Alternative energy to curb deforestation

The urgent problem confronting the country which requires immediate attention is environmental degradation, owing to massive deforestation.

Although Malawi is endowed with an attractive landscape and rich fertile soils, all these are being destroyed by the intense decimation of the country’s precious natural resources by charcoal sellers and other stakeholders.

However, by cutting down trees, carbon-dioxide generated by the fossil fuels and other human activity cannot be photosynthesised. Instead, the gas accumulates in the atmosphere resulting in the build-up of greenhouse gases with adverse effect on the climate.

It is disheartening to note that the country’s hills which were once flourishing with thick vegetation and trees are now bare.

The extent to which this scourge of deforestation is taking place can only be realised if one takes a drive towards Chileka Airport in Blantyre.

The ubiquitous presence of bicycles seen at some intervals along the road laden with charcoal bags is simply mind boggling.

In order to stop this, the Forestry Department must immediately pursue vigorously this task of reforestation.

In fact, the Forestry Department and Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) should coordinate their efforts by assisting residents in the vicinity of rivers not only to grow but also to own preferably fruit trees at least 50 metres on either side of river banks.

Apart from bearing fruits and generating income for the owners, the trees absorb the impact of the rainfall which then filters through the vegetation under the canopy of trees and the clean silt free rain water flows into the rivers. This, in turn, increases the generating capacity of electricity resulting in fewer blackouts.

However, the seemingly intractable dilemma facing the country is how to maintain equilibrium between man’s urgent need to earn a living and nature’s ecological vulnerability. In this situation, the government should expedite the introduction of other forms of energy to cater for people’s energy requirement.

Fortunately, Malawi is blessed with a marvellous realm of nature with plentiful sunshine almost throughout the year. The government should, therefore, heavily subsidize the rural population with solar roof panels for their power requirements as Japan has done for its many households.

Since this project is expensive, the other alternative is to provide the population with a biogas technology for cooking food.

In India, the rural populations use methane gas to cook their meals. This is produced in the backyard of their houses by decomposing vegetable matter in a dug out pit whose hole is tightly sealed and from which a plastic pipe is connected to a simple stove in the kitchen. Moreover, the compost, its by-product, is utilised as a fertiliser in the growing of crops.

The other technology that is gaining rapid popularity which Escom should adopt is the generation of energy from wind-turbines which can be installed on the lakeshores where the atmosphere is windy.

In view of the climate change and two consecutive famines, the Malawi Government, as a matter of priority, should implement its long shelved irrigation programme.

However, in the case of either sprinkler or flood irrigation, water could be sourced from Lake Malawi. Excavation works which will be of permanent nature and expensive should be carried out at some length along the lake so that the land is at a lower elevation to the land level of the lakeshore. This will facilitate the controllable flow of water by gravity.

To end Malawi’s food crisis, the plot should be divided and allocated to the rural population to enable them to harvest under irrigation at least three crops in a year by planting early maturing variety of hybrid maize seeds. In addition to this, the most lucrative legumes such as pigeon peas, groundnuts and soya beans, which are on high demand on the world market, could be grown to gradually dispense with tobacco as a cash crop.

There is optimism that under extensive irrigation of growing off-season crops by the country’s enterprising farmers and with less reliance on the rains, Malawi can resuscitate its economy within a year of getting a bumper harvest to regain its past glory of attaining self-sufficiency in food and surplus for export.

The author is an agriculture graduate now in confectioneries business.