidherbia Trees in Zambia

Typical on farm nursery of 125 air-pruned seedlings

National recommendations for maize in Zambia & Malawi: Faidherbia Fertilizer Trees at 100 trees per ha

Faidherbia Trial Results in Zambia

Maize yield – CA with zero fertilizer

2008 2009 2010 ----- Tons/ha -------

With Faidherbia 4.1 5.1 5.6

Without Faidherbia 1.3 2.6 2.6________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Number of trials 15 40 40

DroughtDroughtFlood

P addition resumed

Long-term maize yield without fertilizer in a Gliricidia system, Malawi

P stopped

Effect of Faidherbia with CA on Maize Yields (All treatments had 90 kg N, 26 kg P, 5 kg S)

Improved yields with Faidherbia due to improved soil fertility, capture of rainfall and the better micro-environment

Source: T Bunderson Total Land Care

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

4585

5718

7215

Soil nutrient status improves under Faidherbia Soil C, OM and K are much higher

with Faidherbia% Soil N is almost double with

Faidherbia

C (%) OM (%) K (Cmol/Kg)0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

Control Maize CA Maize CA Maize-Faidherbia

Control Maize CA Maize CA Maize-Faidherbia

0

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.029 0.03

0.057

Biomass Litter and Nutrient Contributions from Mature Trees are enormous (kg)

• Biomass components Per TreePer Ha at 20

trees/haLeaves: 221 4420Pods: 78 1560Wood (twigs/branches): 59 1180

• Nutrients contributedN 6.5 130P 0.6 12K 9.3 186Ca 5.4 108Mg 0.6 12

Malawi National Agroforestry Food Security Programme

Impact of fertilizer trees on maize yield _______________________________________

Plot management Yield (t/ha)

Maize only 1.30

Maize+ chemical fertilizer 1.70

Maize + fertilizer trees 3.05

Maize + fertilizer trees + chemical fertilizer 3.07 ____________________________________________________________

Survey of farms in six districts (Mzimba, Lilongwe, Mulanje, Salima, Thyolo and Machinga)

Kenyan Farmlands: Bold policy to achieve >10% tree cover on farms through a

National Evergreen Agriculture Programme

Rwanda - a nation of small-scale farmers

Landscape restoration for them is really Farmscape Restoration.

Increasing tree cover on farms: sustaining soil health, conserving soils, enhancing fodder production, increasing fuelwood supplies.

Faidherbia albida is commonly found in cereal crop systems in Ethiopia

Restored farmland covered by an emerging forest of Faidherbia. Tigray, Ethiopia.

Southern Niger in the 1980s

Assisted Natural Regeneration of Indigenous Trees in the arid lands of the Sahel

The albida halo effect

Impact of a single F. albida tree on crop growth(radius of high productivity: 5 m around a small tree)

High-density Faidherbia millet systems in southern

Zinder, Niger, 2006.

Five million hectares of millet production in Faidherbia

parklands in Niger: A transformed agricultural landscape

The trees provide fodder to livestock – pods and leaves

Young regenerating agroforests, Seno Plains, Mali

New agroforests on the Seno Plains of Mali 450,000 ha

Mature Agroforests in Senegal

Major agroforestry regions in West Africa and directions of expansion

The Next Phase

Accelerate the ongoing national scaling-up programmes in Malawi, Zambia, Burkina Faso and Niger

National Agroforestry Food Security Programmes being developed for Senegal, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Kenya

Preparatory work for new programmes under way in Tanzania, Mali, and 12 other countries

Landcare

An institutional innovation that provides a platform for accelerating farmer participation in evolving conservation agriculture with trees…