Leading conservation farmer shows how

ELVIRA HATTINGGROOTFONTEINConservation farming techniques have been proven to provide improved and sustainable productivity, improved profits and food security.While research shows that conservation farming, despite a decade and a half of promotion and support programmes, has still not been able to gain a foothold in Namibia, one farmer in the Maize Triangle has been doing this for 12 years.Klaas Malan, who farms on the farm Venus in the Grootfontein Valley, explains that the core of conservation farming is to change our attitude towards nature.“I feel it is a privilege to be able to act responsibly," he explained to Agri Monitor during a visit to his farm last week.Malan is a prominent arable farmer in the Maize Triangle. He has been applying conservation farming techniques for 12 years and does not plough his maize fields.He is also known as a campaigner that the Namibian government should offer local arable farmers the choice to plant GMO maize."We follow a more biological than chemical approach to agriculture - you protect the microbiology in the soil and work to promote it and at the same time avoid what harms it," he explains."When I started looking at the no-tillage system 15 years ago, I may have done it for the wrong reasons. I knew about the benefits like better water infiltration, the coating that retains moisture better and better conditions for microbiology."I only realised what it was all about when I discovered the benefits of cover crops and total conservation farming, which get the whole ecological system up and running," he said.GOVERNMENTOver the past decade, numerous policies for the promotion of both conservation farming and agricultural development have emerged locally, while government rulings are often in favour of this method.The agriculture ministry defines conservation farming as an approach to managing agricultural ecosystems for improved and sustainable productivity, improved profits and food security. This while preserving and improving the resources and environment.It is considered worldwide as a “climate-smart” farming technique and is often considered in contrast to intensive or industrial agriculture, which achieves maximum crop production at the expense of the environment.IN PRACTICEMalan showed Agri Monitor a land on which cover crops had been planted the previous year. The remains were left on the land and this year maize was planted in between. He explains his no-tillage approach involves not ploughing lands."There are conditions - you cannot plant in hard, dry soil. However, I have been through the country with a 'strip-tiller' this year, which to a certain extent enables you to plant dry.”He explains that a 'strip-tiller' is an implement that only cultivates the narrow row in which you are going to plant."We have a satellite navigation system on all the tractors, our rows 'move'.”He says the navigation system allows you to cultivate only the narrow rows to plant exactly in them. His maize has already come up because the rain on his land so far has been sufficient.Malan says he drives over and over on some roads through his fields - mainly for spraying - for everything from weeds, fertilisers or foliar feeding."Certain herbicides, for example, are very detrimental to the microbiology in the soil, while others are better.”He says even a conservation farmer cannot completely move away from herbicides."The art lies in finding the one that is least harmful. In the end, we still have to make a profit. If I do not make a profit, I should not continue farming,” he says.Malan also applies chicken manure to his fields, but because the environment also has fierce heat and enough moisture, the humic acid in the manure contributes to his mulch on the soil being digested faster.However, he is convinced that the benefits of chicken manure for the plants and the micro-elements in the soil are so good that the manure remains an essential element. “As long as chicken manure is available and affordable, I will continue to use it.”WATERMalan says the better your cover on the ground, the cooler it keeps your ground. This means the evaporation of water is less, while rain penetrates the soil better.On the other hand, ploughed soil often strikes after it has rained several times.No-tillage enabled him to multiply the infiltration rate of the rain multiple times."This means we do not have a problem with water runoff - unless, for example, you get 100 mm of rain," he says."The water drains slowly and does not flow away, because there is enough plant material to hold it."Malan says conservation farming means he is also more resistant to droughts. He says in 2017 they had a good rainy season, which was followed by a dry 2018."My long-term harvest average on a certain land was three to three-and-a-half tonnes per hectare. In the dry 2018, I harvested five-and-a-half tonnes on that land. This, thanks to the previous year's excess moisture that was retained over the mulch on the ground and the fact that my plants were able to utilise all the rain that did fall.”However, he says disaster droughts, like in 2019, are finally depleting all your moisture reserves."There are always extremes that you will not get past."LIFE IN THE GROUNDMalan says an organic mulch also houses insects - a conservation farmer's "friends"."I have always been told that in Namibia we do not have earthworms, but termites do, because no one gets it right to establish earthworms on their lands."I believed it until I started applying the no-till method. Then suddenly there are earthworms!”He believes the use of GMO seed will enable arable farmers to use fewer harmful chemicals, which is better for the environment."If I can use biotechnology in my seed, I do not have to spray any insecticides. Studies have been done that prove that if you spray insecticide against one harmful pest, you are actually killing 1 500 insects, which is either beneficial or does you no harm. That includes bees.”He says GMOs, on the other hand, only work on the one harmful plague."It is much more environmentally friendly," he says.Malan says Namibian arable farmers' production potential is severely limited because they do not have the choice to plant GMO crops."At the same time, we eat GMO products anyway. The maize flour we buy on shelves is GMO flour, because the maize we import from South Africa is GMO maize."I am considering, if we cannot do that in the future, to stop planting maize altogether and focus only on cattle production," he said."For me, the risks are fewer and it is a more sustainable farming," he said.CARBONMalan says carbon is also a very important element for the soil."However, the more you cultivate your soil, the more carbon you burn and it disappears from the soil. The less you cultivate it, the more carbon is retained and there may be some binding back into the soil.”He says carbon builds up better in the fields where he grazes his cattle in the wet season."Their manure falls on the fields, is trampled in and worked into the ground by dung beetles. The carbon-building process is better than in places where you do not have the livestock interaction," he said."Nature is so created with plants and animals, not just plants," he explained.Malan aims to finally place all his lands under a crop rotation system, where he plants grain for one year and cover crops for one year."However, I will only be able to do this if Namibian farmers are allowed to use GMO technology."

Leading conservation farmer shows how

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-16

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Leading conservation farmer shows how

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-16

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