By Bishop Witmos & Shaffie Bakali

Mangochi, June 26, Mana: Mangochi District Council Chairperson, Hassan Chikuta, has urged traditional leaders and their subordinates in the district to embrace the patronage of catchment conservation and management to successfully restore degraded land as well as prevent perennial dry spells.

Chikuta made the call during the launch of Lowe Lingamasa Catchment Management of Traditional Authority (TA) Chowe in the district on Wednesday, under the Malawi Watershed Services Improvement Project (MWASIP).

He said Lower Lingamasa Catchment is one of the areas in Mangochi that was heavily affected by dry spells this year due to land degradation as a result of wanton cutting down of trees.

“The launch of MWASIP is aimed at boosting agricultural capacity of rural farmers. I am urging communities in Lower Lingamasa to take catchment conservation and management seriously in order to address effects of climate change,” Chikuta said.

Director of Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources for Mangochi District Council, Nditani Maluwa, said in a bid to have a successful project, the council has outlined various activities as well as collaborative partnership with key players in natural resource management.

“In this campaign, we will empower 18,000 farmers with effective messages pertaining to sustainable land management practices, conduct door-to-door campaigns as well as meetings with traditional and other community opinion leaders,” said Maluwa.

Maluwa said the council intends to restore over 7,000 hectares of degraded land across the district considering that the district has been losing almost 800 hectares yearly for the past five years due to poor farming practices, soil erosion and floods.

A representative of Senior Chief Chowe, Daudi Saudi hailed MWASIP, observing that for the past month it has been operating in the area, the intervention has since empowered communities with climate smart agriculture methodologies.

Mangochi District Council launched the initiative under the theme: “Integrated Catchment Conservation and Management for Enhanced Climate Resilience and Improved Livelihoods.”