Impact of Conservation Farming Technologies on Poverty Reduction in Zambia

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the impact of conservation farming technologies on yield per hectare, cost per hectare and profit per hectare and ultimately on poverty. This study was carried out in the ecological region II a, which covers the central belt of Zambia. A total of 220 households were selected randomly who were using both conservation farming technologies in a part and the conventional farming technologies in other part of their land. The data were collected during March/April 2011. The study used SPSS 16 to analyse the data. Multiple regression models were used to know the impact of different independent variables on output per hectare in conservation and conventional Farming. The study revealed that the productivity per hectare in conservation farming was 58.53% higher than in conventional farming. The profit per hectare in conservation farming was 161.5% higher than in conventional farming. Hence, the study suggests for popularising the conservation farming technologies to increase productivity, profit and to reduce poverty in Zambia. The study also suggests for establishment of bank branches, co-operative credit societies/self-help groups and micro-finance institutions to provide financial facilities to enable the farmers to adopt conservation farming technologies.