By Charlie Ligomeka

Machinga, February 2, Mana: Machinga District Council has launched the 2024-2025 Forestry Season to plant over one million trees to ensure vegetative cover in places that require trees to address land degradation and other environmental related problems.

Machinga District Commissioner Rodrick Mateauma launched the district level forestry season at Mdikila Primary School in Traditional Authority (T/A) Nkula’s area on Wednesday under the theme: ‘Restore forest and land to secure food production’.

Machinga District Forestry Officer Henry Kagulo said the district had already planted 500,000 trees and was committed to reach the one million target with participation of various sectors and community members.

He expressed hope that community members will be enthusiastic to plant many trees, saying the target was possible to achieve.

“With the Climate Smart-Enhanced Public Works Programme (CS-EPWP), we're confident of exceeding our target to plant up to two million trees,” Kagulo added.

Under CS-EPWP, communities are encouraged to adopt environmental-friendly practices, such as tree planting to address land degradation that affects their livelihoods.

A standard seven learners at the school, Harriet Fredson, pledged to plant more trees at home and further encourage fellow learners to do the same in this forest season, running from 15 December 2024 to 15 April 2025.

T/A Nkula hailed the launch, saying it has set the pace for his subjects to plant and care for trees in their homes and all places that deserve forest cover.

Machinga planted 1,168,816 trees in the 2023/2025 Forestry Season with a survival rate of 67%, following a prolonged dry spell in the last forestry season.