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| Roes Bell talking to journalists |
BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
“Kunali nkhalango zachilengedwe koma zonse zinatha kale….Amaalawi titani pokweza dziko lathu mwanzeru? Tidzale mitengo yambiri. Uko kumpoto ku Karonga, apo pakati Lilongwe, kuno kumwera ku Thyolo, tidzale mitengo yambiri….,” the song went.
These were members of Nkaombe Village Forestry Club in the area of Traditional Authority Bvumbwe in Thyolo during the Income Generating Public Works Programme (IGPWP) field day recently.
Apparently, people in the rural areas have realized the need to take a leading role in fighting the effects of climate change by planting more trees.
Every country, including Malawi, is grappling with the effects of climate change. Locally, parents do tell how weather has changed (not for better, but for worse). Change in climate has and continues to negatively affect the agricultural activities worldwide.
“We used to have rains by this time. This is not the case now. Every year, we’ve to grapple with erratic rains that result in low crop yield,” said Traditional Authority (T/A) Bvumbwe.
Human activities such as burning of coal, oil, and natural gas, as well as deforestation and various agricultural and industrial practices, are altering the composition of the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. These human activities have led to increased atmospheric concentrations of a number of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and ozone in the lower part of the atmosphere.
The result is that people in the agricultural areas have failed to yield enough both for commercial and home use because of erratic rains.
However, instead of taking responsibility for their actions such as replanting of trees where they cut, people treated afforestation programmes as government’s responsibility. This was the more reason why people could not domesticate afforestation initiatives. But there is no denying that trees play a major component in rain formation process.
With this realization in mind, Income Generating Public Works Programme (IGPWP) sought financial assistance from the European Union (EU) to facilitate the formation of 1,600 forestry clubs countrywide.
IGPWP Forestry Manager Rose Bell said the aim of the programme is to replenish the natural forests while, at the same time, empowering rural masses with necessary skills that would eventually help them champion development initiatives in their localities.
According to Bell, in the programme’s initial package, each club receives materials for raising seedlings, provision of fruit tree and neem seedlings as well as polythene tubes and tree seed.
Bonuses are paid for the first two crops during nursery establishment between November and December. The clubs get other bonuses in March, April and September of the year of planting and finally in September of the year after planting.
It is this input package provided to the club valued at MK54, 320 that propelled Nkaombe Forestry Club to plant 14,121 trees. And with the performance-based bonuses totalling MK74,000, the members bought six sows to start a piggery project.
“Our plan is to distribute the piglets amongst ourselves so that every member personally benefits from the project,” said Rhoda Nkaombe, Secretary of the club. Thus people in Nkaombe can boast that they have successfully domesticated the tree-planting initiative into their village development committees (VDCs) without much hassle.
What is unique about this club, though, is that while it is men who usually dominate in development projects, women are the ones taking a leading role in Nkaombe afforestation programme.
Of the 60 members, only seven are men.
“We, as men, never thought this would benefit us. Actually, we considered it as women’s affair while we took our time drinking beer,” confessed Henry Kasamba, one of Traditional Authority (T/A) Bvumbwe’s counselors.
But Kasamba sounded apologetic when he said: “It’s sad that while we bear much responsibility for cutting down of trees in the society, we take a backstage in tree-planting projects.”
Nkaombe Village is a home to 4,729. On average, every person has planted about three treesMaybe it is befitting for women to take a leading role in the initiative for they are the ones who pay the worst price of deforestation. They are the ones who walk long distances to fetch firewood while men are exchanging calabash-full of chikokeyani at home.
Even Bell explained that village afforestation programmes could play a critical role in empowering women in different ways.
“For those in tobacco farming, village forests provide stakes used for drying their leaf. Once this project is fully domesticated, women won’t need to travel long distances to fetch firewood.
“Thus women will have enough to do other things that can help in developing their families. Our idea is to reach every village with this initiative so that every village has a forest of its own,” she said.
Besides, performance-based bonuses, which are paid into club accounts, have offered women a window of opportunity for them to invest in other income generation activities.
Bell stated that final decision on usage of funds lies with the clubs.
“Other clubs have gone into bee keeping, fruit tree propagation, production of fuelwood saving stoves, among others,” she disclosed.
Since inception, IGPWP Forestry Project has realized the planting of 37,500,000 countrywide. Total expenditure for the programm estimates is MK329.5 million while budget for current programme Mk141.8 million.
Out of the total budget, MK128,556,777 was paid out as performance-based bonuses to the 1600 clubs.
T/A Bvumbwe said afforestation programmes had come at the right time when his people are grappling with the effects of climate change such as persistent droughts.
Thyolo was one of the districts that were hit by droughts that resulted in poor crop yields in the last growing season.
“My role as a traditional leader now is to allocate more land for these people to plant more trees. I’ll allocate any uncultivated land to afforestation programme,” he said.
Bvumbwe thanked IGPWP for introducing village afforestation programme in his area saying it has helped in economically empowering women.
END
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