Go CHDI Agriculture Team!!! I LOVE my Mother Earth!!!

The past couple of days, I engaged in work much different than my main jobs here in Malawi. I traveled all over the southern part of the country with the CHDI Agriculture Team, starting a feasibility study of organic cotton production in Malawi. Our team consisted of Austin Ngwira (CHDI Director of Agriculture), Walker Morris (CHDI Director of Business Development), Austin and Dedericks (2 experienced organic cotton farmers from Zambia), and Simon and Silvere (2 men working with Organic Exchange on the market side of organic cotton production). We traveled from Lilongwe to Blantyre, to Zomba, to Zalewa, to lower Neno, to Mwanza, and back to Lilongwe. We met with the various stakeholders for our trial production of organic cotton: the farmers, ginners, spinners, weavers, dye-ers, finishers, garment designers, manufacturers, etc. We had productive meetings with every single part of the value chain of cotton! It was so, so interesting, and I'm now an expert on organic cotton (haha, not really but close).

There is an increasing demand for organic products all over the world (especially in Europe and North America), and Malawi has a great opportunity to become one of the primary exporters of organic cotton. Exploring these possibilities for a trial production starting this November was extremely interesting, and I'm so happy that CHDI is taking on this organic cotton project!

Another one of the most interesting projects that the CHDI Agriculture Team is taking on in Rwanda and Malawi is the "carbon sinking" project. A little background on this issue will be helpful, so sit back and enjoy learning this very interesting lesson about our Mother Earth...

For over 150 years, industrial societies have been releasing carbon from underground coal and oil reserves, adding about 175 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Another six billion tons are being added each year. This transfer cannot go on indefinitely. Signs of climate change can already be seen in many places around the world: The mounting list of impacts ranges from rising average temperatures, melting of polar ice caps, more extreme weather events, and uncontrollable forest fires. At long last, the international community has been forced to recognize that global warming and climate change pose a real threat to humanity. Fortunately, CHDI has fully recognized this fact and is committing to doing something about it..."carbon sinks"...

A carbon dioxide sink is a carbon reservoir that is increasing in size, and is the opposite of a carbon dioxide "source". The main natural sinks are (1) the oceans and (2) plants and other organisms that use photosynthesis to remove carbon from the atmosphere by incorporating it into biomass and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. This concept of "carbon sinks" has become more widely known because the Kyoto Protocol allows the use of carbon dioxide sinks as a form of carbon offset.

Carbon sequestration is the term describing processes that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. To help mitigate global warming, a variety of means of artificially capturing and storing carbon (while releasing oxygen) — as well as of enhancing natural sequestration processes — are being explored.

CHDI is exploring a "carbon sink" project with the production of tree farms in both Rwanda and Malawi. Carbon dioxide is incorporated into forests and forest soils by trees and other plants. Through photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, store the carbon in sugars , starch and cellulose, and release the oxygen into the atmosphere. A young forest, composed of growing trees, absorbs carbon dioxide and acts as a sink. Mature forests, made up of a mix of various aged trees as well as dead and decaying matter, may be carbon neutral above ground. The forest eco-system may eventually become carbon neutral.

As of now, there is an increasing demand for carbon sinks from the rich Europeans who are flying around in their jets, polluting the environment every minute of their lives. Fortunately, it has become very trendy for these people to invest in "carbon sinks" to offset their carbon emissions. They are beginning to measure their carbon footprints and invest in carbon sinks (i.e. tree farms) in order to offset their massive CO2 emissions. Currently, these rich Europeans are the main market for carbon sinking, but this market will only continue to increase over the next 20 years, and the market for carbon sinking will be very popular and very large! Hopefully, it will be the norm for all people to measure their carbon footprints and offset them in some way (using carbon credits or another method).

CHDI is at the forefront of this market, and is beginning to do some really, really exciting things! I hope you enjoyed learning about this as much as I did...