Conservation farming on steep lands - USAid

INTEGRATING CONSERVATION 225
Although alley cropping is still under investigation by Land Husbandry
Branch staff, farmers are keen to try it for themselves. In the 1985-1986
cropping season, some 61 I'armers in Ntcheu, Dedza, and Lilongwe
established small plots of leucaena for use in the 1986-1987 cropping season.
The next few years will be critical in determining whether the concept
and practice of integrated land use will take root in Malawi and be incorporated
into the <strong>farming</strong> systems of smallholder farmers. By starting at the
level of the individual farnlcr and working within the existing extension
system, the ideas can spread without the need for a massive ilijection of
donor funds. The initial farmer interest gives one hope that the ideas are
acceptable and will be adopted.
Staff training
To be certain that what is recommended arid demonstrated to farmers
as part of an integrated land use approach is appropriate, it is necessary
to develop among trained soil conservation and land use officers an
awareness of the economic, social, and political environmenls in which
a farmer makes decisions about land llse and farm management. The Commonwealth
Secretariat, in conjunction with the Malawi government, has
developed a four-week in-service course to meet this need.
This course draws upon principles outlined in the Food and Ai;riculture
Organization's "frdmework for land evaluation" (6), the International Council
for Research in Agroforestry "diagnosis and design" methodology (8,
9), and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center "<strong>farming</strong>
systems" approach (I). It airns to introduce participants to the critical issue
of how to balance ecological and socioeconomic considerations in designing
conserkation projects targeted to the sn~allholder farmer. Recommendations
then are not only technically correct but appropriate and acceptable
to the situation in which they are expected to be implemented.
Integrating conservation into the Fdrrning system involves taking a problemoriented
or diagnostic approach to land use planning. The training course,
therefore, has as its primary activity a practical exercise whereby the participants
must diagnose the land use problems and farmer circumstances
within a nearby study area and then make appropriate recommendations
for improved, area-specific land use practices (4).
Some final paints
When seeking to integrate conservation into smallholder <strong>farming</strong> systems,
the following points need to be borne in mind: