CHIMANINANIi, Zimbabwe (PAMACC News) - Willard Zano, a smallholder farmer at Chakohwa Block E Irrigation Scheme west of Chimanimani district in Zimbabwe looks at water gushing through an irrigation canal and he smiles.Zano had every reason to smile as the recently rehabilitated irrigation scheme has brought hope to smallholder farmers in this drought ravaged region. Experts have linked the severity and frequency of the droughts to climate change. And according to the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, enhanced water use efficiency holds key to tackling water scarcity and food security issues. The rehabilitation of Chakohwa Block E Irrigation Scheme began in 2015 and was completed in 2017 as a collaborative effort of the local farmers, international humanitarian organisation, World Vision and various Zimbabwe government departments. Chakohwa and other areas along the western parts of Chimanimani district are among the most arid areas in Zimbabwe, characterised by low and erratic rainfall, making rainfed agriculture virtually unsustainable. And Chakohwa Irrigation Scheme was developed to enhance crop productivity and address food security and nutrition in the region.“This irrigation scheme (Chakohwa Block E) has brought hope to us all,” Zano said. “We are now ready to harvest our first crop of Michigan beans”.Chakohwa Block E Irrigation Scheme constructed with the support of World Vision Zimbabwe has 33 hectares benefiting 165 smallholder farmers.The current crop of Michigan beans was grown under contract farming with Zimbabwe’s food processing company, Cairns Foods. Under the contract farming initiative each farmer received 10 kgs of Michigan bean seed from Cairns Foods while World Vision supported the farmers with 100 kgs of Compound D, 12,5kg of Ammonia Nitrate and 200ml of bravo and 200ml of diathought chemicals. The farmers are assured of a ready market for their beans.Another farmer in the irrigation scheme, Eliah Machianga weighed in, adding that the farmers in the area had never dreamed of growing cash crops, but the scheme had changed the way farmers do their business.“We used to grow crops like millet and we never dreamed of growing cash crops like beans. The irrigation scheme has changed everything. We are expecting to grow tomatoes after harvesting beans,” he said.Machianga said he would now be able to pay school fees for his children after selling his beans.“Now I’m no longer worried about how I’m going to get school fees for my children and how I’m going to feed them because this irrigation scheme will bring money to us,” Machianga said.However, Zano was quick to express fear that with the droughts becoming frequent and severe, the river which supply water for the irrigation would also soon run out of enough water for all the farmers.“Our best option is to drill boreholes to supply water to the irrigation scheme. Harnessing underground water is the best way to go …we are not sure how long the water in the river will last,” Zano said.World Vision Zimbabwe operations director, Khumbulani Ndlovu said the irrigation project was developed to assist local farmers and ensure they start to produce and…

ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Hundreds of illegally imported mattresses confiscated by Ghana’s customs authority were recently burnt openly at a landfill site.The destruction of the impounded goods is in line with laws prohibiting the entry of used mattresses into the country.It is common place to see thousands of cartons of cigarette, canned food, drugs, wax prints and other restricted or unwholesome goods burnt openly.Environmental concerns have however been raised about the practice of burning such materials, due to the gases emitted into the atmosphere.Kwaku Abeeku, who manages Green Energy and Logistics Consults, says Ghana as a signatory to various international agreements on climate change, including the Paris Agreement, must reconsider alternatives to the burning of impounded goods as soon as possible.“In the case of these open burns, aside the issue of Carbon Monoxide, these imported mattresses are mainly synthetic foams containing petroleum based chemicals and sometimes even fire retardants,” he observed. “Aside emissions, people living in the immediate environments of these burn sites and the country at large are put in a rather bad situation as we commit to global moves in combating climate change”.Ghana, in its international obligations as a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is guided by its own commitments in the nationally determined contribution (NDC) to climate change mitigation.As an obligation at the multilateral level, Ghana reaffirms its resolve to support global efforts to define a common future that seeks to safeguard the collective interest of all nations by supporting the 2015 Paris global agreement on climate change.The implementation of climate actions is expected to help attain low carbon climate resilience through effective adaptation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction.In 2017, Ghana at the UN Conference of Parties (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, pledged the country’s commitment to help combat climate change and adapt to its effects.The destruction of contraband mattresses, clothing, food and pharmaceutical products through open burning is therefore regarded as negating the country’s commitment to climate mitigation.Kwaku Abeeku has challenged the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and other institutions responsible for best environmental practices to help halt the open burning of materials.“I believe the time to make climate and environmental concern a culture and environmental responsiveness a mandatorily measured policy is now,” he said.

