By Sylvester Kumwenda

Dowa, June 16, Mana: People at Chisato village, Traditional Authority Msakambewa in Dowa have embarked on the restoration of degraded lands to improve soil productivity, thanks to the Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works Program (CSPWP).

In an interview with Malawi News Agency on Monday, Chairperson for Chisato catchment, Velentina Yohane said the area has for the past years experienced high levels of environmental degradation resulting in loss of soil fertility and this affected crop production.

“The main problem was the rampant cutting down of trees which led to soil erosion, emergence of gullies and loss of soil fertility. For this, some pieces of land were no longer used for crop cultivation or produced less.

“This contributed to food insecurities at household levels. Worse still, we did not have adequate knowledge to address this,” she said.

Realizing the downhill spiral, the community under the CSEPWP formed Chisato Catchment Management Committee (CMC) in September 2023 to address these challenges.

She said through the project, the community learnt how environmental degradation negatively affects their daily livelihoods and resilience to climate shocks.

Also, on interventions communities can take to reverse the situation like reforestation, soil conservation and sustainable land management.

“We identified hotspots which needed immediate attention and started implementing land conservation interventions like gulley reclamation, planting of vetiver grass and other cover crops, construction of swales, afforestation, manure making amongst others.

“The interventions have helped in strengthening soil structure, reducing soil erosion and soil nutrients, helped in gulley reclamation amongst others. Now people can cultivate on fields previously deemed unproductive as soil fertility is being restored,” she said.

The project has 23,486 participants in the district in all 23 micro catchments.

Christopher Kangira Banda, secretary for Chisato CMC said at first, it was a challenge to introduce the interventions to participants.

He said some interventions required to be implemented on people’s land and some were initially reluctant to allow this.

“But after noticing the benefits, for example with pit farming, swales, infiltration pits, many people now are demanding that we extend the interventions to their farms,” said Banda.

In his remarks, District Project Facilitator Kingster Kathumba said he is impressed with the progress of the programme.

“Dowa was one of the districts in Malawi which experienced a significant depletion of natural resources, but through this project and other interventions that have been done, we have seen improvements in areas like afforestation and land resource conservation.

“What we want is to continue empowering community members to own the project, so that if it may wind up, they should continue with the interventions,” said Kathumba.

The CSEPWP is facilitated by the National Local Government Finance Committee in all 28 local councils, with funding from the World Bank and the Multi Donor Trust Fund.