Small farmers with limited access to resources can increase their income by more than 50% by practicing climate-sound agricultural methods, protecting the soil, and being environmentally friendly. A Malawian non-profit, advocating for reduced tilling and minimal use of chemical fertilizers, shared its success story during an online summit attended by tens of thousands of people.
Soil compaction is one of the most frequent challenges faced by small and poor farmers from Malawi, a small landlocked country in South-Eastern Africa. The hardpan that limits access to water by plant roots is mainly the result of using heavy tilling machines such as tractors. Overcoming this is essential to increase yields and farmers’ income. Tiyeni, a local non-profit with a UK funding arm, has been advocating for climate sound agriculture – often called Deep Bed Farming (DBF) – since its establishment in 2012.
Back then, only 38 Malawian farmers trusted the methods which rely mainly on minimizing soil disturbance (which means reducing tilling), providing permanent soil cover (cover crops), and diversifying crop production (crop rotation), all of which significantly contribute to enhancing biodiversity, reducing water use and improving soil health.
Today, nearly 15,000 farmers apply some or all of the DBF methods which the Department of Agricultural Research Services (Malawi Ministry of Agriculture) began testing in nine locations in 2018. Back then, the representatives of this state agency were optimistic, saying that:
“Deep bed farming can be a new good technology that may be promoted among farmers in Malawi as it increases both maize and biomass yields. The increased biomass production may lead to increased soil organic matter in the long run as the crop residues are placed on the soil surface.”
Three years later, the practices have become very attractive to thousands of farmers across the world.
Indeed, the topic of environmentally and climate sound agriculture attracted a little over 39,000 attendees to the Soil Regeneration Summit 2021 which took place on March 15. The event raised US$60,000 in donations from the participants which the organizers have said will be used to train another 1,100 farmers in Malawi about DBF.
According to Tiyeni, those who adopted DBF saw increases in yields for a variety of crops as some also saw their annual household income rising by 60%. For many farmers, adopting DBF has meant securing an extra meal per day – an achievement that distinguishes them from farmers growing crops conventionally.
Climate sound agriculture, promoted by the Malawian non-profit, is supported by the United Nations. The Food and Agriculture Organization claims that this method is of extreme importance to smallholder farms in Asia, Africa, America, and the Caribbean compared with conventional agriculture because the costs are lower and the increased yields are founded on healthier soils and have greater carbon sequestration.
As regards soil management in approaches like conservation and regenerative agriculture, Dr. Rattan Lal, awarded with the World Food Prize in 2020, emphasizes that:
“Soil is a living thing: 25% of all biodiversity is in soil. And like any living thing, soil should also have right to be protected, restored and managed properly.”
Nevertheless, not only does Tiyeni advocate for non-conventional practices, it also engages farmers by calling them to ‘think like a root’ and to feed the soil stressing the importance of the micro-organisms existing within it and their healthy relationship with crops. Micro-organisms, says Tiyeni, “will reduce or even eliminate the need for fertilizer and pesticides and will provide all necessary nutrients to the plant while ensuring healthy productive farming.”
While helping Malawian farmers, Tiyeni also plays a part in the global force leading the change in agricultural systems where nature and biodiversity represent a part of the solution for farmers, for food, and for our future.
“It is really fantastic to see what an impact this method can have, and I really think it can be transformational for the way Malawi farms its crops” said Holy Tett, British High Commissioner to Malawi on her visit to Tyieni farms.
