Sustainable Innovations Africa

Lusaka , Zambia

An Overview Of Our Solution

The Chongwe Ecosystem Restoration Project is focusing on creating collaborative efforts to attain a sustainable, resilient, inclusive and Fair ecosystem to support healthier communities, natural resources and animal life. The Project has been supporting restoration of the landscapes and integrating green based systems for agricultural production.

Who is this solution impacting?

Community Type

Rural

Organization type

Nonprofit

Ecosystem (select all that apply)

Forests

Population impacted

1500

Size of agricultural area

150

Production quantity

no response

People employed

no response

Describe your solution

Following the implementation of the Chongwe Green Village Project by Hivos, Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre, the Dairy Association of Zambia and the larger farming communities, we have mainly been using educational and field demonstrations for agro ecology uses and benefits. Onsite learning visits mainly with Grassroots Trust a partner involved in Low input and integrated farming systems have been conducted. Farmers are being encouraged to integrate agro-ecology as a means of improving their soils, water retention and yields. On the other hand, we collaborated with the Chongwe Green Development company in the promotion of other farming enterprises such as Dairy, Horticulture and planting of woodlot nurseries. The Project has been holding village based meetings with traditional leaders to raise the profile of the situation and seek consensus to engage the leadership and the people to influence positive behaviours. The Project has been supporting integration of livestock in the agricultural production chain. This is mainly targeted at improving household nutrition, incomes and above all a readily available resource for manure through production of slurry. The farmers have been collecting and heaping animal manure which is mixed with other crop residues to make manure. This is with a view of increasing usage of green practices

Describe your implementation

Community Mobilisation – Conducted village based meetings and learning experiences to highlight the plight of the landscapes with a focus on restoring the ecosystems to improve productivity and management of the environment. Increasing incentives for Landscapes Restoration – Provided support to the farmers to manage a revolving fund that is providing loans for dairy animals. The farmers are supplying milk to Parmalat a milk and dairy processing company. The Project is also supporting farmers with market linkages to increase their participation in the mainstream markets. On Field Demonstration – Conducting on-farm demonstrations on the effects of tree cutting. We focused on promoting integrated farming systems basically using local assets and building on local knowledge to restore the biodiversity. Call for Regeneration – with the continuous loss of tress, we worked with the local farmers to encourage people not to cut trees upstream but to also prune the other trees to support regeneration which is a cost effective and easy to manage process. The work approach is based on strengthening citizen agency and working together to gather evidence through sensing journeys and demonstrations. The farmers on their own tried out the technologies and clearly it is working for them. From the visits to the individual farmers and meetings held with them, indications are there to show the shifts.

External connections

We have collaborated well with Stichting Hivos, the District Farmers Association, and Grassroots Trust and the Ministry of Agriculture. We have also established connections with the private sector – Fingertips Technologies that has developed a Farmers App to run on mobile phones. The facility is meant to support market organization and extension support services for the local farmers. The work being undertaken is part of building local evidence for policy recommendations and financing of the initiatives to increase the footprint for change.

What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?

Zambia’s food system is anchored on ag. The production is mono crop based. The production of maize & other crops is rainfed. Climate change has changed weather patterns posing a threat to agriculture and ecosystems. The District has 28,753 Farmers producing cash & consumption crops. Due to mono cropping culture, the soils are becoming infertile. The production of maize is mainly anchored on the high use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The Biodiversity in the Area is also being lost due to pressure from the consumers in Lusaka City who mainly demand for charcoal from the District. Much of the productive land is being lost. E.g in 2015/16 Season 23,963 hectares of maize where cultivated as opposed to 400 hectares of other crops. In terms of uptake of fertilisers and chemical it is very high. Agricultural production is being affected by low water levels in the District. The Forestry Department estimates about 300,000 hectares of forests are lost each year.

Describe the context in which you are operating

The Project is operating in Chongwe District and the Rufunsa catchments. The District has a population of 236,749 people. Most of the people in the area are farmers producing maize, soya beans and other crops. Some of them are pastoralist while some provide labor to the surrounding farming communities. Most of the farmers supply their produce to the markets in Chongwe and mainly Lusaka. The District has a great challenge of Water with the main rivers drying up in the dry season. The Government of Zambia provides Water in such times. Currently 1.2 million, or 45% of all Zambian children under-5 years of age, are chronically under-nourished, or stunted. This negatively impacts intellectual, physical development & health. The District is part of the Districts in the country implementing the Decentralization & greening Policy. has more environmental and ecological challenges that threat its food, energy, water and forestry systems.

How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?

The major results of this work is attitude change. This is seen from the number of farmers that want to change their current production practices. Some of the changes are long term and keen to ensure that the landscapes is restored and becomes resilient and inclusive for growth. On the biodiversity front, we have seeing a great uptake of initiatives to improve soil fertility through building the carbon content, improving phosphorus and reducing acidity. In the last two farming seasons with emphasis on promoting production diversity, there is an increase in both the hectarage of cultivation and the number of farmers investing in the approach.

Language(s)

English, Nyanja, Bemba

Water

Commitment to stop farming and cutting trees upstream. The farmers are being trained in water harvesting technologies to harness rainfall water and conserve underground water

Food Security/Nutrition

We launched a campaign towards improved diets by producing a variety of crops that could also be consumed at a household level.

Economic/Sustainable Development

The Project is working with the partners to develop a long term restoration project that will increase opportunities for employment.

Climate

The trainings, citizen engagements, change of practices and actions for change are meant to improve the climate. One of the fundamental approaches has been to strengthen access to information for the communities to appreciate the changes and develop community based resilience interventions

Sustainability

The interventions in the Projects have been done at minimal costs. Most of the knowledge sharing done at village and farm level do not require much funds. It has really been based on the needs in the communities for them to move and embrace practices that are sustainable. The Project does not rely on any subsidies from government but on replication efforts

Return on investment

The small resources ploughed in have with the conditions of the communities been able to cause influences that would be difficult in development terms to quantify because the activities have a ripple effect

Entrant Image

How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?

The Project was mainly influenced by the community actions done with our partners Grassroots Trust in Mwembezhyi and Siachitema areas. Much of the work is requires identifying the change agents and working with them to support community activities. In terms of scaling up, the current projection stands at USD 80,000.

Overview