Working through 50 well-motivated "lead farmers," most of whom were trained by UBALE, the IA Program is expanding the use of gliricidia trees in farmers' fields at a tremendous clip. The number of trees planted in farmers' fields (ie not counting those planted alongside roads or as live fences) during this last 12 months is somewhere well over 20,000 trees, which means it has surpassed the total number of trees planted in fields in this area over the last six years.
Hunger perpetrated by poor soil, that the organic matter content of the soil has dropped from about 4% to less than 1%, and the rainfall infiltration rate into the soil has dropped from about 60% in the 1980s to between 10 and 20% today. Unbeknownst to most people, this is the primary cause, rather than climate change, of Africa's droughts, which are rapidly increasing both in intensity and frequency (from about one every ten years up until the 1980s to one every second or third year today).
The gliricidia trees and pigeon peas are being used primarily to produce leaves, which are an extremely good fertilizer, and to provide shade to the crops, which in the lowland tropics suffer from too much heat and dry out the soil very quickly. This same shade will also protect their crops in the future as global warming heats up the environment. They are very fast-growing-producing medium-sized trees in four or five years.A third species of plant being propagated is acacia gapin for fencing.
Increasing soil fertility, structure and composition. Hedging droughts through provision of reasonable shade in the fields for crops to grow health amidst drought. Acacia Gapin protecting crops fields from livestock invasion to eat crops and residues. House holds become resilient to hunger and climate change effects such as droughts, poor soils, and pests. Female farmers who are the majority in Chikwawa and Nsanje districts will have more time to participate in community development.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
