Assessing options for crop-livestock intensification in semi-arid Southern Zimbabwe:

household typologies and community visions

Sabine Homann-Kee Tui, Patricia Masikati, Andre van Rooyen,

Daniel Rodriguez, Peter de Voil, Godfrey Manyawu

4th International Symposium for Farming Systems Design, Lanzhou, China, 19-22 Aug 2013

Declining per capita food production in Southern Africa

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Ind

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Production trends in Southern Africa(PIN, 2004-06 base)

Net Production Index Number Per capita Production Index Number

Key challenges

• Resource constraints:

> 80% of rural

population below

poverty line

• Limited biomass: one

growing season, semi-

arid rainfed, poor

inherent soil fertility

• Extraction of land and

soils (degradation)

• Poor market linkages

and support services

(enabling structures)

Stepping stones towards increasing agricultural production and improving food security (1)

Hanging in Stepping up

Stepping out

Resources

Pro

fit

/ re

sili

en

ce

After Dorward et al., (2010)

Identifying household typologies

Working Hypothesis 1:

Farmers have different

opportunities to adopt

technologies and intensify

production systems.

Better understanding farmers

resource endowments and

livelihood strategies may help

targeting development

interventions.

Stepping stones towards increasing agricultural production and improving food security (2)

Low

Hig

h

Low High

Production technology development,

dissemination and use

Mark

et

develo

pm

ent,

effic

iency

and

part

icip

ation

Fully integrated market

oriented system

Source: Adapted from Dorward et al., 2002

Working hypothesis 2:

Pathways for sustainable

intensification are context specific.

Intervention options need to

integrate market development AND

production enhancing technologies.

Participatory approaches can help

identifying preferable intervention

options.

Identifying pathways for sustainable intensification

The case: mixed smallholder farming systems in semi-arid Zimbabwe

Farming system characteristics

Nkayi Gwanda

Agro-ecology• Rain (mm, (CV))• Main soils

656 (33)Kalahari

434 (23)Sands

Densities• Human (n km2)• Cattle (TLU km2)• Goats (TLU km2)

19121

1081

Main crops Maize, small grains, legumes

Main livestock Cattle, goats

Market access + ++

Extension + +

Male

Tree Diagram for 228 Cases

Ward`s method

Euclidean distances

52

4.0

00

00

0

47

3.0

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58

7.0

00

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69

4.0

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46

7.0

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37

0.0

00

00

0

50

7.0

00

00

0

49

7.0

00

00

0

61

7.0

00

00

0

36

5.0

00

00

0

66

0.0

00

00

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67

9.0

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35

8.0

00

00

0

55

1.0

00

00

0

42

0.0

00

00

0

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Lin

ka

ge

Dis

tan

ce

Age

Distance to the market

Land

Maize production

#Shoats

PCA to identify

redundant variables

Clustering of

households

Description of

functional typologies

Data clean up and

selection of variablesD

eskto

p

Expert

knowledgeMultivariate

statistics

Expert

knowledge

Participatory community visioning

Defining challenges and opportunities

Iterative process of solutions & adjustments

Par

tici

pat

ory

Household survey

Visualizing current and desirable states of

agricultural systems

Targeting and testing preferable

options

Methodology

ResultsPrincipal components

Important factors Nkayi (n=160) Gwanda (n=90)

Livestock (cattle) ✔ ✔

Education ✔ ✔

Years in village ✔

Distance to markets ✔

Off farm income ✔

Family size / labor ✔ ✔

Cultivated land ✔ ✔

Use of fertilizer ✔

Use of manure ✔

Household assets ✔

Age ✔ ✔

Livestock (goats) ✔ ✔

16%

6% each

27%

14% each

Nkayi: Household typologies (1)Important factors

Structural household typologies: resource endowment (median)

Household typesShare population (%)

C1 Young family

22C2 Stepping up

30C3 Grey heads

34 C4 Champions

14

Cattle (TLU)Goats (TLU)Cultivated land (ha)

001

2.10.31.6

2.10.21.7

6.70.51.7

Age of HHH (yrs)Education (yrs)Local knowledge (yrs)Off-farm income (%)Family size (AAME)Assets (index)

388

22404.22

478

37504.47

643

47604.93

547

41354.38

Fertilizer use (kg/ha)Manure use (kg/ha)Use of hybrids

00

No

00

Yes

00

No

10.71364Yes

Diversified productionFood secure (months)Cash income (U$S/yr)

