Conservation agriculture
We are helping to nourish people — and the land — through conservation agriculture.
Big tractors. Massive tillers. Heavy-duty harvesters.
Modern agricultural methods often rely on industrial machinery as well as chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which strain the land and creates environmental hazards that can affect everything from wildlife and groundwater to the food that reaches the table.
In many areas where Concern works, marginalized and poor farmers struggle to produce food on land prone to climatic extremes like flooding, drought, and natural disasters. They don’t have the resources to buy farm machinery, but they often resort to agricultural practices that further deteriorate the land and actually worsen food security over time.
What if there were a more sustainable way to grow food without destructive farming methods?
It turns out there is.
Conservation agriculture is a growing part of Concern’s deep and longstanding commitment to climate-smart approaches to our work. As its name implies, it is a method of growing food in a way that conserves the land.
It has three simple rules:
Conservation agriculture can be practiced almost anywhere in the world with slight modifications. We have introduced these techniques in places as ecologically diverse as Zambia and North Korea.
Paulina Sampson uses Tephrosia plants as mulch on her land. These plants are high in nitrogen, an essential nutrient for the soil. Twabagondozi village, Kibondo, Kigoma Region, Tanzania Photo: Jennifer Nolan.
We work with communities to develop buy-in for conservation agriculture by training respected community farmers interested in new techniques. Their success growing crops using this method attracts others, and they then teach conservation agriculture, furthering the cycle of training and adoption. And because of its “light touch” approach to the land, conservation agriculture requires less time and energy, allowing communities to produce food more efficiently.
To date, we have reached over 11,000 farmers in Zimbabwe, Malawi, North Korea, Tanzania, and Zambia through conservation agriculture. We have helped communities sustainably improve their harvests, enabling them to produce enough food to feed themselves as well as surplus to sell, all while nurturing the land that supports them.
Conflict, climate disaster, chronic poverty. The need now is more urgent than ever.
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