Previous: Biological Resources & Diversity || Table Of Contents || Next: Energy

AGRICULTURE

On average, agriculture contributes about 34 percent of southern Africa's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employs 80 percent of the total labour force and accounts for about 26 percent of foreign exchange earnings. There are 15 agro-climatological zones in the basin and these vary in rainfall and growing season. Maize, tea, tobacco, coffee, sugar, wheat and cotton are some of the major crops produced under commercial agriculture in the basin states. Tea, tobacco, coffee, sugar and wheat are generally grown through irrigation but in some cases, these crops are also grown under rainfed agriculture.

Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe have a total of 86 percent of the estimated 520,000 sq km of the annually cultivated (rainfed and irrigated) area in the Zambezi Basin. Malawi has 90 percent, Zambia 76 percent and Zimbabwe 56 percent of its cultivated area in the country in the basin.

Despite playing a dominant role in the economies, addressing poverty, food security and environmental problems, agriculture in the basin states is facing lack of development and stagnation due to poor macroeconomic policies. The 'food production-population imbalance' in the basin countries requires that food supplies grow at four-five percent per year, a rate most countries have been unable to achieve. Civil conflicts and drought have exacerbated the levels of food insecurity in the basin in recent decades.

The poor macroeconomic environment, debt crisis and deteriorating terms of trade, characterising most basin countries are taxing the sector and making it more difficult to commercialise smallholder agriculture.

Impact of agriculture on the environment

Environmental degradation in the basin is a visual testimony of the self-destructiveness of an impoverished agricultural sector. The'food production-population imbalance' of the basin is leading to production increases by the opening up of new and, sometimes marginal, land as well as intensification of agricultural production. Without adequate agricultural yields to secure their livelihoods, farmers are expanding into environmentally fragile areas. Fallow periods have dropped drastically, usually unaccompanied by better fertility management, resulting in poor yields. This in turn increases weeds, soil acidity and erosion.

In Botswana, for example, most of the land is devoted to cattle and wildlife grazing with over half of the rural population owning cattle. Land degradation due to overgrazing and prolonged droughts is a serious problem and attempts to contain it have been largely unsuccessful to date.

One of the more serious environmental problems in the basin's agriculture is the mismanagement of resources in extensive farming systems. Rainfed farming has resulted in the conversion of primary forest to agriculture, loss of biodiversity, changes in micro-climate, exposure of fragile soils, soil erosion and lowland flooding, degradation of watershed protection areas, shorter fallows with loss of soil nutrients, increasing pressure on common property resources such as woodlands and grazing areas. Indigenous institutions that regulate and manage resources have broken down, leading to open access regimes, declining ecosystems resilience and reduced ability to recover from droughts.

Resource degradation as a result of poverty and population pressure has reached serious levels. Malawi is one such country with a rapidly rising population and severe land shortage where cultivation has expanded to marginal lands and steep slopes. Soil erosion rates have increased in the central and southern regions of the country while shorter fallow periods and mono-cropping are reducing soil fertility and agricultural productivity in densely populated areas.

Competition for land and water resources between sectors and production systems is projected to intensify. Food supplies in the basin are dependent on irrigated cereals production that is expected to grow despite the high cost of irrigation. The growing water demand for irrigation, industrial and domestic use is due to increased competition for water, which is pushing up the price beyond a level profitable for staple food production.

Rising salt concentrations in irrigated areas, fertiliser and pesticide contamination of surface and groundwater as well as discharge of organic effluents are some of the environmental threats from agriculture. In the basin, any impact due to fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides mostly results from excessive use or poor application.

In Zimbabwe, for example, farmers still import chemicals that are either banned or severely restricted for health or environmental reasons, cited in the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Code of Conduct adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 1985. The government still uses DDT to eradicate tsetse fly. For example, it bought 10 tonnes in 1997 to control bubonic plague in Matabeleland North Province.

Agricultural activities are major contributors to anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gases that are believed to cause climate change. Burning of biomass from forests, and savanna fires account for about 30 percent of the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted by human activities. Further expansion of the agricultural sector can lead to forest clearance and burning of trees and shrub layer which will release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Methane from livestock and wet rice fields as well as nitrogen oxides from crop fertilisers are other agricultural sources of greenhouse gases. However, in terms of global warming basin countries contribute negligible amounts.

In Zambia, deforestation due to agriculture is a key environmental problem. Seven million cubic metres of fuelwood are consumed annually and indigenous forests are the major source of sawn timber, poles and mining timber. Shifting cultivation has resulted in land clearance for agriculture and reduction of indigenous species cover.

Livestock has two major impacts on water quality, namely nutrient enrichment and sedimentation of rivers resulting from land degradation caused by overgrazing from overstocking. In communal areas of the basin countries, an increase in sediment concentration in surface waters and siltation of reservoirs, canals and rivers has been observed. Cattle and goats are the dominant livestock whose population pressure ensures that they are grazed on hills or wet areas unsuitable for crop production. Goats are more efficient grazers and browsers than cattle and can have a serious impact on vegetation if overstocking occurs.

Countries of the basin should ensure that management of natural resources contributes to improved productivity and income while making sure that agriculture does not undermine the diversity and richness of those natural resources. It is important to:

• maintain and increase the productivity of land and sustainable water utilisation for the benefit of the basin people;
• ensure conservation of natural resources primarily for sustainable production; and
• maintain and enhance the quality of the basin's environment.

A coordinated basin agricultural policy is needed to fight hunger, poverty and environmental degradation. SADC has pioneered regional cooperation in food security, research, environment, land management, livestock production and disease control, fisheries, forestry and wildlife that are coordinated by various units such as the SADC Environment and Land Management Sector, Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources and programmes like the Sorghum and Millet Improvement Programme (SMIP) and specialist institutions such as the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

It is important for member states to enter into agreements that enhance the basin's agricultural trade and free mobility of resources. While states experience surpluses and deficits in commodities such as maize, beef, vegetable and processed foods, intra-basin trade is small. Protocols on common agricultural policies, environment, chemicals, seed certification and other areas should be adopted. Lack of comprehensive agricultural policies coupled with lack of capacity and over reliance on foreign experts provides a rationale for building and strengthening regional institutions that will move agriculture an essential step in industrialisation.

Policymakers should also be aware of the dangers of agricultural intensification and should be wary of pesticide subsidies, inefficient irrigation management systems and under pricing of water that encourages mismanagement. Although intensification of agriculture is essential to relieve pressure on natural resources, it must be based on appropriate technology and farming systems that reform property rights to assure secure rights and strengthen community rights over farmland and common property resources. More effective community-based organisations for managing common property resources, undertaking soil erosion control and moisture conservation programmes should be established and empowered where they exist.

Regional food security in the basin countries can be enhanced through transport integration and food aid management, information exchange and early warning on climate, drought management, mitigation and preparedness.

Top