Lower Shire small scale irrigation farming doing fantastic job in food production—Agriculture Minister Kawale

Kawale with TA Ndamera at Nkulowamitete Scheme and with MP Ganda at Tiyanjane 

* Agriculture is crucial to the economic growth of our country—Nsanje Lalanje MP Gladys Ganda

* It is enshrined in the MW2063 national vision, under the Pillar 1 of Agricultural Productivity & Commercialization

* This is impressive and if extended throughout our communities, the Shire Valley alone can supply food for the whole country

By Duncan Mlanjira

Despite challenges that kept affecting their irrigation farming due to cyclones Idai, Anna, Gombe and most recently Freddy, small scale farmers in the Lower Shire have positively risen above such natural confrontations by keeping doing “fantastic job in food production”.

This was observed by Minister of Agriculture, Sam Kawale on Wednesday after a tour of three exemplary irrigation schemes in Chikwawa and Nsanje being supervised by the Shire Valley Agricultural Development District (ADD).

This positive embracing of irrigation farming is ahead of the massive project being undertaken by Shire Valley Transformation Programme which is currently under construction that the Minister first visited in Chikwawa a day earlier.

After being appraised of the progress of the landmark irrigation project — which is touted as the biggest and impressive in the whole of the sub-Saharan Africa Region — Minister Kawale proceeded to tour Shire Valley ADD’s 49 hectare Nazolo Irrigation Scheme, which have been harvesting different types of crops three times a year since 2011.

Here the farmers themselves appraised the Minister that they have been experiencing low water pressure on their canals because of the damage caused on their river intake structures due to Cyclone Freddy — as well as being challenged on farming inputs such as fertilizer and pesticides.

The Minister gently challenged them to concentrate on organic fertilizer production which the Shire Valley ADD trained them on — thus spending less as the manure is mixed with synthetic fertilizer.

He further impressed on them that he is also a farmer and practises climate smart agriculture at his six-hectare farm in Lilongwe where spends less through production of organic fertilizer — while encouraging them for have such mindset change.

He, however, recognized and applauded them for being hard working and took note that they need to be supported in various ways through the Shire Valley ADD — a pledge he also made in three other exemplary irrigation schemes he toured in Nsanje on Wednesday.

First was the Tiyanjane Scheme in Traditional Authority Nyanthana in Nsanje Lalanje Constituency, whose Member of Parliament is Gladys Ganda — which specializes in onion farming that is supplied in whole of Nsanje up to Chikwawa where the produce also finds its way to Blantyre District.

Here leader of the cooperative, Medson Govati told the Minister that they have been farming three times a year since 2012 from which they have profited from as it has changed their economic livelihood.

He said on the minimum, they managed to earn over K700,000 after each harvest such that they have managed to construct decent houses, purchased motorbikes for commercial purposes (Kabaza), are keeping various livestocks for food and sale — emphasising that they do have three meals a day.

The water from the wells around the scheme’s 7.9 hectares is pumped through solar powered pumps since 2012 which supplies over 5,000 liters an hour from two 5-horse power pumps — saying they need more land.

Of the 110 farmers, 68 are women and in her report to the Minister as well as the media, MP Ganda said she was proud that her constituents positively embraced climate smart agriculture as opposed to rain-fed, which only caters for an annual harvest.

She said some of the challenges being faced are man-made that when irrigation infrastructure got damaged through natural forces of nature and mechanical faults, there was little self-help initiative to maintain them.

“But now they have been inspired to own the infrastructure and take good care of it after realising how they are benefitting from harvesting three times a year,” Ganda said.

“Agriculture is crucial to the economic growth of our country which is enshrined in the MW2063 national vision, under the Pillar 1 of Agricultural Productivity & Commercialization and as you heard from the testimony from farmers themselves, each is earning over K700,000 after each harvest.

“This is impressive and if extended throughout our communities, the Shire Valley alone can supply food for the whole country,” said the MP in an interview with the media.

She, however, appealed to the authorities to create structured markets, saying her Constituency’s farmers can earn more than what they are enjoying because the produce, such as the onions, attracts higher prices elsewhere because unregulated middlemen traders offer lower prices to the Lower Shire farmers.

She also asked for partnerships from stakeholders to encourage farmers and the rest of the communities to build climate resilience mindset as all cyclones since 2018 — starting with Idai, Ana, Gombe and Freddy — have affected agricultural production in the Lower Shire.

Minister Kawale then visited Chimwalambango scheme whose 8,800 cubic litres is supplied from Chimwala River from the Matandwe Forestry Reserve of the Kirk Range along the road to Marka as well as Nkulowamitete in a community that is on the border with Mozambique.

The Minister was appraised that Chimwalambango has the potential of 200 hectares but what has been developed is over 120 hectares while Nkulowamitete in TA Ndamera has 80 hectares as potential but currently utilising 45.

Thus he summed up that the Lower Shire small scale irrigation farming are “doing fantastic job in food production”, while taking cognizance that apart from the success stories are accompanied with serious  challenges of cyclones that keep sweeping away fertile soil; damaging canals and intakes and crops being affected by army worms.

“But despite the challenges, these farmers have risen above them by  rebuilding their lives through self-help maintenance as well as from development partners such as Gift of the Givers.

“A number of the irrigation schemes are not functioning due to the recent cyclones as Nsanje has 98 of them but 15 are not functioning as they need heavy maintenance.

“My Ministry is doing an extensive assessment of the damage and we shall factor it in the midterm budget review to consider budgetary support towards maintenance of the dysfunctional irrigation infrastructure,” he promised.