Conservation Farming (CF) thrives in areas with Adverse Rainfall
John Nyende resides in Kamuge Station A village, Kamuge Sub-county Pallisa (Eastern Region), a district with poor soils and limited rainfall – (see table below). He tilled his land for more than 10 years from which he consistently got very low yields and at times lost the whole crop to drought even when he used fertilizers. He declared his land unproductive and infertile.
In 2011, he learnt about CF through a REDS Lead Farmer who visited his home. I was doubtful of this new concept and did not see the need to adopt it. However, his wife without his consent set up a small Conservation Farming Hoe garden of six lines 40m long. John was infuriated by this action but decided to observe. That season, they received only three showers after planting and to his amazement, the growth of maize was vigorous and yielded 110 kg - totally unbelievable from the land he had condemned.
The enthralling results changed John’s attitude and the following season he converted half of his land to Conservation Farming. Today he has 6 acres of different crops (maize, beans and groundnuts) under Conservation Farming hoe basins. Each planting season from an acre of each crop, he realizes on average 2.3 tons of maize, 1 ton of beans and 1.3 tons of groundnuts. “I have benefited a lot from adopting Conservation Farming. Look at my land! It has regained its fertility and soil erosion is under control with simple crop rotation and crop residue retention. I plant my crops without using fertilizers and still get high yields. I’m so grateful to my wife whose disobedience helped change my life."