Press Release

For Immediate Release
For further details: www.naturalfarming.global

Scaling Natural Farming Internationally: Zambia Pilots Deliver Localized Innovations, Climate Resilience and Farmer Prosperity

Lusaka, Zambia – August 2025. For the first time in Zambia, successful pilots of innovative Natural Farming methods are underway and have delivered remarkable results across both dry and rainy seasons—enhancing food security, soil health, resilience to extreme weather, and significantly increasing farmers’ incomes in the first six months.

This breakthrough was made possible through the adaptation of the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming (APCNF) model of Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS), the world’s largest and most economically successful agroecology approach. This was an outcome of the partnership among NOW Partners Foundation (NOW), Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS), and national partners including the Zambian government, the Salesian Sisters’ Valponasca Learning Farm, and the Jesuit Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre.

The first year results on the maize crop were promising. In the first growing season in one small-scale pilot plot, naturally-farmed, rainfed maize was 47% percent higher than Zambia’s national average yield per acre, while reducing costs, increasing climate and pest resilience, introducing diet diversity and more.

The World’s Largest, Economically Successful Agroecology Movement, Now Going Global

Andhra Pradesh’s Community-managed Natural Farming (APCNF) grew from 40,000 to over one million farmers in only eight years because its groundbreaking innovations significantly improve farming outcomes. APCNF methods strengthen soil microbiology and hydrology, leading to increased farmer incomes, crop yields, soil health, biodiversity and climate resilience. Elimination of chemical inputs reduces costs, strengthens water and food security, increases nutrients and other health benefits for farmers and consumers. These science-backed results apply to diverse crops, geographic and climate conditions.

Global Partnerships for Expanded Impact

Delegates from more than 55 countries have visited APCNF. These remarkable results prompted a number of countries to ask for help in adapting APCNF to their local conditions. To respond to this global demand, RySS, the organization that developed and leads APCNF, joined forces with NOW Partners Foundation (NOW) that leverages decades of experience in successfully scaling innovation approaches. Together, they launched a series of Natural Farming pilot and scaling programs that combine APCNF’s technical and agronomic expertise with NOW’s global network and experience in respectfully adapting and scaling regenerative economic solutions to diverse local realities.

Projects are underway in Zambia, Sri Lanka, and Brazil. Nine additional countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have been identified for future implementation as funding is secured. Beyond self-funding the initial pilots, NOW and APCNF are actively engaging public and private sector partners to resource the expansion of these efforts to demonstrate at scale that increased economic prosperity for farmers and local economies can go hand-in-hand with social and environmental ecosystem regeneration.

Zambia Pilots Adapt Natural Farming Solutions for Food Security, Climate Resilience and Economic Development

In Zambia, NOW established partnerships with the Salesian Sisters’ Valponasca Learning Farm (VLF) and the Jesuit Kasisi Agricultural Training Center (KATC), both operating with networks of thousands of farmers. They were eager to adapt APCNF to their local conditions. They collaborated closely with NOW’s project management team and APCNF’s technical assistance team to develop the first two pilot projects. These are already being scaled with the help of Zambia’s government to deliver models for sustainable food production throughout Zambia and beyond.

As part of this process, RySS and NOW organized a learning journey for representatives of Zambia’s farming communities, congregations and government leaders to India to visit APCNF farms and farming communities. This enabled them to experience natural farming in diverse contexts and receive initial hands-on training.

Subsequently, APCNF farmer-coaches have been deployed in the two identified locations and have been working for the last 10 months with Zambian counterparts side by side to adapt APCNF methods to local conditions. This farmer-to-farmer coaching process is repeated until local farmers master Natural Farming methods and become themselves farmer-coaches for other local farmers.

This approach ensures that Zambian farmers develop their unique, localized farming, training and scaling approach and become independent of further support by RySS and NOW.

Localized Adaptation and Findings in Zambia

Preliminary results from a Luwingu pilot of Natural Farming’s ‘Maize A Grade Model’ showed that naturally farmed, rainfed (zero irrigation) maize (987.5kg/acre) had an almost eight times higher yield than irrigated, chemically fertilized maize (125kg/acre) in the first season. The naturally farmed maize yield was also 47% percent higher than Zambia’s national average yield per acre.

Both adjacent fields suffered heavy rains – which severely damaged the chemical crops, while the naturally farmed crops were resilient to the same conditions. Costs were also significantly lower for natural farming, incurring no costs or water usage for irrigation, and eliminating costs for chemical inputs.

