MALAWI: Restoring Soil Fertility Through Environmental Conservation: Malawi’s MWASIP Project

By Smile Hamilton, Malawi 

Malawian authorities have singled out environmental conservation as a key strategy for restoring soil fertility.

This has been said alongside the implementation of the World Bank-funded Malawi Watershed Services Improvement Project (MWASIP), valued at 173 billion Kwacha.

The eight-year project, which includes land restoration, is underway in Blantyre, Neno, Ntcheu, Zomba, Machinga, Mangochi, and Balaka.

Osward Mulenga, MWASIP’s Technical Member for land restoration, told MIJ Online that Chileka (Kapichira catchment area) is among the beneficiaries.

“Under the MWASIP we are promoting sustainable land management activities. One of the major is to restore degraded landscapes, so Chileka is one of the catchments that the project is undertaken,” explained Mulenga.

Mulenga emphasised that land degradation negatively impacts agricultural production, necessitating sustainable land management systems.

“We have seen quite a recommendable change, for instance, the project’s target is to achieve forty five thousand hectares under landscape restoration, so far we are at 68 percent, which is around thirty thousand,” Mulenga said.

Richard Petro, a Kunthembwe resident under Kapichira catchment area, praised the project’s impact saying land restoration activities have, among others, improved soil fertility, leading to better crop production.