Conservation Agriculture: An Agroecological Approach to Adapting and Mitigating Climate Change Impacts on Malawi’s Agriculture

Although Africa’s contribution to the world’s greenhouse gas emission is the smallest compared to other continents, yet they tend to be affected most by the variability in Climate. Malawi is not an exception to this climate change, as they are not just faced with rising temperatures and variable rainfall patterns, but with reoccurring droughts and severe flooding. Agriculture has been noted to contribute significantly to not only climate change but also has significant impacts on global warming through its greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, not all farming systems impact negatively on climate change. Conservation Agriculture is a farming system that encourages no or minimum soil disturbance, maintenance of a permanent soil cover, and diversification of crop species. These three interlinked principles combined with good agricultural practices promote biodiversity and normal biotic processes, both on and under the ground surface, thereby increasing the productivity and nutrient use efficiency of water, into a more resilient farming system which will help sustain and improve agricultural production. This review looks at Conservation Agriculture practices in the Machinga Agricultural Development Division of Malawi and its role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. This paper shows that Conservation Agriculture has played an active role in the adaptation and mitigation of climate change effect by reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions but suggested there is a need for the government to formulate a CA framework that is founded on the three interlinked principles and not just based on soil and water conservation principles which are currently being advocated and practised.