Labor requirements and profitability of alternative soil fertility management options in Zambia

Low soil fertility is a major concern in agricultural productivity and development policy discourse in sub-saharan Africa. The probl em is exacerbated by government withdrawal from fertilizer input markets and the inability of private sector operators to fill the gap. This warranted a search for other nutrient sources to supplement ch emical fertilizers. Based on field data collected in Zambia, this study assessed the labor inputs implications of “improved tree fallows”, continuous maize cropping with and without mineral fertilizer and, evaluated the financial profita bility of the different land use systems. Results show that agroforestry-based land us e systems are more pr ofitable (NPV between $233 and $309 per ha) than farmers’ practi ce of continuous maize production without external fertilization ($130/ha) but, they are less profitable than mi neral fertilizer ($499). When the effects of the 50% government s ubsidy on fertilizers are considered, the differences in the profitability of fertilizers over improved tree fallows falls from 61% to 13%. The returns per person labor-day is $3.20 for fertilizer and $2.50, $2.40, and $1.90 respectively, for the three ag roforestry options evaluated and only $1.10 for unfertilized maize. These returns compare with a daily agricultural wage of $0.50 in the study area. Key determinants of financial attractivene ss and by extension, potential adoptability of the land use systems were identified. Given the low rate (20%) of farmers in Zambia who have access to fertilizers, there is a large nich e to integrate other soil nutrient replenishing options with fertilizer to improve food s ecurity and reduce povert y among resource-poor smallholder farmers in Africa.

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