Food Security Trends

Throughout the three districts in which COMACO operates, the program has undertaken a large-scale effort to train over 30,000 food insecure families with the necessary skills to practice conservation farming. This is a zero-tillage technique that uses small depressions (also known as potholes) for each planting station in which each individual plant is grown and to which farmers apply home-produced compost fertilizer just before planting. Part of the conservation farming practice is to suppress weed growth and increase moisture retention with a liberal covering of last seasons crop residues spread between the rows of planting stations. In addition to returning nutrients to the soil, productive use of crop residues discourages the practice of burning such residues, a practice which may contribute to soil degradation as well as increased occurrence of bush fires that impact surrounding wildlife habitat and watershed resources.

Preliminary results from a 2006 food security survey suggest COMACOs efforts to increase household adoption of conservation farming may be having a positive impact on food security in the valley communities. Measured maize production for randomly selected fields of known histories of conservation farming with compost fertilizer provided the data, together with household size and maize consumption rates (WFP figures), for determining which households had sufficient food to last into the ninth month after their previous crop harvest. At this point, fresh farm produce is available to sustain family food needs. 84.6% of households who practiced conservation farming and compost fertilizer achieved food security to the nine-month target, as opposed to only 70.1% for farmers who did not practice conservation farming. In years prior to COMACO, farmers demonstrated lower levels of food security, ranging from a high of 77.3% in 2000 to 48.9% in 2001. BACK TO TOP