Annual report on Nyasaland / Colonial Office.

  • Great Britain. Colonial Office.
Date:
[1955]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Nyasaland / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    59/162 (page 53)
    region of wide rolling plains, crossed by only a few large rivers which rise near the Northern Rhodesia border and flow the width of the Province, dry season water supplies are a serious problem. The fertile loams of the Central Province are particularly liable to erosion and the system of tie-ridging was introduced in this area as long ago as the thirties. The programme of physical conservation measures, involving the construction of graded bunds and protection of watercourses, continued during the year in all districts of the Province, but the greatest con¬ centration of staff and enlistment of communal effort was in the Nathenje area in the Lilongwe District. In a campaign of six months 62,861 acres were conserved. A programme of construction of small earth dams, similar to the Northern Province scheme, was initiated and three dams were completed during the year. A scheme for the protection of the upper Lilongwe River by extension of the Dzalanyama Forest Reserve, was approved in principle by the Provincial Board. The Board also sponsored the formation of District cattle management committees in an endeavour to make the best use of grazing areas and re-examined the problem of overstocking on the Angoni Highlands escarpment. The major problem facing the Central Province Board was, however, the need to re-afforest the Lilongwe-Dowa plain. Schemes were sponsored to encourage tree growing by schools, to assist Native Authorities and villages in running village forest areas and in setting aside Forest Estates for management by Government staff. A District Forest Officer was posted to Lilongwe to undertake extension work, which took the form of propaganda to encourage private tree planting, continued by means of meetings, film shows, literature and demonstra¬ tions. In the Southern Province population pressure aggravated ex¬ ploitation of the soil anc vegetation. A large proportion of the culti¬ vators cannot expect even to extract their subsistence from their holdings and, as a result, normally obtain employment for at least part of the year. Against this background the Provincial Board en¬ deavoured, by means of physical conservation drives and orders for closure and controlled cultivation made under the Natural Resources Rules, to prevent further deterioration. Consideration was also given to a number of schemes for the reclamation and resettlement of Public and under-cultivated African trust land. The main conservation drive with the concentration of trained staff took place this year in the Upper Nswadzi Valley of the Cholo District, where in a six month campaign some 5,545 acres, partly on private estates and partly on African trust land, were conserved. A mechanical soil conservation unit, consisting of a County Crawler with bulldozer attachment and subsidiary equipment, operated for five