Chief offers bounty to encourage tree planting

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Treeplanting

A chief in Nsanje has resorted to extreme means in order to encourage his subjects to plant fruit trees.

Nsanje is disaster prone and it needs massive reforestation to reduce the catastrophic effects of climate change facing the district.

As a way of encouraging villagers to plant trees, acting Chief Chimombo in the district has offered K3,000 to any of his subjects who plants 10 fruit trees and takes care of them until they reach the height of one metre.

Treeplanting
Tree planting in Malawi.

The traditional leader said he wants every individual in his area to participate in tree planting especially fruit trees so that the area can mitigate the effects of climate change.

“As a leader, I want to instill the culture of planting and taking care of the trees in my subjects. My area is prone to disasters hence the need to encourage my subjects to plant more trees and take care of them so that they can survive,” said Chimombo.

The chief also expressed grief over government’s failure to promote planting of fruit trees during the current tree planting season. He said he wants his subjects to plant at least 100,000 fruit trees, which means one tree for each household in his area.

“It is my wish that every household should have an orchard so that after five years, they can start harvesting fruits and make some sales to improve their economic and nutritional status. Government should encourage planting of fruit trees as it can also contribute to the country’s economy,” said the traditional leader.