After his retirement in 2004, Mr Vincent Sepiso (from Kabulwebulwe, Mumbwa District) started farming, using conventional farming practices. Despite the hard labour, he was getting very low yields, and his field was becoming depleted in terms of nutrients. Since he started farming, the highest yield he had ever achieved, even in a good season, was 15 × 50 kg of maize per hectare.

Mr Sepiso had attended CFU training for many years and thought doing CF was a sheer waste of time, and never bothered to do it until the 2017/2018 season, when his local CFU Farmer Coordinator saw that Mr Sepiso had been attending training and never trying. The FC decided to make him a host farmer for 3 sessions of all three periodical trainings, after which he decided to “try just 10 kg of maize seed on my 2 Limas of hired ADP Rip lines”. The rest of the field was done using his usual conventional tillage practices. To his surprise, the CF plot has done much better than the conventional plots. Sepiso testified to say, “even during the dry spell the CF plot seemed as if someone was watering it while the conventional plot was badly hit by the dry spell which lasted for 6 weeks in this area.” Mr Sepiso is now blaming himself for the late adoption, by this time he would have reached another level. Photo above for Vincent Sepiso on his 2 Limas ADP Ripping Maize Plot

Mr Sepiso hosted a mini field day on 07/03/2018, and during the Field day, Sepiso told his fellow farmers that CF is the only way to go; it's cheaper, less labour, and the field continues to be productive. Sepiso said he will never in his life do conventional practices again. Sepiso said this year he will do 3-hectare maize, soya beans 2 ha and 1 sunflower on CF.

Steward Siapalala is a CF farmer in Itezhi-Tezhi district under Shimukuwaila village of Chief Kaingu. Steward was a conventional farmer since childhood, and his yields ranged between 40 to 45 bags x 50Kgs in a good year and 15 to 23 bags x 50Kg in a bad year.

When conservation farming was introduced to him in 2012 by the Ministry of Agriculture, he never liked it - he thought it was for poor people. He thought of trying it using the Magoye ripper, which he bought at Magoye research station, but the results were very poor because he had no knowledge about the technology, and by then, the use of herbicides was not pronounced in the area. Disliking the technology, he abandoned his Magoye ripper for some years, taking it to be a waste of time to rip because he thought it came with too many challenges, including weeds..

When conservation farming was reintroduced to him by the CFU in conjunction with the UNDP, he thought of trying it again because the training he received was slightly different from those he had received before. He attended all three Periodical training in 2017, ranging from Land Preparation, Basal nutrient application and seeding of all crops, weeds and integrated pest management. He used oxen (ADP) ripping and planted 1 Ha of maize and 1.5 Ha of soya beans.

Despite being a very difficult season all in extremes of dry spells, army worms and excessive rains, Stewart has reason to rejoice because the crop estimate as at now stands at 100 to 170 x 50Kgs bags of maize per hectare, while Soyabeans are at 80 to 100 bags x 50Kgs. This is his first time he is planting soybeans after receiving the training on the benefits of crop rotation. He also did 1ha of maize under conventional tillage using ADP ploughing. To his surprise, there was a very distinct difference in spite of the inputs being applied equally. The evidence is clear in these pictures:

The yields from his conventional maize field are being estimated at 28 x 50Kgs bags per hectare. Stewart vows never to go back to the conventional way of farming but to continue with CF, for it has saved his time, labour, money and also health. He has realised it’s a cheaper yet more profitable way of doing farming. During the dry spell which hit the area for six (6) weeks, his maize in ADP ripping never wilted while that one in an ADP ploughing used to wilt a lot and the chances of recovering were very slim. Stewart Siapalala is hosting one of the area’s major field days by the end of the month for the first time in his life.

Reuben Shamboze has a background of being one of the successful businessmen in Nangoma’s Corner Bar area. He owns a big shop where he is stocking hardware, building materials and seed. He spent about 12 years just concentrating on this business, but decided to start farming as a business (in 2016/17) because his hardware business is seasonal from April to somewhere around October, after which the sales go down from November to March, and there is not much activity.

During the first season (2016/17), Reuben did about 5 hectares of maize for a start, all of which was based upon conventional tillage. He hired animals to plough his fields, and after ploughing, they went in and made some furrows, planted and buried the seed.

Fortunately enough, the rain season was very good and made him harvest about 260 x 50Kgs bags of maize from the 5Ha. In the following season (2017/2018), he heard about the CFU trainings from other people, and he decided to attend the trainings held by a nearby Farmer Coordinator. Ruben quickly realised the amount of money he had unnecessarily been spending on all those field operations he underwent on conventional tillage systems, which, if he did CA, could be cut by half.

Straight away, Reuben decided to adopt the technology, and hired a tractor to rip 10 Hectares, and oxen to rip a further 2 hectares with bad stumps, all of which he planted with Maize. He now expects to yield about 130 x 50kgs bags per Hectare, totalling an estimated 1,560 x 50kg bags.