Zambia urges farmers in S Africa to adopt conservation farming methods

The farmers in Southern African Development Communities (SADC) have been urged to adopt conservation farming methods to mitigate the impact of climate change, Zambia daily Mail reported Wednesday.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Daniel Kalenga said here Tuesday that climatic fluctuations over the past decade had been causing droughts and excessive rains with periodic floods.

He said that there was need to reduce the effect of the fluctuations in rainfall patterns and recurrent droughts by adopting effective strategies.

The Zambian deputy minister told the SADC-European Union annual scientific symposium that the potential benefits of improved water and rainfall-harvesting practices in the region were key to economic development.

Kalenga said effective and economical ways of interception including drains and rivers should be harnessed so that water can be stored for agricultural and other household uses.

He said conservation farming was one of the strategies to ensure food security. "We would like to see practices such as the zero tillage, minimum tillage, basin planting stations, box ridging and terracing among others being practically demonstrated in the field," he said.

He said that food insecurity in SADC region was real and was being aggravated by poor land and water management practices despite scientists having mitigating solutions.