Nurturing newly planted seedlings for better output

Right after the end of the first phase of a record breaking nationwide tree planting, I started to think of the need for nurturing over 350 million trees planted by a massive nationwide public mobilization of the peoples and the government of Ethiopia on a single day light. I personally think this heroic feat by the peoples of Ethiopia depicts three levels of investments.

In the short run, the tree planting campaign is a national, regional and global contribution to curbing the adverse effects of climate change. Second, it is an enormous social investment that showed the world that this historic country known for its cultural and religious diversity would certainly remain united. Third, it is investing into the future economic development of the country with a vision of creating a new generation of the youth living in a healthy and ecologically balanced country.

Now therefore, how can the nation keep up to the expectations of nurturing these tree seedlings planted in all the regions of the country with a variety of agro-ecological settings. I have some suggestions to forward to our esteemed readers.

To begin with taking care of the newly planted seedlings implies providing enough moisture and water for the trees. This in turn demands having enough supply of water in close proximity to the areas covered by trees. Provision of enough water is highly critical particularly during the dry season in the country and for the regions of the country with perennial water shortage.

We are now in the middle of the rainy season in which most of the rains receiving regions are enjoying abundant precipitation just gushing into the lower valleys of the country sometimes causing flush floods. Ethiopians are by now well aware of the traditional and modern methods of water harvesting, particularly rain water harvesting.

Although water harvesting is not an entirely new technique of water conservation, the practice is well known particularly in Tigray, Ethiopia Somali and Afar States. Besides, between 1985 and 1994, water harvesting was one of the components of the environmental conservation programs of the non-governmental organizations operating in Ethiopia.

In the Ethiopia Somali State where the rainy season is limited only to a couple of days, I have seen that numerous micro dams and check dams were constructed to harvest rain water and flood run off to use it for drinking water for their livestock. The same scheme can be replicated to the practice of nurturing the tree seedlings planted in the different zones of the region.

In the northern parts of the country, rainwater is also harvested at household level to provide water for backyard gardening and for watering fruit seedlings ay homesteads. It is therefore possible to use these practices by digging smaller water retention ponds very close to the areas covered by the seedlings.

In various zones of northern Ethiopia, check dams are also constructed barriers designed to interrupt flow and reduce water velocity, which would help tackle erosion and flash flooding. They also allow farmers to divert and store water for irrigation and, by slowing it down, increase the infiltration of water into the surrounding land. This mechanism could be used in nurturing the trees planted by retaining moisture and top soil during the rainy season.

At homestead levels, rain water from roof tops both in urban and rural areas can be used to nurture home based tree seedlings.

Planting trees is symbolic in the sense that it is planting hope and optimism as an important component of the social consciousness of united effort against poverty and destitution.

By sponsoring unemployed youths both in rural and urban areas of the country so that they can participate in nurturing and reporting on the progress of the planted trees, government institutions at all levels civil society organizations, professional associations, churches and mosques, local and international investors can help to create jobs for the youth in areas close to the planted trees.

Furthermore, it would be good to also prepare organic fertilizers as part of rehabilitating the soil components on which the trees are planted. Besides, I have the opinion that building enclosures around the areas covered by trees to keep off human and animal encroachments will promote the growth of the tree saplings in a more natural environment.

One should not expect that all planted trees will grow into full blown tree shoots. However, under normal circumstances if about 70 percent of the planted trees properly planted can continue to grow, I think this is a better output but with systematic nurturing up to 85 percent of planted trees could grow into full-fledged trees.

Keeping a log book for establishing a database on the status of planted trees on monthly basis could help for gathering scientific information on the growth rate of the trees and for keeping a recorded history of the trees right at the site level. This is very important not only for ensuring proper growth for the trees but also for matters related to knowledge on agro-ecological factors related to the growth of the trees.

By and large, it is also very important to protect the trees from attacks by locusts and possible wildfire particularly in the rural areas. I also feel that we need a standard protocol on nurturing and protecting the planted trees to ascertain similar growth standards in different ecological setting of the country.

Tree planting and nurturing should not be restricted only to periodic national campaigns conducted at a specific period of the year. It should be planned budgeted and implemented as a mandatory activity mainstreamed across the major activities of public and private enterprises. This is very important for the sustainability of the program over the coming years.

I also think that it is very important to revisit the country’s legal system in terms of protecting community and public owned tree farms to give appropriate legal protection for planted trees.

Given the level of the damage that climate change has inflicted upon the development of the country for almost half a century, planting trees across the multiple agro-ecological areas of the country is a matter of survival for Ethiopia. This cannot be only a seasonal activity done during vacations or only as part of a commutative tree planting ceremony. Ethiopia has comparative advantage in this respect as there is a strong leadership commitment on forming a mid-level developed country based on climate resilient green economy.

However, nurturing the planted trees require a stable and sustained peace in the entire country. In the absence of peace it would be very difficult to take tree planting as a national priority. On the other hand, tree planting and nurturing is very useful for ascertaining sustained peace in the country because it involves peoples of different ethnic groups, professions and gender mix. It would help to create a spirit of understanding among peoples of multiple social orientation and cultural background.

One last point I wish to raise regarding nurturing tree seedlings is the question of ownership. This is very important because we naturally care for something we own. At this point it is very important to keep in mind that all trees planted across the country belongs to the entire nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia. Likewise nurturing them is the prerogative of the entire peoples of this country.

 The Ethiopian Herald August 27, 2019

 BY SOLOMON DIBABA

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