A carbon project in Malawi where participating farmers get cash for growing trees is the subject of a radio script by Farm Radio Weekly. The script can be used by broadcasters to create a radio programme.

Registering for reverse auction at Ntchisi in September 2008. The reverse auction was aimed at finding out what price to pay farmers in the tree carbon project. PHOTO/V. Meadu

Farm Radio Weekly (FRW) was interested in a story on some of the ways smallholder farmers benefit from PRESA. The PRESA coordinating office in Nairobi drew their attention to the tree planting project in Malawi being implemented by ICRAF and the Malawi government.

Though Malawi is not yet a PRESA site, the cash-for-trees payments offer interesting lessons that could be used for other payments for environmental service schemes in the rest of Africa. FRW conducted interviews with farmers involved in the project as well as project managers. All of them expressed positive views about the project. The interviews took place in early 2009.

Dr. Oluyede Ajayi who is ICRAF’s Senior Scientist in Malawi says that planting trees is one way to slow down climate change. “Trees remove carbon from the atmosphere, removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in trees reduces global warming, which is a global benefit,” explains Dr. Ajayi

Michael Kankondo, a farmer participating in the project, is enthusiastic about it. “We know our children will benefit from these trees. In the long run, we will have nowhere to get timber or firewood if we don’t plant trees now,” says Kankondo.

FRW is a news and information service published by Farm Radio International. FRW strives to provide rural radio organizations in Africa with news and resources that help them meet the needs of small-scale farmers and farming families. 

The full radio script is available here: http://weekly.farmradio.org/2009/04/27/paying-farmers-for-environmental-services/