Scratch - Dibble - Slash -Weed Maize

This is about where we're at to plant on time, get good germination and save labour!

Clear residue out of planting rows to facilitate easy planting with the dibble stick. Use rope or follow last years rows to get straight lines.

Make sure you've 'scratched' clear the rows before the 15th of November!

Make sure the manure is as close to the field as possible before the rains start. Remember - always cover the manure to save nutrients! 

 

Follow the scratch lines and punch holes with the dibble stick.

Make holes 35-40cm apart in the row.

 

Plant maize and pigeon pea in the same hole. 2 seeds maize 3-4 seeds pigeon pea.

Cover with loose soil to make sure the soil falls down to the base of the hole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For maize, residues are cleared before the first planting date (NOV 15th for us). This year we were also chipping weeds in the rows due to the early rains. A line can be used if you can't follow the rows from last year. All our dry land crops are planted on 90cm row spacing.

 

 

Here, pigeon pea is planted together with the maize. 3/4 seeds of pigeon pea to 2 seeds of maize. Hole are made 35-40cm apart in the row.  

Seeds are either covered with well decomposed manure or, as shown in this picture, with loose soil. If you use soil to cover the seeds, the soil must fill the hole and no air pocket should be left in the hole.

Here, perennial green manures (Stylosanthes Guainensis in this case) grow between the rows and will later be slashed back to release nitrogen. One person makes holes, one throws seed and the other covers with manure.

Here silverleaf desmodium grows between maize rows.

Slashed green manures allow the crop to grow on and cuttings decompose and release nitrogen into the soil.

Ooops! Here maize is planted between established pigeon pea plants. After planting, pigeon pea is cut back to form a mulch which decomposes to add nutrients to the soil. The pigeon pea grows back with the maize.

Maize germinating with climbing beans.

With silverleaf desmodium as a permanent ground cover, weeds are cut back 2 or three time during the growing season and left to grow in the canopy of the maize. The deep rooting silverleaf provides livestock with high quality forage throughout the dry season. 

Maize grows faster than the pigeon pea so there is no competition on the maize crop. Pigeon pea grows together with the maize in the same planting station - this allows for efficient weeding. Where pigeon pea is planted between the rows, weeding becomes slow and often many pigeon pea plants are killed during weeding.

2-3 weeks after slashing the weeds back, manure is applied as a top dressing just before the final weeding.

Top dressing with manure.

Maize is almost mature and the pigeon pea grows on in the canopy.

Here velvet bean grows up the maize plants.

Scratch - Dibble - Slash - Weed - Harvest (SOYA)

Here is an idea of where we are in terms of our system for soyabean production. Take a look and see what you think!

Here is the soya bean field the day of planting! About 6 weeks weed growth after an early rain in October. 

Scratch the lines free of weeds with hoes on a 90cm row spacing, following the shallow ridges made during weeding in the previous year.

Use the dibble stick to make holes 15cm or so apart. Plant 5-6 soya bean seeds in each hole and cover with well decomposed cattle manure. (Approx. 2000kg/Ha) 

As the seeds are germinating, slash weeds back with a grass slasher as close to the ground as possible.

I couldn't get this photo the right way up! The soya bean germination was perfect.

The slashed grass makes a mulch over the germinating soya and releases nutrients and carbon into the soil.

A few days later and the soya rows are clearly seen.

Another slashing 2-3 weeks later allows the soya to grow on further without the need for cultivation.

3-4 weeks later, one cultivation is done.

Soya beans form a complete canopy on 90cm row spacing.

This trial has five soya bean varieties for comparison under low-input farming systems. The results of this trial will be posted after harvest.

2011-2012 Rainy season

Happy New Year!
This season has been tough for farmer across the board. Erratic and low rainfall has meant many farmers have had to re-plant or fill spaces where crops failed to germinate, our first rain over 20mm was on Christmas day - 21mm. It's been an education for us and the lessons have been clear. Organic residues or loose soil as a 'mulch' to stop capillary action and moisture loss has meant the difference between a good crop stand and re-planting this year.
We have had a good chance to develop our dibble stick planting method which seems to make a lot of sense for farmers who want to realize the benefits of minimum or zero-tillage and want to plant quickly after a planting rain. We feel with the ‘dibble stick’ method, three people could plant 1ha of maize in a day in an average soil.
We're also doing some trials with ground up velvet beans as a source of fertility for maize.

