Farmers' taxonomies as a participatory diagnostic tool: soil fertility management in Chihota, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Soil infertility is a major constraint to food production in the communal areas of Zimbabwe. Smallholders in the region recognise the problems of low soil fertility and have devised ways of coping with them. This study describes the use of farmers' taxonomies of themselves and their soils to identify and understand the options they have, and the constraints they face, to manage poor soil fertility in Chihota, a sub-humid communal area of north central Zimbabwe. It is part of an effort by the Soil Fertility Network for Maize-Based Cropping Systems in Malawi and Zimbabwe (Soil Fert Net), a grouping of agricultural researchers and extensionists working on improved soil fertility technologies, towards more integration with farmers to expose them to promising technologies, get feedback on their merits and feasibility, and help farmers experiment with them. The results show that these farmers have relatively sophisticated taxonomies, which provide a good picture of the resources, constraints, and concerns they have about soil infertility and ways to manage it. The taxonomies are an important framework for integration of technical interventions with farmers' requirements, systems, and circumstances.