Whether you live in the United States or Malawi in southeastern Africa, you can be 4 The Soil because soil health has national and international inspirations and applications. Soil health is foundational to food security and can catalyze community change. Taona Makunje Chigwenembe is the executive director of Creative Solutions for the Environment in Malawi and a board member of the New Community Project. Taona shares with us the mighty, great things she and her colleagues are doing to rebuild and regenerate soil health by honoring indigenous knowledge, practicing permaculture, and integrating agroforestry systems.

Being in touch with the land and soil health is critical in dealing with weather variability and extreme conditions of being too dry or too wet. The dry season lasts more than two hundred days now in the area where Taona works. When it does rain, widespread flooding can occur.

Therefore, community-based agriculture and forest-related solutions have to start with the soil and a deep respect for people's histories and knowledge of land and crops. The people and communities that Creative Solutions for the Environment work with and alongside in Malawi have planted more than two million trees (about 400,000 per year) with an 87% survival rate, and have plans to plant another ten million trees in the coming years.

Creative Solutions for the Environment (https://csemw.org/) is a non-profit organization founded in Malawi with a passion to care for the Planet Earth and its people to creatively provide integrated community-focused solutions that tackle both environmental issues and poverty.

Learn more about the Virginia Soil Health Coalition, pledge your support for soil health, and discover the recent 4 The Soil coloring book at https://www.virginiasoilhealth.org/ and https://www.4thesoil.org.

4 the Soil: A Conversation is made possible with funding support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and The Agua Fund. Other partners include the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Virginia Cooperative Extension; Virginia State University; Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation; and partners of the Virginia Soil Health Coalition.

Disclaimer: Views expressed on this podcast are those of each individual guest.

To download a copy of this, or any other show, visit the website 4thesoil.org. Music used during today’s program is courtesy of the Flip Charts. All rights reserved. 4 the Soil: A Conversation is produced by On the Farm Radio in collaboration with Virginia Tech. The host and co-hosts are Jeff Ishee, Mary Sketch Bryant, and Eric Bendfeldt.