Dryland cropping systems in Africa are facing major challenges due to rainfall variability that is compounding the already dire conditions of poor soil fertility and inadequate investments in farms. Application of technologies that enhance crop productivity and stability through efficient use of nutrients and soil moisture for different agro-ecologies and season types is foundational for food security.

Integrating more grain legumes as intercrops or in a rotational system can allow farmers to achieve high and stable yield under varying rainfall, with modest fertilizer investments. This is critical for resource poor farmers who have limited access to mineral fertilizers.

The Africa RISING Malawi team-initiated technology validation trials in 2012 to investigate soil organic carbon changes over time. The treatments for these validation trials ranged from unfertilized maize control, maize fertilized with NP optimally every year and when legumes are integrated as intercrops or rotations with maize.

Linking the production of grain legumes (groundnuts, pigeon peas, cowpeas, beans) and local level processing to ensure dietary diversity is an integral component of agricultural intensification initiatives for Africa RISING in Malawi.

As part of this activity, farmers in the project sites are trained on: (1) food and nutrition principles (foods and nutrients; the six food groups and dietary diversity, infant and young child feeding practices), (2) achieving dietary diversity (diversity in production, dietary diversity through food selection and purchasing),(3) cooking demonstration of different dishes for the whole household, (4) food budgeting and storage, and (5) Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), one of the Africa RISING project partners, has introduced new nutrient dense common bean varieties that are loved and are being produced by farmers. Grain legumes, especially nutrient-dense common bean varieties, provide an important opportunity for improved nutrition outcomes among farming households if the produce is not wholly marketed.

Henry Mtetemera from Dija Village told reviewers he opted to adapt the improved goat pen because it assures him of the health, security and productivity of his goats. Twice every week, Henry travels from his Dija Village to Ntubwi Village to learn about the goat intensification technologies from Africa RISING scientists and lead farmers. Pen feeding is among the interventions introduced to livestock keepers at Ntubwi Village in Malawi. This intervention is aimed at addressing the feed scarcity (and wastage) challenges especially during the dry season. With pen feeding, farmers collect crop residues and natural grasses and conserve them as hay for use during the dry season.

In much of Africa, seasonal rainfall predictions are often generalized, limiting their usefulness in practically guiding responsive management on the farms, including choice of appropriate cropping regimes that best-fit expected rainfall quality. Farmers are therefore exposed to climatic risk in environments with high inter- and intra-season rainfall variability, making fertilizer investments unattractive.

Simple approaches to buffer farmers against soil moisture stresses are required. Over the past 5 years, Africa RISING has demonstrated to over 3000 farmers how they could reduce the intensity of drought related shocks through in-situ water conservation. We have shown that in-situ storage of rainwater that comes as high intensity storms, through tied-ridges, is effective at reducing erosion and increasing the proportion of rainwater that infiltrates.

Promoting and scaling conservation agriculture (CA) practices is a key aspect of the climate-smart agriculture practices being advanced by Africa RISING. CA is a cropping system made of different practices including no-till farming, crop residue retention as mulch and crop rotations. In Malawi, CA is complemented by targeted fertilizer applications, the use of drought-tolerant cultivars, and doubled-up legume systems of pigeon peas and groundnuts.

Conservation agriculture interventions have proven a significant impact on cereal and legume production southern Africa. In an assessment comparing maize productivity in farms under CA versus those under conventional tillage, it was noted that CA resulted in 75% higher yield compared to conventional tillage, reduced farm labour (allowing farmers to use time gained for other pressing activities), greater economic benefits in form of a higher net benefit and net present value, as well as higher returns to labour and investment.

“I am now food secured, because with conservation agriculture, I use less labor therefore leaveing me time to do other family activities to earn money,”notes Mary Twaya (right), one of the farmers who have adopted CA in Lemu Village.

Mary uses the profit to cover some needs including purchasing some school equipment's for her kids. She is happy with the support from Africa RISING.

“At first people were laughing at me thinking I am mad because I had adopted the CA technologies, but now they are all trying to learn from me,” she states.

A visit to Moshi Maile’s farm in Mlali Village in Tanzania’s Kongwa District gave the group a chance to see the farming systems approach to sustainable intensification deployed by the Africa RISING project. Maile is a model farmer among his peers there. He has managed to successfully implement different technologies promoted by Africa RISING at farm level into a synergistic arrangement. The technologies he has adopted from the project include: variety selection of improved crop varieties (for better productivity), rearing improved chicken ecotypes (for income and improving community breed), establishing soil and water conservation structures like Fanya juu and Fanyachini terraces (for erosion control), and establishing woodlots and fodder banks (for fuelwood supply and supply of leaf meals for poultry).

Through this activity, farmers have also been trained on proper husbandry and poultry feed processing from locally available materials such as maize bran, sunflower seed cake, Gliricidia leaves (harvested from the woodlots), sorghum, and millet.