Africa: An Enduring Commitment

While in Mchinji, Malawi, on Friday, President Clinton visited a village that is part of the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative's anchor farm and community reforestation projects. He met local farmers and their families who are able to improve their harvests and incomes through these projects.

The anchor farm provides smallholder farmers with improved farming inputs such as seeds at bulk prices, teaches sustainable farming techniques, and negotiates the sale of the harvest. CHDI operates a 1,000-hectare commercial farm in western Malawi, growing soy and maize, and is working with 400 nearby smallholder farmers to grow additional soy. CHDI negotiated the purchase of last season's harvest at a price 90 percent higher than that offered by traditional buyers.

In both Malawi and Rwanda, CHDI has instituted a large-scale carbon sequestration program with local farmers by growing and planting a large number of trees across the region. CHDI is facilitating the sale of the credits for the carbon stored within these trees on the world market, thereby providing enough income to sustain the project and increase the income of the farmers who maintain the trees. It is estimated that these trees have contributed to saving approximately 450,000 tons of carbon. Since its launch, thousands of farmers have planted over 4 million trees under different planting systems such as boundary planting, woodlots, and fruit orchards.