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Josephine Mnisi and her husband are smallholder farmers in Shewula Village, in Swaziland’s eastern Lubombo Region © Mujahid Safodien/IRIN

Swaziland - Beyond Fertilizers and Tractors

JANUARY 2013 - Swaziland’s smallholder farmers face increasing difficulty making a living with traditional methods of growing maize, the staple crop. With no programmes to subsidize inputs, many farmers, unable to afford fertilizer, have seen their maize yields drop. Those who have received training in “conservation agriculture” and growing crops that are less rain-dependent than maize are faring better, but they are constrained by their lack of land tenure and inability to raise capital.