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Practice Details

Title of Practice:	Community Restoration of watersheds in Chikwawa District of Malawi
Year:	2017
BPTag:	Promising Practice
Reference Number:	MWI658-17
City / Town / Village:	NTCHISI
Region:	Africa & Arab States
Country:	Malawi
Has this practice been submitted previously?	No
Previous Title:
Address:	TELEPHONE:265999032477
Name of Contact Person:	Ian Saini
Email of Contact Person:	iansaini@yahoo.com
Summary:	The environmental management program was initiated a couple of years ago with an aim of restoring the watershed in Chikwawa District, Southern Malawi. The overall goal was to come up with a food and income secure community. The followings were the objectives: to recreate the area into an erosion free zone despite being along the escarpment, to facilitate the regeneration of the natural trees and vegetation and to adopt climate smart agriculture .The following strategies have been in use: provision of intensive and collaborative extension services by both public and private extension agents and to mobilizing communities to own the program and able to provide resources accordingly. Farmers have been mobilizing natural resources for the construction of water conservation structures. Nongovernmental organizations have been providing financial resources especially for capacity building. The initiative has been successful as it has been achieving its direct goals and indirect objectives too. Improved moisture retention in the soil due to water harvesting techniques employed, some natural trees regenerating and thus the ecosystem improving, improved soil fertility status of the area as erosion has been put on the check and also due to nitrogen fixing trees being planted as well as improved food production and thus food and income secure area have been the direct outcomes of the project. Sustainability of the program has been achieved through a number of strategies such involvement of the farmers in the implementation process, use of local materials and knowledge and capacity building. Through the initiative, a number of lessons have been learned such as the capability of villagers to initiate a program that can change the country and use of local knowledge has a great impact in making a program not only cheap but sustainable too. The program is transferable mainly because it relies on involvement of villagers in the implementation process.
Key Dates:	Key Dates Significance Key Date 1: 08/03/2010 STARTING THE INITIATIVE Key Date 2: 08/23/2017 VISITORS
Norminating Organization Details
Name of Organization:
Contact Person:
Type of Organization:	Local Authority

Partners:

There are no partners defined yet.

There are no categories defined yet.

Narrative:

Situation Before the Initiative Began:

The area lies along the Blantyre Escarpment in Chikwawa District. The area was originally a home to many natural trees but with poor agricultural practices and wanton cutting down of trees for making charcoal, the population of the natural trees has been going down making the land bare thereby experiencing soil erosion. This resulted into low yields thereby turning the once food basket into a hunger stricken area.

Establishment of Priorities:

The extension workers both public and private facilitated the participatory rural appraisals through focus group discussion. Thereafter a number of issues were identified and it was really difficult to deal with all issues at the same time. In view of this, a pair wise ranking tool was employed to come with priorities. The followings were the priorities in its order of significance:
•Engaging all the local leaders in restoration of the watershed
•Formation of environmental management committees in all villages
•Setting up structures to decrease erosion and trap as much water as possible
•Practicing climate smart agriculture

Formulation of Objectives And Strategies:

An interface meeting was organized whereby all stakeholders had to map the way forward. The overall goal was to come up with a food and income secure community.
The followings were the objectives:
•To recreate the area into an erosion free zone despite being along the escarpment
•To facilitate the regeneration of the natural trees and vegetation
•To adopt climate smart agriculture
The following strategies have been in use:
•Provision of intensive and collaborative extension services by both public and private extension agents
•Mobilizing communities to own the program and able to provide resources accordingly

Mobilisation of Resources:

Mobilization of resources was initiated by private extension providers who provided financial resources for capacity building in the areas such as community mobilization, group dynamics, construction of water conservation structures and climate smart agriculture. Al nongovernmental organizations working in the area had to contribute something financially so as to kick start the initiative.
Human resource was mobilized through mainly public extension agents who had been working in the area through different farmers groups. It was much easier to mobilize the villagers as they were already organized working in different groups.
Thereafter, farmers through local structures such as area development committees, area stakeholders’ panels (ASPs), agriculture village committees provided the much needed natural resources such as stones and seed for vertiver grass.
In view of this, it can be noticed that resource mobilization has been collaboratively done among a number of stakeholders.

Process:

5.1 Division of labour and role of nongovernmental organizations
The program has been implemented for a number of years and it has been requiring labour for the repairing of the structures. There are about 10 villages participating in this program. The annual work plan is formulated and each and every village has to provide labour at a particular time. Each and every village has an environmental committee. The committees are mandated to share tasks among all villagers when their turn comes. The nongovernmental organizations have been providing advocacy skills to the villages through capacity building. The nongovernmental organizations have also been financially supporting learning visits whereby villagers have been sharing their expertise and experience with other stakeholders in other parts of Malawi.
5.2 Structures being constructed
The following structures are being constructed and repaired:
•Continuous contour trench-A contour bund is being constructed and repaired covering several kilometers and villages. It is made in such a way that it has different features based on the availability of the natural resources at the particular locality. In areas where there are many stones, it is consisting of stone bunds. Other parts are made up of soil bunds. It is very fascinating to see one trench running across the escarpment/hill and its positive impact visibly seen below it.
•Water absorption trenches- This is the rain water harvesting technique. Trenches are dug 1 m deep by 1m width and it can cover 10 m length. Trenches are dug along the naturally occurring trenches where there is a clear sign that water has been forming gullies. As the rain water is coming down, it is trapped and infiltrates the soil and the entire area below a trench has a higher moisture level and thus sustaining crop growth even during the dry spells.
•Swales-swales are almost similar to trenches but are dug within the field and one field may have up to 10 swales. They trap water within the field and the water is utilized by the crops within the field. In view of this, it means that even if the rains are not good enough , the trapped water will still maintain the crop growing up to the harvesting period.

