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and conservation agriculture
technology uptake
T
he ARC’s agricultural economists together with its research-
ers undertook a research study to establish the impact
that resulted through the adoption of conservation agri-
culture (CA) technology. CA practice consists of three main
elements: Minimum soil disturbance, maximum soil cover and
crop rotation. These can be applied individually or together and at
the same time. The research was done in collaboration with the
Western Cape Department of Agriculture. Some of the objectives
that were covered in the study included:
Getting an understanding of wheat producers using CA tech-
nology in the Western Cape province (regarding land under CA,
adoption status and reasons for adoption) and assessing im-
pacts resulting from CA adoption in terms of profitability and
environmental impact (soil health).
Wheat is by far the biggest winter cereal crop planted in South
Africa. However, its production is not sufficient for domestic re-
quirements and the country has to import wheat to meet its do-
mestic demand. Wheat producers of the Western Cape traditionally
planted wheat commercially using a monoculture system, but
many of them have now adopted CA, among other reasons, to
lower their production costs. Many of these producers were in-
troduced to the CA farming system by a combined ARC and
Provincial Department of Agriculture effort, in collaboration with
officials from other institutions.
Literature reviewed during this research confirmed CA adoption
locally and internationally. This verified that in the process of the
adoption, producers needed continuous interaction with support
groups and stakeholders. In most studies, production costs were
compared with accruing benefits to demonstrate a favourable re-
lationship between the two. Some studies advised that the CA
benefits should be assessed carefully as some benefits could not
be captured with conventional techniques that are limited to finan-
cial terms.
In this study, 51 CA producers were interviewed individually by
the Western Cape Department of Agriculture officials using an
ARC developed questionnaire. Data was captured and analysed
by the ARC officials using both SAS Statistical Software and Micro-
soft Excel.
Results of the survey
39% of the respondents heard about the CA technology from
other producers. The results showed that the dominant age of the
producers was between 31 and 50 years. It could be inferred that
middle aged producers were more active in adopting CA. 81% of
respondents considered the application of CA as relatively easy
and 98% reported that CA technology uptake was growing.
Although the level of adoption (early or late adopters) was not
directly addressed in the survey, respondents were requested to
indicate which of the three elements of CA they had adopted.
This was used to develop a categorisation of CA adopters, indicated
in
Graph 1
.
ON FARM LEVEL
Western Cape / Conservation agriculture technology
Conservation agriculture
SALOME MODISELLE
and
AART-JAN VERSCHOOR,
Economic Analysis Unit, ARC-Agricultural Economics and Capacity
Development Division and
JOHANN STRAUSS,
Western Cape Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Graph 1: Categories of CA adopters.