Additionally, the naturally-farmed maize included additional ‘biodiversity crops’ that are also income and diet diversity sources for farmers. These included not only maize, but cassava, pigeon pea, zucchini, cucumber, cowpea and over ten additional crops. The chemical mono-crop was solely dependent on maize yield. 

Across multiple crop models, after the first growing seasons the Zambia Natural Farming pilots are showing tangible results that are being further developed, measured and evaluated:

● Soil health: Natural Farming bio-stimulants and other APCNF methods enhanced microbial soil life, creating healthier root systems and field hydrology.

● Increased productivity: Improved soil health and multi-layer cropping increased field productivity, in comparison to prior chemical input-supported monocropping.

● Nutrition and food security: Increased yields and crop diversity combined with climate and pest resilience enhance nutrition and overall food security.

● Reduced costs: Natural Farming methods significantly reduced costs to farmers by eliminating expensive chemical inputs and by developing all inputs with materials available in their community.

● Higher farming incomes: Reduced costs combined with higher yields, created significantly higher and more resilient farming incomes.

● Increased cultivation area: Eliminating costly chemical inputs allows farmers to cultivate additional areas of their farms, further increasing incomes and food security. 

● Reduced water needs: Natural Farming methods reduce water needs and related costs, addressing one of Zambia greatest environmental challenges.

● Planting in dry season: Reduced water needs allowed crops to be sown with good results during the dry season when farming was previously considered impossible.

● Improved climate resilience: Soil health and water holding capacity, expanded root systems and stronger plant biology increased crop resilience.

These initial results indicate the potential benefits that carefully adapted Natural Farming practices can provide, not only to the existing pilot partners but towards the larger goal of transitioning food systems towards more sustainable and productive agriculture in Zambia.

Stakeholder Perspectives

Salesian Sister Chansa Modester who leads the Valponasca Learning Farm commented: “Due to the NOW and APCNF team support, we now have seen that the benefits of Natural Farming are also successful here in Zambia. We have seen Natural Farming crops survive storms when the chemical crops were destroyed. We have seen stronger plants, and paid less than for chemical inputs. My vision is one day all our hectares at Valponasca, we turn them to Natural Farming.”

Jesuit Father Claus Rechtenwald of the Kasisi Agricultural Training Center (KATC) shared: “Through the Natural Farming demos at KATC, we have seen a lot of potential of co-learning and cross-fertilization between the different types of chemical-free farming methods like Natural Farming, Agroecology and organic farming. Farmers are excited to integrate new ideas into their farms, test and adjust them to improve their food security and reduce the costs of their farms.”

Malilwe Penelope, Chief Coordinator of Agriculture Training Institutions at the Zambian Ministry of Agriculture, commented: “Already you can tell that farmers are able to have money continuously throughout the year, and the soils are being built at the same time. If more farmers and the youths are given this opportunity to learn natural farming then we’ll have more food security, income security, and the households will be happy families.”

RySS Executive Vice Chair Vijay Kumar states: “The Natural Farming pilot results in Zambia have exceeded our expectations, signalling the continued success of the APCNF model outside India. In India, APCNF has been  successful across 16 very diverse states. In Andhra Pradesh, over 1 million farmers and their 10,000 master farmer trainers   have become a dynamic innovation lab that is now being extended to include more and more farmers from around the world”.

Walter Link, Chair of NOW concludes: “To respond to the urgent requests of our local partners, we made decades of research and hands-on experience available and self-financed the initial implementation pilots. Now we need the support of public and private sector donors and investors to develop solid proofs of concept that become the foundation to scale locally adapted Natural Farming into a significant contribution towards developing a sustainable mainstream of agriculture that supports farming communities, ecosystems and economies in Zambia and across Africa, Asia and Latin America where so many farmers want to work with us.”

A Blueprint for the Future

The success of Zambia’s Natural Farming pilots is generating widespread interest among farming, research, and training communities in the region. In addition to expansion at Valponasca Learning Farm and KATC, Zambia’s agricultural colleges and extension systems, which train 5,000 emerging farmers and experts annually, are now seeking to integrate APCNF into their curricula and develop new implementation pilots.

This international co-innovation initiative demonstrates that the economic interests of farmers and rural economies can be integrated with the regeneration of ecosystems and communities, offering a scalable blueprint for climate-resilient, sustainable agriculture worldwide.

For further information, visit:
www.naturalfarming.global