Payments for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation based on sustainable agricultural land management

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1 No Farmers no Future Conservation Farming Unit CFU established in 1996 Payments for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation based on sustainable agricultural land management Is mechanized tillage as a stand alone being ignored?

2 Measurement, reporting and verification systems to track emissions reductions generated by adoption of Climate Smart Conservation Agriculture Practices are highly complex Project developers need to spend sufficient resources and time to learn and operationalize the complex nature of carbon financing operations. Ideally farmers should be organized into Groups. The more diverse CF/CA practices become the more complex the technical dimension becomes. The Kenya Agricultural Carbon project was signed in Nov 2010 and validation to commence in first half of More technical work and innovative approaches required to further reduce transaction costs without compromising accuracy

3 In terms of: Promotion of CF/CA Structured and organized training and advisory services Technology development Categorization of CA Definitions i.e. MT, CT, CF, CA Adoption by farmers Monitoring and Evaluation (validation) procedures Involvement of private sector input supply networks Zambia is probably the most advanced country on the continent

4 Issues However - do CF/CA programme implementers have the resources or time to operationalize complex Carbon monitoring and verification systems? Would this activity divert attention and resources from core extension and training activities and the delivery of other services? Adoption of CF can increase crop yields and productivity by 25% to over 100% in year 1 Reduced labour inputs More efficient use of on farm and purchased resource Timeliness, precision Less crop stress during dry spells etc.. Would not the net Carbon benefits accruing to farmers be marginal compared to these productivity gains?

5 Conventional Farming Systems Tillage The destructive practice that links all conventional farming systems:- The universal and everlasting turning and churning of soil Continuous and unnecessary overall soil disturbance by hoes, ox ploughs and ridgers, tractor ploughs and harrows

6 CONTINUOUS OVERALL SOIL DISTURBANCE OX PLOUGHING PLOUGHING BY FARMERS WHO OWN OXEN (1) Soils are exposed to capping an erosion (2) Depth of seed sown in each 3 rd furrow is variable leading to uneven emergence and poor plant populations (3) If early rains stop ploughing stops leading to delays in crop establishment

7 PLOUGHING AND CAPPING OF EXPOSED TOP SOIL Heavy rainfall on silty clay or loam soils that have been continuously disturbed can cause capping and poor emergence of crops

8 PLOUGHING AND SOIL COMPACTION Continuous soil disturbance from ploughing, harrowing and weeding with cultivators, oxidises organic matter, breaks up soil aggregates, reduces aeration and creates compact layers immediately below the plough zone

9 PLOUGHING AND SHEET EROSION Gully Forming Top Soil Moved Here If the soils are exposed to early storms, erosion will continue each year even where slopes are minimal.

10 PLOUGHING AND KAPINGA (Couch Grass) INFESTATION Thousands of hectares of farm land is abandoned due to heavy infestation of Couch Eradicating Couch with hoes is impossible Continuous ploughing year after year encourages the spread of Kapinga, (Cooch grass), a very competitive weed that can only be eradicated by herbicides.

11 VERY LATE PLOUGHING AND PLANTING WITH BORROWED OR HIRED OXEN Many thousands of farmers in Zambia loose their cattle to Corridor Disease and borrow or hire oxen to plough. Farmers like these are often seen still ploughing a month or longer after the first planting rains. 50 KGS OF MAIZE IS LOST FOR EACH DAY OF DELAY IN PLANTING FROM THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY A later visit to this farmer s field showed that the Maize crop had failed and had been abandoned. Late planting is the main cause of poor yields and total crop failure in drier seasons.

12 LATE PLOUGHING AND NITROGEN IMOBILISATION Large amounts of weeds ploughed into the soil reduce availability of N to crops because micro-organisms convert inorganic i.e. absorbable N, into non absorbable organic forms

13 CONTINUOUS OVERALL SOIL DISTURBANCE HOE TILLAGE Annual Dry Season Ridge Splitting Annual soil movement 300 tons/ha Total in Malawi > 540 million tons 17 million km of ridges built up annually Farming Families 2.5m? Common in Eastern Province and universal in Malawi. Labour input 180 to 190 hrs/ha

14 No scientifically valid reason has ever been put forward for growing grain crops on ridges on inherently well drained soils

15 Catastrophic Soil Erosion on Steeper Slopes - Malawi Breeched Ridges from storm Flow

16 Continuous overall Soil Disturbance - Dry Season Hoeing Kenya and many other countries 38kgs 0.25sqm This area of hoed land is 150ha +. Over 150,000 tons of soil inverted by hand Hoeing denser Zambian soils to a depth of only 10cms as above equates to inverting 1,520 tons/ha

17 Zambia Dry Season Overall Hoeing This practice is less common in Zambia. Usually confined to below 0.5ha or less. Labour requirement is 430 to 460 hours/ha

18 Mechanized Min-Till : A component of CF that deserves attention in relation to Carbon Finance Zambia - Kenya Tanzania Ghana and anywhere where mechanized ploughing and harrowing is commonplace

19 Kenya A desolate Scene!

20 Kenya Tractor Sales A significant proportion of these tractors are utilized to provide ploughing and harrowing services across large parts of Kenya

21 Continuous Overall Soil Disturbance Mechanised Tillage In Kenya thousands of farms of 0.5ha upwards are dry ploughed by contractors who migrate across the country. There are thousands of tractors owned by private contractors or farmers.

22 Dust and Damage in Kenya Diesel consumption/ha: Ploughing litres. Harrowing 6 litres Some farmers have their fields ploughed only and some ploughed and harrowed.

23 Excessive fuel consumption and costs, unnecessary ware tare and damage to soils

24 Destroying Class A1 soils in Zambia

25 Tanzania Moshi In Moshi Arusha alone tractors migrate from Babati ploughing for customers along the way

26 Key Objective in Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana To convert mechanized plowing and harrowing Service Providers to Min-Till

27 The Sums Ploughing in soil disturbance 100% 1 Hectare Time required: 3.5 to 4.5hrs/ha. Min-Till Ripping soil disturbance 12% 1 Hectare Time required: 1.0 to 1.25hrs/ha. Fuel consumption: 13.0 to 15.0 lt/ha Fuel consumption: 5.0 to 7.0 lt/ha Cost to client Zambia: $100 to $110/ha Cost to client Zambia: $50 to $60/ha Cost to client Kenya: $50 to $55/ha Cost to client Kenya: $30 to $35/ha Depth: 10 to 15cms Depth: 25 to 30 cms In a season 1 mechanized Min-Till Service Provider can Rip 200 ha to 300 ha. For every 300 ha converted to MT 2,400 litres of diesel are saved. For every 10,000 hectares converted (40 tractors) 80,000 litres are saved Significant reductions in upstream and downstream carbon footprint

28 More easily verifiable than measuring biomass accumulation etc? Carbon credits to purchasers of Rippers to cut cost of equipment and encourage conversion? Or credits to farmers who convert from ploughing to Min-Till ripping to encourage conversion? Simple, practical, verifiable?