Bio-diversity

Burning of residuals is one of the most important challenge/problem that is contributing to degradation of environment at Mpamba and contributing to global climate change. Burning of residues has contributed to carbon and methane emissions into the atmosphere while at the same time the practice is destroying sources of raw materials for organic farming. The project is designed to complement the existing project that is helping small scale fish farmers to develop quality and affordable fish feed from locally available ingredients at Mpamba in Nkhatabay District. The existing project was based on the notion that local communities contribute significantly to environmental degradation and climate change through burning of weed and crop residues. As such it was perceived that what is considered residual can be utilized to develop fish feed or produce manure and consequently reduce burning and allow nutrient to flow within the farm. Evidence exists that farmers are not fully aware of the benefits of using such alternative inputs as cassava leaves, sweet potato leaves, giant grass leaves, napier grass, mulberry leaves, Leucana leaves, banana leaves, pawpaw leaves, leftover homestead food (Hecht & Maluwa, 2003) to formulate fish feed and use the water and debris from the pond for production of crops. There is need to explore alternative approaches that would increase production of fish and crops apart from the conversional methods.

Malawi