Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA)

Commercial farming increased agricultural production for many farmers in the world and achieved significant gains in terms of food security. However, many of the small-farm holders did not benefit very much from the so called “Green Revolution technology”. The small-farm holders who have been using chemical fertilizers and pesticides are caught in the debt trap due to the high cost of those fertilizers, lack of credit, poor access to markets, and lack of investible surplus.

The CMSA approach replaces the use of chemical pesticides with a combination of physical and biological measures—including eco-friendly bio pesticides—and complements it by adopting biological and agronomic soil fertility improvement measures leading to reduced use of chemical fertilizers. There is a potential of scaling up this approach as CMSA is showing trends of being economically viable and ecologically friendly. As this approach challenges the dominant high input subsidized model for agricultural inputs and relies more on the efforts of communities, it is likely to trigger a debate on the new paradigm for agriculture for small farmers and its role. CMSA approach will also point to the new directions in the area of adaptation to climate change in case of agriculture sector and provision of environmental services by the small holders.

Pro Africa with the implementation of 52 irrigation schemes since 2000 is facing the problems of small scale agriculture/horticulture projects in South Matabeleland. 7 new projects will be developed within the next 3 years. Whereby the orientation of agriculture production (ECOLOGICALLY SOUND,
ECONOMICALLY VIABLE) is similar due to a pilot project in Andhra Pradesh, India which was presented by the World Bank in 2009 (Community Managed Approaches to Sustainable Agriculture in India, The work Bank, 1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20433).

The high cost of conventional agriculture which is input intensive, the lack of access to institutional credit, insufficient fertilizer supply and inadequate state-run extension services lead to the situation, that Farmers spend as much as 35 per cent of their total cultivation and conventional agriculture was becoming unviable as a means of livelihood. This reality strengthened the need for a paradigm shift in agriculture.

Pro Africa is promoting, besides the training in biological agriculture, the ideology of CMSA. The sociological component of economically friendly, ecologically sound is used since the beginning of the irrigation implementation in 2000.CMSA technologies and practices are a mixture of scientifically proven methods, indigenous knowledge and traditional wisdom. CMSA is managed entirely by community groups with knowledge and capacity building services from Pro-Africa.

Economic Benefits Environmental Benefits

• Lower Cost of Production
• Yield Maintained or Increased
• Higher Household Income
• Higher Cropping Intensity
• Better Soil health, water conservationConservation of agro-biodiversity
• Fewer Pesticide related health problems
• Smaller Carbon footprint as a result of reduced use &production of inorganic fertilizers
• Higher net incomes are being realised as a result of lower cost of cultivation and
  good yield.
• One of the critical economic impacts of CMSA is on food security both at the
  household level and village level.
• Sustainable agriculture has significant positive impacts on food security at the
  household level.