ZIFLP to plant 5 million agroforestry trees

Pot filling: Members of Kasega association fill-up polythene plastics with a mixture of soil and manure

By GLORIA SIWISHA

EASTERN Province is an agricultural hub contributing a substantial amount of its crop produce to the national food basket.

In the 2019/2020 agriculture season alone, the province produced about 600,000 metric tonnes of maize which accounted for 19 percent of the country’s total production.

Over the years however, agricultural activities have had a devastating effect on the environment through deforestation, as smallholder farmers seek to open up more farm land in search of fertile soils so as to increase production and productivity.

According to a 2016 World Bank report dubbed “Drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Eastern Province”, 54,027 hectares of forests were lost in Eastern Province between 2000, and 2010, and 102,087 hectares lost between 2010 and 2014.

The report attributes the quick depletion of forests in the province to the heavy dependency on agriculture and use of poor methods of farming such as clearing large chunks of land to pave way for agriculture expansion.

The situation is further compounded by the cutting of trees for the extraction of fuel wood.

To help address the problem, the Zambia Integrated Forest Landscape Project (ZIFLP), has partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture to raise 5, 160, 798 agroforestry tree seedlings.

4, 222, 471 seedlings should be that of Gliricidia sepium, and 938,327 Faidherbia albida or ‘Musangu’ as it is locally known.

ZIFLP National Coordinator Tasila Banda says 2,580, 399 tree seedlings would be raised during the 2020/2021 agriculture season, while the rest would be raised during the 2021/2022 agriculture season.

“We realise as a project which is aiming to reduce emissions that tree planting is very key and it can’t just happen in open areas or in forest areas; it is also supposed to happen on the land where people are growing and harvesting crops because we also need trees there,” Dr Banda said.

She said there was urgent need to change the outlook of the province as much of the forests had been depleted largely due to agricultural activities.

“Eastern Province is known to be a continuum of agriculture fields. When you are flying over it, it is just fields and mango trees; fields and mango trees; so we want to improve that outlook by putting trees there that we can eventually count, and include in our emissions reduction process which is the carbon credits that we are aiming to achieve at the end of the day,” she said.

The Provincial Agricultural Coordinator Alex Chilala said Katopola Farm Training Institute in Chipata, and five other Farmer Training Centres (FTCs) in the province, had been engaged to raise the agroforestry tree seedlings.

He said the seedlings would be distributed to the 10,755 lead farmers, and 107,550 follower farmers who were direct beneficiaries of the project under its ‘livelihood and low carbon investments’ component.

Mr Chilala says it is necessary to shift the mind-sets of smallholder farmers towards climate smart agriculture, as the smallholder farmers’ tendencies of moving from one field to the next in search of fertile soils had had a negative impact on the environment.

He emphasised that agriculture must increase productivity while addressing climate change in order to ensure food security of the growing population.

“Because of the populations; the need to put food on the table, there’s always a need for people to go out there and produce this food which entails cutting down of trees for field expansion which has brought about these issues of climate change,” he said, “As a mitigation measure, we have been incorporated into this project to try and see how we can intensify production whilst looking at the environment at a global picture; environment in the sense that we should try as much as possible to reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere.”

He said gliricidia sepium and faidherbia albida had been chosen for this programme because both tree species had the ability to add nutrients and organic matter to the soil through leaf drop; build the soil structure, and also be good substitutes for chemical fertilizer especially for low income farmers.

Mr Chilala said agroforestry also contributed to food and income security, improvement of the environment, and subsequently, mitigation of climate change effects.

“Gliricidia sepium’s nitrogen-rich leaves can be used to improve the fertility of the soils and crop production. Its leaves can also be used as nutritious forage for livestock and firewood,” he said, “Faidherbia albida has a taproot system which can pull nutrients from the deeper layers of the soil, and bring these nutrients to the surface of the soil for the benefit of crops.”

Chadiza District Agricultural Coordinator Kabange Masenga said the production of agroforestry tree seedlings had benefited communities in the region through employment creation especially women and youths.

He said the programme was also a good platform for farmers to acquire new skills.

“We have incorporated women and youth groups; those that we are already working with in terms of other agricultural activities. So, as they come to participate in this programme, they are also learning how to produce the same seedlings. We believe that they will be able to practice the lessons they are learning here as they go out in the fields,” he said.

FTCs of Katete and Lundazi districts have gone a step further to engage farmer associations that are already involved in the production of tree seedlings as a way of strengthening them.

“We  have an association that is engaged in agroforestry seedlings; so we as an FTC, thought we needed to empower them so that they were able to grow their businesses; support their households, as well as the farmers around them,” said Ziko Kahenge who is Katete District Senior Agricultural Officer.

Franklyn Mwale, a smallholder farmer of Lundazi district and also a member of Kasega association group which has been engaged to produce 300,000 seedlings for Lundazi FTC, said the initiative had helped members to raise funds to take care of their household needs; support their children’s education, including raising funds to access farming inputs.

Adrian Njovu a reformed charcoal burner of Saidi village in Mambwe district, said the programme had helped youths to refrain from illegal activities such as poaching and cutting down of trees for fuel wood.

ZIFLP is a US$32.8 Million dollars Government initiative which is being implemented in all the districts of Eastern Province from 2017 to 2022, with support from the World Bank.

It seeks to provide support to rural communities in Eastern Province to allow them better manage the resources of their landscapes so as to reduce deforestation and unsustainable agricultural expansion; enhance benefits they receive from forestry, agriculture and wildlife; and reduce their vulnerability to climate change.

Under the livelihood and low-carbon investments component, and particularly agriculture, ZIFLP is up-scaling climate smart agriculture practices; promoting agroforestry, enhancing market access for smallholders and private sector engagement, as well as providing grants for livelihood interventions.

It is anticipated that the successful implementation of these activities will result in improved resilience of farmers in the region towards climate change effects; increased productivity, improved yields, and reduced Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.