Lessons learnt from concern worldwide's conservation agriculture interventions in Malawi and Zambia, 2010-2018.

Abstract Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a gateway technology intended to build both the productivity and resilience of smallholder farmers. Since 2010, the Ireland-based NGO Concern Worldwide has been promoting CA with extremely poor farmers in Malawi and Zambia. In the context of the specific regions within both countries, similar conditions of limited labour capacity, low financial capacity, poor soil health and constrained agriculture extension services were the primary barriers to the poorest farmers. Initial CA projects utilized broad, standardized approaches to CA with subsidized inputs that led to yield increases, but saw limited non-subsidized adoption. As a result, Concern has adapted its approaches to CA to better accommodate and embrace innovation by lead farmers, understanding different adoption strategies for follower farmers and working to improve input supply systems to meet farmers' needs. However, major constraints to adoption remain for the poorest and, going forward, CA projects will need to incorporate robust strategies for household financial stability such as the graduation model; fostering greater innovation by lead farmers within CA principles to meet local contexts; and integrating seed selection and saving for non-commercialized food crops to spur large-scale adoption of CA by the poorest farmers.