The Economics of Conservation Agriculture in Africa: Implications of Climate Change

In this chapter, we summarize the available evidence on the agronomic and economic viability of conservation agriculture (CA) in sub-Saharan Africa and assess the likely impact of climate change on the agronomic and economic viability of CA. Using detailed data from Zambia, we compare the net present value of using various CA and conventional practices over a 10-year period and then analyze how those results are likely to change if rainfall becomes more erratic. CA is economically attractive especially when it allows farmers to overcome labor constraints during planting by distributing land preparation labor during the dry season. The results also show that when all three principles of CA are implemented, farmers will likely have more stable and higher yields than conventional tillage methods, although all types of farming will be negatively affected by dry spells. For these benefits to be realized, farmers must retain control of their residues, which, in turn, will require changing community norms about dry season grazing. Furthermore, the development of reliable markets for leguminous crops are necessary for achieving adequate rotations. Given the dynamic nature of smallholder agriculture, driven by climatic as well as socio-economic uncertainty, increasing farmers’ capacity to adapt is of utmost importance. Working with farmers to adapt CA to match their specific priorities and constraints provides an opportunity to develop skills for resilient and adaptable farming systems.