Key national drivers of conservation agriculture at the central level in Malawi

Abstract

Conservation agriculture (CA) is extensively promoted in Sub-Saharan Africa to address climatic shocks and land degradation. However, adoption of CA by smallholder farmers remains on the back burner. Currently, the national drivers of CA at the central level are one of the critical areas to focus on to attain the uptake. This study aims to analyze key national drivers that affect the adoption of CA in Malawi. The data was collected through policy document review and key informant interviews. The data was analyzed using thematic content analysis and thematic analysis. Findings show that CA is strongly incorporated in the National Agriculture Policy 2024, while in other policy documents reviewed, the integration is very weak and absent. Similarly, findings display that the National Conservation Agriculture Task Force guidelines are unclear, disagree, and overlook other research areas. Finally, institutions are well integrated in the policy documents with minimal collaboration. Therefore, the researcher calls on the Ministry of Agriculture to first enhance CA incorporation in the policy documents reviewed and integrate the National Agriculture Policy 2024 document with other policy documents in sensitizing stakeholders at the local level for policy enforcement to enhance CA adoption. Second, strengthen institutional collaboration amongst CA development partners. Third, disseminate flexible CA messages and interact with smallholder farmers. Fourth, the Ministry of Agriculture is to review and disseminate the new CA guidelines to stakeholders. Lastly, the researcher posits the government should enforce a full devolution of financial resources to the local level for CA implementation.