Will Conservation Agriculture Ensure SA's Food Security?

Most farmers are aware of the benefits of implementing conservation agriculture practices such as crop rotation. However, the authors of this article argue that, while its wide-scale adoption might improve the sustainability of farming over the long term, conservation agriculture will negatively affect maize and wheat production in the short term, threatening national food security.

Our country faces a plethora of challenges: widespread poverty, rising unemployment, steep food and fuel prices, increasing interest rates, social unrest, and inadequate land resources. The Western Cape and many parts of the country are in the grip of drought, which has reduced agricultural production. The prospect of land expropriation without compensation looms closer, bringing further uncertainty into the agriculture sector. Most importantly, and like other developing countries, we have a rapidly increasing population and are uncertain about our food security.

Meanwhile, our policymakers and many advocacy groups are increasingly calling for conservation agriculture [CA] to be adopted widely as part of measures to guarantee future national food security.

By accepted definition, CA is a concept for resource-saving agricultural crop production that is founded on three principles: minimal mechanical soil disturbance, permanent organic soil cover through cover crops, and diversified crop rotation and associations with various species that include legumes.

MAKING A CASE FOR CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE

The dangers of monocropping are well documented: it causes disease build-up and nutrient exhaustion, and accelerates soil fertility decline. There is no argument against the fact that crop rotation with legumes increases yield and profit, and allows for sustained production.