Conservation Farming

Just after daybreal on the farm. All systems go.
Since we began farming in Malawi about 5 years ago, we have used no inorganic fertilizer or chemical pesticides. We sometimes lose crops to pests but grow our crops using green manure plants and compost.
Just recently the Ministry at local level have been promoting some of the methods we use, and farmers who thought we were mad are seeking our help and advice.
We have just taken a new step with a planting method for maize. We prepare basins well in advance of the rains, add lime (new) to reduce acidity and then manure, cover in and wait for the rains to come before planting.
Its conservation tillage where we only dig the basins and leave the rest untouched and covered with biomass or cover crops. Now that we have pigs for manure we are moving towards sustainability, Nitrogen fixing plants and trees like Masango and Sespania help greatly

"Sustainable Agriculture is a package of agricultural practices
that meets the present needs of the farm family in terms of
food, fuel wood, income, etc. without damaging the resource
base thereby compromising the ability of future generation to
produce their needs on the same land using the same
resource base."