The impending El Nino or Super El Nino is already alarming scientists in its possible impacts. In 2023 the last El Nino reduced the harvest in the southern region of Malawi by 42%. The drought was exacerbated by Cyclone Freddy which caused flooding and also devastated crops in the project communities served by Mbedza.

How does a small organisation like Mbedza respond to this?

We are serious about monitoring and reducing tree loss to the minimum possible. The job doesn’t end when a tree sapling is planted but that is the start. Our team monitor all trees for several years until the community is ready for the handover stage.

In this blog post we explore how Mbedza monitors nearly 150,000 trees and the challenges of tree loss.

Mbedza’s 2025 - 2026 environment programme for tree planting begins with the training and preparation for 6 tree nurseries this month.

We were able to select 6 communities for this task although many more are crying out for this intervention. Important lessons continue to be learned from previous programmes.

Our first small Tiyeni plot yielded 8 bags of Maize. A comparable plot using traditional methods and expensive fertiliser yielded less than half that amount. Tiyeni points the way for households to become more food self sufficient and reducing costs.

Mbedza is expanding this training in 2025.

In April 2025 a group from the UK and Belgium visited several Mbedza Projects. This blog looks at visits to some of Mbedza’s environment interventions - tree woodlots at Kagwa village and Mbewe village and a new development helping farmers to grow more food in a more sustaonable way - the Tiyeni method.

The team visited three organisations with similar projects to our own…

 At 1am we arose bleary eyed to the sound of our alarms, after an evening charged with the excitement of the day that lay ahead.

Last month we returned to Songani Primary School to plant their tree seedlings into their woodlot.