Nkhata Bay chief agriculture officer Sellina Malaga says the Ecosystems-based Adaptation for Resilient Watersheds and Communities in Malawi (Ebam) project will help address climate change issues in the district.
Speaking on Monday when the Department of Land Resources Conservation under the Ministry of Agriculture oriented the district council executive committee on the project she said the six-year project seeks to, among others, enhance resilience of vulnerable communities and ecosystems to climate change.
Said Malaga: “In Nkhata Bay, the terrain is rough and we have many hilly areas which means the slopes are very steep.
diversification. | Courtesy of FAO
“So, we need to do our best to conserve water and soil. The coming in of Ebam will ensure that farmers adopt new farming technologies that will prevent the loss of top fertile soil through erosion.”
She said adopting new farming technologies will help farmers achieve high crop production.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Ebam chief technical adviser Ben
Vickers said it was high time communities focused on approaches that manage ecosystems well to boost crop production.
“In the watersheds that we have identified, we expect that there will be crop diversification,” he said.
The ministry’s deputy director of land resources conservation MacPherson Nthara observed that Nkhata Bay was one of the hotspots for climate change in Malawi, adding that it was imperative that measures and projects such as Ebam are implemented to reverse the impact.
“If you look at Nkhata Bay, it is one of the districts that can demonstrate the ecosystem based adaptation approaches,” he said.
The $53.2 million (about K91 billion) project will run with funding from Green Climate Fund.