The early planted maize is looking good so far, let’s hope the rain continues to fall, at least every now and then!

Detailed reports and pictures to come!

The Challenges and Some Answers to Maize Cropping in Zambia

Growing dry land crops on any scale by hand is hard work and yet most of Zambia’s maize is grown by small-scale farmers, the majority by hand. We have an almost perfect climate for growing maize and potential yields here can equal any in the world. Yet our national average maize yield is very low despite government extension and heavily subsidized fertilizer to the small-scale farmer. The underlying reasons for this are simple, our soil is being destroyed by bad agricultural practices. These ‘bad’ practices include: burning of residues, over-grazing of residues, excessive soil disturbance and minimal, if any use of organic soil amendments. All of these practices lead to depletion of the basis of any fertile soil –Organic Matter. Our goal with any cropping system is to increase organic matter as much as possible to build fertile and resilient soils for today, tomorrow and the future. Soils which are high in organic matter are: more able to hold onto nutrients, micro-organisms and moisture, hold a greater diversity of nutrients and micro-organisms, have a greater capacity to release chemically bound nutrients and are generally more disease and pest suppressive. My observation over more than 10 years of growing crops by hand is that all these are true. My neighbors who plough, burn or overgraze their land commonly receive drought stress up to three weeks before me, always have higher production costs and lower yields than me. My soil is improving every year whereas they complain of declining yields even with increased fertilizer application. The key is organic matter but how???

The traditional way to add organic matter to the soil is to return manure to the soil, preferably in the form of compost. The rise of fertilizer supplied cheaply all over the world has made it difficult to produce organic crops cost effectively for a few reasons:

1. because of the bulky nature of organic matter.

2. Because of the cost of production of compost.

3. Because the nutrients in organic matter are harder to quantify than in commercial fertilizer.

All of these are specifically true of the small scale farm in rural Africa where able bodied people are either moving to town or suffering from prevalent diseases.

The answers?  Inter-cropped legumes, low labour/high nutrient compost and integrated animal husbandry. Here are some of the options we have identified in our environment.

Maize/dolichos lab-lab, a perrenial legune best suited to frost free areas where it grows throughout the dry season and gives excellent gound cover and organic matter production. Also an excellent fodder which is high in Lysine so also good for monogastric animals.

Maize/velvet bean. Can be used as a livestock feed at seed set or left to set seed and used in the modulated velvet bean system highlighted below.

In this system sunnhemp (crotalaria Juncea) or determinate cowpea (vinga spp) are grown between the row of maize spaced at 90cm at planting.

Then the maize is weeded in the row only and compost is added if needed.

Then the green manure is slashed or hoed and allowed to rot in situ as a 'top dressing'.

This trial gave us a 6 tonne per Ha equivelent with only 1 tonne compost per ha equivelent during weeding.

Here, red sunnhemp(crotalaria O.), was broadcast seeded at first weeding. As maize matures the sunnhemp starts flowering, good for forage or left in situ as a mulch.

Another example of red sunnhemp.

Here, Pigeon Pea (Cajanus Cajan) is planted at planting for maize or during the first weeding between the rows. This is an excellent option for farmers who need high quality forage into the dry season and those who have a market for the seed or like to eat it.

Next year I will try more options:

-Jack Bean, reputed to fix more than 300kg N per year, very drough tolerant and good in areas with heavily populated with stock as they apparently don't eat the foliage.

-Climbing beans as a food crop and ground cover plant.

-Silver-leaf desmodium, an excellent cover crop and forage often used as a repellent crop in the 'push/pull system developed in Kenya.

-Seven year bean, a prolific perrenial bean from Kenya, very good eating.