Family growers in South Africa’s semi-arid Northwest Province have radically improved maize production via traditional and modern methods. This according to research findings that appeared on The Conversation on August 16, 2024.

The results come just when maize in the country is experiencing rising prices with compensatory expanding acreage.

Notably, the small-scale farmer-dominated Northwest is also expanding its maize area and using new farming techniques.  The aim is to improve livelihoods and boost the province’s status as home to around 20% of the national maize output.

Indeed, researchers who interviewed 300 family growers here learned that the 2022-2023 harvest owes much to local-level climate-smart agriculture methods.

Climate-smart Agriculture

According to the research, many interviewee farmers from 20 communal areas have been improving tactics against changing climate since 2010.

One of their winning modern methods is growing new drought-resistant maize hybrids, which thrive under intense heat.

A key traditional method is mulching, where organic matter such as dead plants keep the soil moist. Related to this is the technique of cover-cropping, by growing rows of nitrogen-fixing legumes between maize plants.

Successful farmers also fought off pests through mixed cropping and replaced sunken beds with upraised mulch beds to grow maize. 

30% Income Boost 

The results are bespoke of an advancing income profile where earnings have risen by 30%, with partial support from worthwhile prices.

According to the study, part of the earnings derives from improving yields. Currently, climate-smart farmers in the province harvest 6.2 tonnes a hectare versus an ordinary yield of 3.9 tonnes. This is notable because the Northwest has historically trailed in yields per hectare, according to a visualization on the journal Nature. 

Additionally, small-scale farmers are now managing sales of 4.1 tonnes of maize annually, almost double the usual 2.7 tonnes. 

Besides, a subsistence farmer’s total turnover has increased to 15,000 Rand ($842.85) per hectare vis-á-vis the traditional 11,500 Rand ($646.54). 

Thus, the Northwest shows how climate-smart agricultural knowledge at the local level can change families’ fortunes. To learn more on how maize production fares in the South African province, read on in the statistics section next. 

Northwest Province’s Maize Statistics 

The Northwest Province is third after Mpumalanga and Free State in ascending order of national maize production.  Northwest’s maize output reached 2.623 million tonnes in the 2022-23 season. This was below Mpumalanga’s and Free State’s 4.442 million and 6.836 million tonnes respectively. 

By maize area, the Northwest also ranks third nationally with 95,000 hectares (2020-21 season), according to South African Grain Laboratory (SAGL). In comparison, Mpumalanga with 360,000 hectares, and Free State at 420,000 hectares, lead the 2020-21 maize area extent.

Regarding the yield rate, the Northwest has seen rapid improvements from the 1991-92 period’s meager below 1 tonne a hectare. Yields shot up in the 2013-14 period to over 4 tonnes a hectare and by 2021 averaged 5.10 tonnes a hectare. 

How much area in Northwest’s maize production is under irrigation? 

In the 2020-21 season, out of 95,000 hectares (ha), 12,700 ha were under irrigation while 82,300 ha were rain-fed.