Grain Legumes and Green Manures for Soil Fertility in ... - cimmyt

Questions and Answers
Promotion, Economics and Adoption of Annual Legumes
To Dorah Mwenye
Q: How much was your project trying to promote a
presumably tested and trusted package, and how
much wete you asking farmers to test technologies?
A: The project tried and tested 1) rotations of
cereals/legumes, 2) intercrops of grain legumes and
green manures, and 3) evaluated two green manure
legumes (sunnhemp + velvet bean). Farmers tested
all the technologies and evaluated them, but only
those technologies acceptable by them are being
promoted.
Q: 1) To what extent are long-term benefits
associated with different legume technologies being
explained in current promotion efforts?
2) What is the minimum investment required to
kick-start legumes on degraded (abandoned) fields?
A: 1) The long benefits in the promotion of
soyabean rotations are in the provision of food and
reduction in input costs. Green manures will
complement the meager rates of fertilizers applied
by farmers to their maize crop.
2) The minimum input investment required will be
provided, as a result of the soil analysis to assess the
initial fertility status of the field. Further research is
needed in this area.
Q: There is need to look more at management of
green manures, including the time of planting on
green manure performance. Late planting would
also reduce legume performance rather than
attributing poor performance solely to the sandy
nature of the soils.
A: Agreed, the general management of green
manures is important. All the demonstrations were
set up on limed plots.
Q: What are the causes for the non-availability of
information on green manures to extension and the
farming community and what measures should be
put in place to improve the situation?
A: Information generated st1lllies in the hands of
researchers. One of the limiting factors is the weak
linkage between research and extension. The
measures to be put in place to improve the situation
are discussed at the end of the conference.
Q : When you add the element of utilization in your
project it will help to increase the adoption rate of
the legume crops.
A: Yes I agree. An impact assessment will best
reveal the way forward. One of the issues to be
considered in the next step is utilization.
To Mulugetta Mekuria and Shephard Siziba .
Q: Your comments on macroeconomic policy were
all criticisms of governments in southern Africa.
What do you think IS the effect of agricultural
policies in the EU and the USA?
A: Yes agricultural development has been adversely
affected by poor policies in Southern Africa. For
example, declining investments in extension,
agricultural research. It is also true that protection
and subsidy policies of the OEeD will affect ou·r
competitiveness. Hence the debate on free world
trade.
Q: Discounting rate came out as having a large
effect on NPV. How do you measure discounting
rate, for different groups of farmers?
A: The discounting rate used for both farmers is the
same. It is the going interest (borrowing) rate used
by a public bank.
Q: In the medium term we can forget subsidies. The
USA has launched the GOA initiative and regional
trade hubs.
A: I think you are right.
Q: The presenters cited the issue of policy being
wrong. It is now three or four years since the SFNet
Economics and Policy Working Group (EPWG) was
constituted. What is the impact of EPWG in terms of
making the policy right?
A: Its not easy for researchers to influence policy
change - policies are not favorable still.
Q: Looking at sensitivity analysis, what policy
instruments would you advocate for concerning
green manures, and are there major
recommendations from this conference?
A: Profitability of green manure technology is
sensitive to prices and input costs.
Recommendations are that relatively high output
market prices of maize favour adoption of mucuna.
A low interest rate will also facilitate adoption of
mucuna by farmers.
Grain Legumes and Green Manures for Soil Fertility in Southern Africa
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