For the last 48 years, Admin Jenadi has had the foot of Kasungu Hill as his home. He has farmed at the location all these years to feed his family of eight.
His children grew up in the area enjoying its fresh air from the trees above and the harvests from the nutrient-rich soils.
The foot of the hill, which stretches across a vast area, is where Malawi’s founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda put up his private house famously known as Ngulu ya Nawambe.
During Banda’s reign as the country’s president, the hill was heavily protected, its dense woods teeming with wild animals and mushroom sprouting out of decaying leaves in the dark shades.
When Banda was dethroned in 1994, security around the hill vanished.
Farmers, charcoal producers and seekers of places on which to start homes descended on the place without mercy, wrecking it up to the hilt.
“Even in places where we used to grow crops during those days, farming became a nightmare,” Jenadi says, a lost look peppering his beaded face.
The devastation brought about by deforestation became real and farmlands below the hill could bear the biggest brunt.
Running water from could rip through the fields, sweeping along crops and top soils.
“So the harvests diminished and hunger became a common thing. Some farmers even abandoned their crop fields,” Jenadi, who has eight grandchildren, states.
The running water, which feeds into Chankhanga River, has been affecting hundreds of hectares belonging to Feza villagers in Traditional Authority Mwase, where Jenadi comes from.
“We have had years of nightmares. We could not harvest enough for our families.
“Instead of concentrating on our farms, we were used to working in people’s farms for food. We have been relying on piece work for food,” Jenadi says.
Luck finally smiled on residents of Feza Village after the National Local Government Finance Committee launched a climate-smart public works programme that stresses land resource conservation, afforestation, environment and road infrastructure as well as sustainable livelihoods.
The World Bank-funded initiative is a component under the Malawi Government Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods Project which is being implemented by local authorities.
Through the project, participants are involved in soil and water conservation, forestry and other infrastructure initiatives like footpaths, feeder roads, road drainage, channels, fish ponds and irrigation.
Together with 500 other participants, Jenadi formed Chankhanga Catchment which is involved in 12 projects centring on soil and water conservation and forestry.
They are from the eight Group Village Heads (GVHs) surrounding the hill that have had struggles when it came to farming because running water from the hill could destroy their fields.
“Change has been evident in the pilot phase of the programme. For the first time in many years, my family managed to grow crops on all the 14 hectares of our land and we harvested about 20 tonnes of maize,” Jenadi says.
That is 400 50 kilogramme bags of the staple grain which remains Malawi’s most sought-after crop.
Chankhanga Management Committee Vice Chairperson, Happy Phiri, reveals that the project has brought significant land resource improvements in the area.
“We are now controlling gullies to keep erosion in check. We are also engaged in regeneration and reforestation, the construction of storm drains and reclaiming lost land.
“We are also constructing contour marker ridges, swales and trenches to temper waters raging down various slopes in our area,” Phiri says.
After the successful pilot phase, the project went full throttle in December last year.
In the area of neighbouring Senior Chief Njombwa, locals participating in a similar initiative from three GVHs where Chatalala Catchment lies have planted 1,313 tree seedlings apart from constructing gully dykes, swales and check-dams.
The structures control the water flow from Chimphako Hill while the 2.2 hectares of forest cover that is being well-maintained is helping in preserving water from Bua River, which flows from Mchinji through Kasungu and Nkhotakota into Lake Malawi.
Chatalala Catchment Chairperson Dishoni Nyirenda says before the project came in the area, farmers were realising low yields from their fields due to land degradation through soil erosion and gully formation.
Nyirenda’s family has its own woodlot from which they fetch fruits, firewood and mushroom. The thicket also provides recreational tenets such as birds watching and wildflower appreciation.
“We will reclaim more of our degraded parcels of land through activities under the programme,” he says.
In Lilongwe District, Linthipe Catchment participants are working on 500 hectares, which are mostly craggy.
An expert in gully control Mazon Manfred says most pieces of land in the area were not productive.
“The land was staying idle. It was difficult to farm because crops could be easily washed away by runoff when heavy rains fell,” Manfred says.
The deserted land is now back in full use.
“Using stone dykes and swales, we are now able to not only reclaim the gullies but also control the flow of water. Mid into the rainy season, there has never been a case of crops being washed away. People are now back to the once abandoned land,” he says.
The farmers have also planted trees in bare patches of the land.
They want the location to retain its lost glory of expansive green cover that used to keep runoff under control.
The reforestation initiative is not only about dressing bare grounds to control the flow of water and maintain top soils.
Ellen Mizeki, who comes from Mzingo Village, TA Chitekwele, says the initiative is also easing the pain of women covering long distances in search of firewood.
“From the community forests and family woodlots, we get the firewood. For a long time, we have been covering long distances to fetch firewood. That is no longer the case,” Mizeki says.
The climate-smart public works programme is being implemented in all the 28 districts, targeting 435,000 people in ultra-poor households with labour capacity.
