Page 21 - 2020 SoM Journal Vol 73 No 1 FINAL_Neat

Deforestation, Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture 13

These are:
• that an emphasis be placed on water conservation, and an effort made to
make full use of the annual rainfall;
• that the land should be covered at all times with a green mantle, with a
covering of vegetation to reduce both the compaction of the soil by rain-
water and soil erosion;
• that an effort should be made to enhance the fertility of the living soil by
providing it with nutrients, through encouraging earthworms and the
composting of plant debris;
• that the land should be multi-cropped, involving a tiered profile - herbs,
shrubs, climbers and trees - with a diversity of crops on the same site. A
balance should be retained between annual and perennial crops;
• that the forest/farm should be creatively designed in the form of distinct
zones (gawo, part), that may incorporate chickens or other livestock and
entail some form of rotation scheme;
• that tilling the soil should be kept to a minimum, and crop ridges avoided,
as repeated hand-hoeing tends to create a hardpan that restricts root
growth and the penetration of rainwater;
• and finally, that full use should be made of legumes to fix nitrogen in the
soil and thus provide "free fertilizer".
As yet, there are few links between the various permaculture projects and
the peasant smallholders of the Shire Highlands and there is the thorny issue
around the use of artificial fertilizers, given the declining fertility of the soils
throughout much of the Highlands. The advocates of both organic farming
and permaculture tend to be hostile to the use of fertilizers in any form of land
husbandry. But, as the pioneer agronomist and life-long advocate of
conservation agriculture, Frances Shaxson remarked in a lecture (2002): the
soil is alive and should be enriched by organic materials to the greatest extent
possible, only using fertilizers if essential. Shaxson is an inspiration behind
"Tiyeni" (let's go) an organization which also aims to promote sustainable
agriculture in Malawi. (On conservation agriculture see Shaxson 1970, 1989,
1999).
This leads me to the third organization in the Shire Highlands that has
sought to enhance and develop "traditional" forms of agriculture, namely
agro-forestry.
During the 1990's with a growing awareness of the deforestation of the
landscape, the declining fertility of the soils coupled with the high cost of
fertilizer, and the ubiquity of "food insecurity", many scholars, especially
foresters, came to advocate agro-forestry as a way of addressing all three
concerns. Such scholars were particularly associated with the International
Council for Research in Agro-forestry (ICRAF) which has three essential aims:
to alleviate poverty by increasing food security; to enhance the nutritional