“Take care of the land and the land will take care of you.” - Hugh Hammond
Bennet, 1950
Article and photos supplied by
Mazwi Dlamini, Mahlathini Organics
Erna Kruger, Mahlathini Organics, and
Hendrik Smith, Grain SA
C
onservation Agriculture
(CA) provides an attractive alternative for smallholders where environmental and economic stresses have
reduced grain production considerably. This article reports on a project running in Bergville, KwaZuluNatal Province, which has been established through collaboration
between four organisations: The
SaveAct Trust, Mahlathini Organics,
The Maize Trust and Grain SA. The
CA project in Bergville fulfils the
need of the smallholders involved
in the project for innovative and
sustainable ways of producing
grain crops. These smallholders are
organised into Savings and Credit
Groups (SCG’s), which provide a
strong organisational backbone to
initiate an innovation process
(project) among their members, in
this case focussing on food security
and economic development
through CA and agricultural enterprise development.
The Bergville study area – a
‘network’ of learning activities
The CA innovation process involves
volunteers within SCGs and commodity interest groups (CIGs) undertaking to do CA trials alongside
their normal production practices.
The CA practices introduced to
them comprised planting without
ploughing using specialised hand
planters, retaining the crop residues
on the soil surface and crop diversity, i.e. intercropping with legumes
and crop rotations with winter livestock fodder mixes. A high crop
density approach (i.e. narrow rows
and higher plant populations) was
followed to reduce soil water loss
from evaporation and to suppress
weed growth, whilst accelerating
soil health improvement. The volunteering ‘CA groups’ joined in an ongoing learning process throughout
the season using their trials as ‘field
Photo 1: Thulisile Hlongwane from Stulwane in her maize and dry bean intercrop trial plot, January 2014