5.3 Agricultural practices being adopted
•Agro forestry- different tree species are being planted within farmers gardens. This is mainly a fertility restoration strategy. As the trees are growing, they are also fixing nitrogen and thus improving the soil fertility status. Some trees that have reached an extinction level are being replanted and thus bringing back the lost glory and beauty of the land.
•Mulching- Crop stalks especially maize stalks are used to cover the garden. The covering of the garden reduces the speed of the running water and thus facilitating absorption. Upon rotting, the stalks turn into humus and thus improving the soil structure and also improve the soil fertility status of the soil.

Results Achieved:

•Sense of program ownership by the villagers-The villagers completely own the program and have been more than willing to provide resources and labour whenever a need arises. This has been the driving force towards the sustainability of the program.
•Capacity building-farmers have been undergoing a number of trainings such as group dynamics, climate smart agriculture and construction of soil conservation structures. The trainings have equipped the villagers to understand the initiative fully and be able to manage all components within the initiatives.
•Utilization of local structures in implementation process-Throughout, the initiative has been utilizing existing local structures such as village agriculture committees, area development committees and area stakeholder panels. This has made it possible to mobilize the villagers easily. At the end of the day, villagers have been working hard so as to maintain the constructed structures.
•Involvement of public extension workers-public extension agents have been working with the communities for so long to the extent that a rapport has been developed. In this way, villagers always get the advice as provided by public extension agents accordingly.
•Use of locally available resources-locally available resources such as stones and vertiver grasses have been used in the restoration of the watershed and other water conservation structures’ construction thereby simplifying the work and allowing all villagers to participate fully irrespective of their economic status.
•Use of local knowledge and technology-Use of local knowledge has been playing an important role in sustaining the program. Villagers have the capability to construct and maintain all structures on their own without requiring any financial resources from donors.

Lessons Learned:

The followings are the lessons learned throughout the program implementation:
•The villagers can initiate a program that is going to reverse the negative impact of climate change on their own. Farmers initiated the program and they only needed assistance and guidance from the extension workers.
•Use of local knowledge has a great impact in making the program not only sustainable but also cheap. This initiative has been going on for a number years and villagers are able to maintain all structures because they have been employing local knowledge.
•This initiative can transform Malawi if practiced throughout the country as many areas are facing climate change challenges leading to food shortages.
•Apart from the direct benefits/outcomes, there can be also indirect benefits if a program is executed well. This program is exposing other potentials such as ecotourism

Transfers:

The program is transferable from one area to another. This is true because of the following reasons:
•The program is wholly run by farmers and this means that farmers from other areas can also manage to implement the same program in other localities. Farmers may just need assistance from extension workers to implement the program.
•The program is being implemented based on local knowledge and this means that farmers from other areas can also implement the program easily. Employing local knowledge means that it is easier and cheaper to transfer the technology to another area.
•The program is transferable to other areas as long as the area has functional local structures such as village agriculture committee.

Related Policies:

The initiative is related to the following policies/legislation

•National Agriculture Policy- The national Agriculture policy calls for promotion of climate smart agriculture so as to improve crop production with an aim of achieving the food and income secure nation. Policy is also in line with international policies such as FAO (2013) and CTA (2011) that call for promotion of climate smart agriculture to curb climate change effects.

•Agricultural Extension in the New Millennium: Towards Pluralistic and Demand-driven Services in Malawi .Policy Document- The extension policy calls for farmers to demand the services they need from the service providers. In the same vein, it calls for it calls for a number of prayers to provide extension services in Malawi. Under this initiative, farmers demanded a service and thus capacity building in terms of watershed restoration and the service providers (both public and private) have been proving the service.

•The District Agricultural Extension Services System- Implementation guide-This is the guideline on the how extension activities should be operating in Malawi. It outlines how the local structures such as area stakeholders’ panels and village agriculture committees have to be utilized to achieve maximum extension benefits. The program relies much on local structures to maintain active participation of all citizenry within the local setting.

References: No. Title Source Author Publication Title Volume Number Date Page Number 1 NATIONAL AGRICULTURE POLICY ALWI GOVERNMENT MALAWI GOVERNME NATIONAL AGRLTURE POLICY 1 2016

Supporting Material:

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