No2-8 327

No3-11 445

No3-10 485

Yes3-12 569

Nkayi: Household typologies (2)Assets and reinvestments

C4 C3 C1 C2

Ageofhouseholdhead/ me

Householdassets

C4

C3

C1

C2

Householdestablishment

Householdmaturity

Householddissolu on

Nkayi: Household typologies (3)Predispositions to invest

Cluster 4: Champions

Cluster 1: Young family

Cluster 2: Stepping up

Hanging in Stepping up

Stepping out

Resources

Pro

fit

/ re

sili

en

ce

Stepping up

Cluster 3: Grey heads

Stepping out

Nkayi: Household typologies (4)

Predispositions to invest

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

0 1 2 3 4

Ave

rage

mo

nth

s o

f fo

od

se

curi

ty

Area planted to maize

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

0 2 4 6

Ave

rage

mo

nth

s fo

od

se

curi

ty

Area planted to maize

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

0 1 2 3 4 5

Ave

rage

mo

nth

s fo

od

se

curi

ty

Area planted to maize

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Ave

rge

mo

nth

s fo

od

se

curi

ty

Area planted to maize

Hanging in

Nkayi: community visioning

Entry points for sustainable intensification

Boosting agricultural production through

better crop livestock integration

1. Intensify and diversify crop production

• Increase legume and vegetable

production

• Improve manure management

2. Improve cattle production, offtake and

quality

• Increase crop residue and fodder

production and feeding

• Mechanize crop production to release

cattle for the market

3. Improve market infrastructure and

organization (“also for goats”)

Important factors Structural household typologies: resource endowment (median)

Household typesShare population (%)

C1 Subsistence Old and female

32

C2 Subsistence Young and female

22

C3 Grey headsRichest males

23

C4 Younger maleGoats specialized

14

Cattle (TLU)Goats (TLU)Cultivated land (ha)

1.41.51.4

0 (1.4)1.2 (5.0)1.7 (2.1)

14.75.03.1

04.01.0

Age of HHH (yrs)Education (yrs)Family size (AAME)

603

3.8

41 (36)7 (11)

3.0 (3.8)

595

4.5

479

7.2

Off-take goats (%)Maize yield (kg/ha)Sorghum yield (kg/ha)

90

40

8.5 (0)0 (180)0 (190)

150

55

10.22050

Food secure (months) 4 5 (7) 6 7

Gwanda: Household typologies (1)

Important factors

Householdmaturity

Householdestablishment

Householddissolu on

Ageofhouseholdhead/ me

Householdassets

C1C2

C2-defacto

C3C4

C2C1C3C4

Gwanda: Household typologies (2)Family phases

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10

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Averagem

onthsoffoodsecurity

Areaplantedtomaize

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0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

Averagem

onthsoffoodsecurity

Areaplantedtomaize

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Averagem

onthsoffoodsecurity

Areaplantedtomaize

Cluster 2-defacto

Cluster 2: Hanging in

Cluster 1: Hanging in

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Averagem

onthsoffoodsecurity

Areaplantedtomaize

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0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

Averagem

onthsoffoodsecurity

Areaplantedtomaize

Cluster 4: Young males

Hanging in Stepping up

Stepping out

Resources

Pro

fit

/ re

sili

en

ce

Stepping up

Cluster 3: Grey heads

Stepping out

Gwanda: Household typologies (3)

Predispositions to invest

Gwanda: community visioningEntry points for sustainable intensification

Promoting livestock markets to

provide incentives for farmers

1. Strengthen market development

• Improve sale pen management,

auctioning, grading

• Improve access to inputs and

market information

• Enhance fodder production and

pen feeding for market oriented

production

2. Increase crop production

• Improve soil fertility through better

manure management

• Water harvesting technologies

• Pests and disease control

• Identify opportunities for sorghum

Conclusions

•More market oriented crop livestock production is smart for sustainable intensification processes

•Strong growth potential + diversity of farming systems multiple pathways and transitions towards improved systems

•Farmers have different predisposition to invest household typologies can be useful to define context specific interventions in an iterative process

• Involving communities and stakeholders to define such transitions is critical to enhance the local capacity to adjust

Acknowledgements

This work is financed by ACIAR.

It is implemented in a partnership with

ILRI, CIMMYT, ICRISAT, CSIRO and

QAAFI.

It contributes to the CGIAR Research

Program on Dryland Systems.

Data were used from previous CGIAR-SLP.