Innovative Technologies to Improve Climate Resilience in the Zambian Agricultural Sector (InTeCRes) - Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management

The Innovative Technologies to Improve Climate Resilience in the Zambian Agricultural Sector (InTeCRes) project is part of the German Bilateral Cooperation Programme funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). The project is being implemented by the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL), as the coordinating partner, in collaboration with the Agricultural Knowledge and Training Centre (AKTC), Golden Valley Agricultural Research Trust (GART), National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Stellenbosch University (SUN), Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI), Zambia Air Services Training Institute (ZASTI) and Zambia Meteorological Department (ZMD). The implementation of the project is overseen and supported by the GFA Consulting Group GmbH as the general agent acting on behalf of BMEL. The project activities are hosted by AKTC at the GART Chaloshi Farm in Chisamba.

Focus area

to build capacity of emergent farmers in the utilisation of novel and innovative technologies to improve crop productivity and farm management in the face of climate change

Objectives

1

to strengthen Zambia’s vulnerable agricultural sector by building scientific and technical capacities in the application of innovative technologies for improved crop production and farm management under climate change conditions

2

to build the capacity of emergent farmers to use precise soil scanning equipment and drone technology for crop and drought monitoring and efficient farm management under climate change conditions

3

to build the capacity for climate and weather information-based farm decision making and planning in response to changing rainfall patterns and other weather conditions

Approach

The project will be implemented in three phases:

Phase 1

The first phase commenced on 1 June 2019. This phase includes the procurement of the drone, soil sensing equipment and the installation of an automatic weather station.

Phase 2

The second phase will comprise of the following three work packages:

WP1: Installation of the weather station, data dissemination and climate assessment.
WP2: Soil scanning and soil-chemical assessment for fertiliser optimisation.
WP3: Airborne crop monitoring

The automatic weather station data will allow for monthly assessments of weather conditions and will further be used to assess and document soil, water and microclimatic conditions during days of farm activities.

The automatic weather station data will be made available via the SASSCAL WeatherNet. Weather information will be disseminated to farmers and awareness will be raised amongst farmers to strengthen their access to weather information.

Soil scanning technology will be introduced to farmers from the region, to demonstrate its potential for improving fertiliser applications. Field scale characterisation will be demonstrated under both rainfed and irrigated growing conditions and will include training and demonstration on use of soil scanning equipment.