There lived a time when farmers hardly needed fertilizer for maximum yield in their fields.
Gradually that story changed and has kept on changing as farmers and farming households now have to largely depend on fertilizer.
Thats; all because the country has continued and continues to lose its soil fertility chiefly to soil erosion, and such unsustainable agriculture practices like rapid deforestation forcing farmers to increasingly become dependent on fertilizers to boost production.
This is not only reducing productivity in the agriculture sector but also causing a general decline in profitability of crop production and thus continually worsening hunger situation in the country.
According to Dr Rodwell Mzonde, Director of Agriculture Planning in the Ministry of Agriculture, the nation was losing 1.07 to 10 metric tons of its top soil per hector annually.
He notes this is a setback to achieving food security in an agro based economy like Malawi where 80% of the population depend on farming to make a living.
“We are losing our top soil at a very fast rate and you know this is the source of our productivity because the soil has the nutrients, so this problem means we are likely to continue experiencing a decline in agriculture production”, Mzonde said.
Selemani Makata a maize farmer from Mzimba district in the northern region, says the predicament at hand was putting his family at risk of poverty and hunger.
“When my late father cultivated on this land, he used to harvest over 50 bags of maize very year without applying much fertilizer, but now it is so difficult to harvest the same amount, the land has lost its fertility and production is low, I struggle to have enough maize to feed my family and sell, “ Makata said.
Equally, Chikondi Kamanda, a farmer from Chikwawa district, southern Malawi expresses her fears from the situation which has already caused her to abandon part of her land which has become heavily eroded.
“I am worried because Ive already stopped cultivating on part of my land, I think this is likely to get worse and if it does I wont harvest enough crops to feed my family”, Kamanda said.
Previous studies have established higher rates of soil erosion in Malawi with research conducted by UN agencies, FAO, UNDP and UNEP in 2017 indicating an average loss of top soils of 22 tons per hectare per year.
According to the research, the northern regions registered moderate soil erosion rates, ranging between 0.4 and 39 tons per hectare per year whilst the southern region fell to less than 10 tons per hectare per year.
At a time statistics indicate this problem was reducing productivity of the agriculture sector by 6%, Zidwe Jere, Executive Director for total land care says sensitizing the masses on suitable use of land was key to addressing the situation.
“We have serious environmental problems ,especially with soil erosion which is impacting greatly on land productivity and thereby reducing crop yield, so there is need to empower communities to ensure sustainable use of land” Jere said.
Also a 2021 report by Climate Smart Agriculture Development titled Climate Change Impacts on Soil Erosion in Tanzania and Malawi suggests the promotion of agro-forestry and other land management practices to reduce soil erosion to manageable levels.
“In the present day, land management such as terracing may be enough to reduce soil erosion from high to moderate in most, but not all mountainous areas. Terracing was able to reduce the levels of soil erosion with climate change, however areas with high soil erosion still remained”, reads part of the report.
In addition, Professor Pedro Sanchez of the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Florida in the United States notes that the loss of fertile soil was a threat to Malawi achieving the agenda 2063.
“Soil loss is one of the major threats to agricultural development in Malawi, not only does it reduce the cultivable soil depth but also takes away the fertile soils from the farmlands.
Most Malawi soils are now unhealthy because they have been depleted of nutrients. Bare soil guarantees runoff and erosion at the start of the rains,” Sanchez said.
To address the challenge , government in partnership with development partners are implementing various strategies to control soil loss which include contour ploughing, ridging, conservation agriculture, crop rotation and manure application.
With this, Sanchez challenges authorities to monitor progress of these measures from time to time in order to provide room for improvement.
“Time-series assessment of soil loss combined with a monitoring framework gives the opportunity to assess the effectiveness of these control measures” he said.
Further, Associate Professor, Patson Nalivata, says agricultural transformation was vital in achieving Malawis vision of creating an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant nation.
He believes it is important to enhance appropriate agricultural production interventions, promote the adoption of climate smart agricultural technologies, good land management practices and environment management.
“Some of the released technologies, with a consideration of an integrated approach include legume intensification, use of bio-fertilizers, bio-inorganic fertilizers, soil and water conservation management practices that include conservation agriculture such as deep-bed farming” Nalivata said.
Every year, soil erosion in Malawi reduces agricultural productivity thereby putting less food on the table for many households.
A 2011 Poverty Environment Initiative study estimates that if soil erosion was effectively tackled, 1.88 million Malawians could have been lifted out of poverty between 2005 and 2015.
Meanwhile – data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization indicates that 40% of soil in Africa is degraded and this is particularly worrisome at a time 83% of Sub-Saharan African people depend on land for their livelihood,
Statistics also show that Food production in Africa will have to increase almost 100 percent by 2050 to keep up with population demands, making soil erosion a pressing social, economic, and environmental issue for many African countries.