By Yamikani Yapuwa

Thyolo, August 4, Mana: In the Serene Village of Maonga in Sub-Traditional Authority (STA) Mlenga in Thyolo District, farmers under Msuwadzi Catchment are quietly revolutionizing sustainable farming through agronomics and sustainable land management.

One family of Gyson Chipangula, who have been in farming since 1980 is proving that sustainability and prosperity can indeed go hand in glove.

Amidst their flourishing tree woodlot and a vibrant tea field, the Chipangula’s have not only practiced environmental conservation but turned fish farming into a lifeline for their family.

“My family has three fish ponds and our annual harvest stands at 360 kgs of fish, sold at K5, 000 per kilogramme translating into K1.8 million per year.

“This money has enabled us to buy settlement land, build a decent home and pay for our children’s education,” Chipangula said.

Apart from the economic gains, the family says through planting trees and tea, they have been able to reduce water run-off which causes siltation and gully erosion in their fields; thereby, conserving the environment.

Jenipher Chibani, who is into dairy farming shares a similar story of the Chipangulas, saying she was getting triple rewards from the venture by getting milk for sale, manure for her maize field as well as increased yields due to manure application from her two dairy cattle.  

“My household is no longer the same since I started dairy farming in 2013. The cows give me 25 litres per day which I sell at K380 per litre bringing K285, 000 per month,” she claimed.

Chibani boasted that, “Moreover, the manure from the Cows have helped me a lot in increasing crop yield. So, you can see that I’m making money from milk and harvesting more because of using manure from the same cows.”

He added that even the nutritional status of her family members has improved, as they are able to eat balanced diet meals since she has the money and maize to allow her that luxury.

Additionally, other farmers from 13 villages under Msuwadzi Catchment are practicing sustainable land management activities where they are planting vertices grass, making stone bunds, constructing contour marker ridges, ridge alignment and gully reclamation, among others.

Land Resource Conservation Officer for Thyolo District Council, Madalitso Uledi said all the benefits that Chipangula and Chibani are waxing lyrical about are some of the positives that come with the adoption of Integrated Catchment Conservation and Management (ICM) both at individual household and catchment levels.

“Sustainable land management activities and well managed crop, livestock and fish farming are interlinked, supporting ecological resilience and food security,” she stated.

“Sustainable land management enhances soil fertility and water availability which helps to have adequate water for fish farming, crop production and more feed for animals.”

“In the same manner, crop, livestock and fish farming provide food and materials which enhance soil fertility and climate resilience; hence, the need for farmers to adopt these agricultural practices,” she explained.

Blantyre Agriculture Development Division (ADD) Chief Land Resource Conservation Officer, Medson Thole noted that adoption of interventions to conserve the environment enhance availability of water in the soil making it easy for all sorts of farming to thrive.

“We are talking of interventions and technologies like planting trees in upper catchment, constructing marker ridges to control erosion, manure making, gully reclamation and agronomics.

“In the long run, farmers start to harvest more yield for the whole catchment as these help to restore the land, enhance soil moisture as well as increase soil fertility,” he said.

Bearing in mind that land is a very scarce commodity in Thyolo, Thole feels that integrated catchment conservation and management provides a chance to farmers to restore the eroded soil since they do not have any other place to open up new farms.

Team Leader from Lujeri popularly known as Nchima Tea and Macademia Estates, Hannock Maluwa pointed out that promotion of ICM in the district was necessary in easing the pressure that people exert on natural resources owned by estates.

“If people are planting trees in their farms and along river banks, cases of people stealing logs of trees from forests belonging to estates will reduce,” he observed.

Maluwa added that, “Even encroachment on company land and opening up farms since their fields cannot longer be productive since the soil has been degraded will stop since soil fertility will be restored.”

Acting Director of Agriculture and Natural Resources for Thyolo District Council, Mphatso Kafuwa admitted that there are a number of things that have gone wrong with the environment; hence, scaling up good agricultural practices and interventions in all the Extension Planning Areas (EPAs) in the district.

“We want these modern agricultural methods to be done in the farmers’ fields, in the villages as well as in the mountains where gullies need to be reclaimed,” he emphasized.

“We will tirelessly work with Agriculture Extension Development Coordinators (AEDCs) from all EPAs, chiefs, village natural resources committees and village agricultural committees to promote all these technologies across the district,” he stressed.

Kafuwa has aspired the Council where every household achieves food sufficiency and being able to even sell to others and earn tangible income just as the Chipangulas and Chibani are doing.

“We want to reach a point where all the degraded land has been restored; all the gullies have been reclaimed and our forests are back to how they used to be several years back,” he said with a trace of hope loaded in his voice.