If you look at the bottom of this hill (mountain?) in the middle of the photo, you will see a line of trees, about 12 or 13 of them, all evenly spaced in a line. This is a native tree species known locally as kavungwe, a.k.a. Khaya anthotheca, a.k.a. African mahogany. What is exciting to me about this, is that first, farmers are cultivating this tree deliberately in their farm fields which means there is some potential for promoting more agroforestry in the area. Second, these trees were not planted. Kavungwe grows up naturally everywhere, and farmers choose to let it grow where they like. This is essentially a system that agricultural development practitioners have named FMNR (Farmer managed natural regeneration). One of the big advantages of FMNR is that it is considerably less costly and labour intensive than tree planting. So having the option of being able to promote FMNR, a system which some farmers here are already practicing traditionally, means there is the possibility of transforming a large area like this with little cost.

Please don't get the idea that I think this is a "problem-solved" scenario. There are plenty of challenges to confront before a hillside like this could change. But at least the seed of an idea is already there.