Nelly Bassily | August 30, 2010
This week’s story on soil health describes how farmers plant trees across slopes to protect their soil. The lines of shrubs must be level; that is, they must be planted at the same height on the contour. The lines are therefore known as contour lines. Making sure you plant trees in this way is not as complicated as it might sound.
The script of the week is from Malawi, and contains a lot of detail on how to make contour lines. Simple equipment will suffice. By taking a few straightforward steps, and following the characters in the script, farmers can soon mark contour lines on their land. The time taken to make a contour line, and plant trees or shrubs along it, is a valuable investment, as the farmers from Madagascar discover. We hope you find the script useful!
You can read the script here: http://farmradio.org/english/radio-scripts/91-4script_en.asp.