Griffin Moyo and Restoring Environments through Agroforestry
Griffin Moyo, 68, lives in Choma with his son and daughter. He retired in 2005 and decided to venture into cash farming, where he was growing tobacco. More recently, in 2014, he chose to focus on winter cropping of food crops. However, climate change has had a huge impact on his production, which has led to food shortages. This, alongside his old age, meant that Griffin considered himself poor while needing more money for farming and knowledge of sustainable agriculture practices.
In 2014, when Griffin was struggling with winter cropping, he came in contact with Temwa Carbon Balance, as they were supporting Choma village with irrigation equipment and supporting them with reliable market linkages. Through Temwa’s support, he can now grow different types of crops and has planted over 200 fruit trees, including avocados, oranges, lemons, mangoes, bananas and tangerines. He has also now learnt how to restore land fertility by planting agroforestry trees. This knowledge has allowed him to plant over 300 trees on his 2-acre farm.
“I want every household in my community to have a homestead orchard”
Equipping farmers like Griffin to plant trees in a way which protects the nutrient-rich soil from drought and floods, not only means more carbon is captured in the soil, but people can grow more crops, increasing food security and their income by selling the produce at markets. When households have a higher income, families like Griffins can pay school fees to send their children to school, can afford better healthcare and they can invest in local businesses.
This is especially pressing for farmers in Malawi this year as around nine million people in reeling from the devastating impacts of El Niño-induced floods and drought. This is destroying harvests and causing hunger to soar to crisis levels. The current episode is happening in the context of recurrent shocks and heightened vulnerabilities, particularly affecting more rural areas and subsistence farmers like Griffin.
Griffin is now very hopeful for his future crop and wants to help others do the same, as he has supported 6 households with 200 banana shoots. Temwa Carbon Balance’s work has not only helped Mr Moyo, but the Choma community is now making efforts to restore the Choma hill by planting trees.
“I believe with these efforts, Choma will be the hill we once knew”
Check out our latest Temwa Carbon Balance impact report here.