ASHANTI, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Timeabu, a farming community in the Ashanti region of Ghana, has in the past experienced levels of devastation of cocoa trees as a result of bad weather and poor rainfall with adverse impact on production. To protect dying cocoa trees and the local ecology, the Centre for Climate Change and Food Security (CCCFS), a Ghanaian-based non-governmental organization, has adopted the community to pilot a tree planting program. Since December 2017, the Centre has planted 200 trees on cocoa farms and other areas of the community, in addition to sensitization on best farming practices.A beneficiary, Nana Dasebere Boama Darko, says the farmers are excited the trees will relieve them of severe weather condition and help provide the needed shade to nourish their crops.The Centre plans to extend the exercise to other communities across the country.“Protecting the ecology is very important. We are likely to live a shameful life if trees continue to die everyday,” said Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen, Executive Director of CCCFS. “Planting of the trees is also to sequester carbon, and help remove carbon dioxide from the air, which cools the earth.”Despite their importance to life, humans have cut down half of the world's trees.“Every year we cut down over 50,000 square miles of forest worldwide for paper, agriculture, building materials and fuel,” observed Mohammed-Nurudeen. Several research have proven that carbon release from deforestation accounts for 25 to 30 percent of the four to five billion tons of carbon accumulating every year in the atmosphere from human activities. Ghana Bureau Chief of ClimateReporters, Kofi Adu Domfeh, who is among lead supporters of the tree planting exercise, emphasized the need to put the trees back “any way we can, as fast as we can”. “What you may not know is that trees also build soil and offer energy-saving shade that reduces global warming,” he said. “We want to create habitat for thousands of different species and also help to reduce ozone levels.” The initiative is also supported by the Economy for the Common Good and senior officers of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Fuad Mohammed and Asante Abednago, who have committed to the community outreach to help rural farmers contribute to the government's target of producing one million tonnes of cocoa. The CCCFS aims to provide enabling environment for all species, make issues of food security relevant and tackle climate change head-on to make Ghana a better place to live.

BLANTYRE, Malawi (PAMACC News) - Hundreds Lilongwe residents, students, environmentalists and campaigners took to the streets on Saturday in a global push to end plastic pollution.The Association of Environmental Journalists (AEJ) mobilised people of all walks to pick plastic bags that litter the streets of the capital.However, the clean-up campaign was marred by lack of garbage collection trucks from Lilongwe City Council who backtracked at the eleventh hour because there were no allowances for its workers.The 'Green Awareness Walk came days after the World Environment Day commemorated on June 5 whose theme calls on all nations to beat plastic pollution.AEJ and its partners shifted the observance to Saturday for the convenience of students and the working class.The marchers, carrying placards demanding an end to plastic waste, walked from Lilongwe Community Ground to Bwaila Secondary School via M1.The procession, led by Malawi Prison Brass Band, made three stops where speakers from Lilongwe University of Science and Technology, Civil Society Network on Climate Change and National Youth Network on Climate Change spoke on the dangers of the plastic epidemic, including soil degradation and stifling marine life in lakes and oceans.They distributed 2000 “Think Green” stickers to motorists, according to AEJ.“Honestly, I have never seen people seriously talking about issues of plastics in Malawi. When I read some of the placards, I was really impressed and that's why I made a brief stop to grasp more and watch the brass band perform also” said Shanina Rose, from Area 25.Speaking at Bwaila Secondary School, in Malawi’s Capital City, director of environmental affairs in the Ministry of Natural Resources Energy and Mining, Tawonga Mbale-Luka, said time has come for Malawians to realise that plastics hurt the environment, including farms, water bodies and public health.“We do not necessarily have to wait for the courts to say how bad they are when scientific evidence is available for all to read,” she said in reference to a long-awaited court ruling on the legality of the ban on production, importation and use of thin plastics.Plastic manufacturers in Malawi obtained an injunction restraining the government from banning thin plastics of less than 50micron metres.“We are happy that we still have people who agree with us that we need to ban thin plastics in Malawi. I want to encourage you to keep the momentum high because you are doing the right thing. As a government, we are waiting to hear what the courts will say on the case and we only hope it will be in our favour,” said Luka.AEJ secretary general Charles Mkoka said they were happy with the attendance, as the march got rid of a truckload of plastic litter from the streets.However, he bemoaned the city council’s last-minute withdrawal from the initiative to make the capital city a little cleaner. “We regret to note that despite giving us a go ahead to conduct this walk and accepting to provide the trash van and servicemen to assist in the exercise, the city authorities on late Friday afternoon changed tuned…