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John O'Shea, Irish Examiner, 25th August 2006
Greater focus on irrigation in drought-affected Malawi is helping
communities protect themselves against food shocks, and providing
a home grown solution to Malawian hunger, an impressive initiative
I witnessed first hand on a recent trip to this East African country.
While Malawi’s recent harvest was reported to be the best
since 2000 with production exceeding national food requirements
by 8 percent, the good news does not extend to everyone in the country.
Roughly five million of Malawi’s 12 million people are in
need of food aid, as certain parts of the country suffered dry spells
and devastating floods last December which destroyed crops. Owing
to this, some households have harvested virtually nothing. In a
country where 80 percent of the country’s workforce are subsistence
farmers, the fallout of this is chronic.
Government estimates for June indicate that 833,000 people will
have little or no food at some point this year, with Nsanje district
being ranked in the poorest category, with 52,000 of the population
at risk requiring an estimated 3,800mts of cereals.
GOAL, which is the district’s lead agency in distributing
food on behalf of the United Nation’s World Food Programme,
has been forced to seek alternative routes to reach the needy. With
funding from the European Union, we have been improving food security
in Nsanje district by implementing small scale irrigation projects.
Given the plentiful supplies of river water in Nsanje district,
crop yield of rural communities can be greatly increased by irrigation
projects, and last year saw GOAL implement 15 irrigation projects
improving the lives of hundreds of families.
Two sites where identified and canals were dug from the Shire river
to areas where farmers had prepared the land for irrigation by treadle
pumps, or by motorised pump which fed 48 sprinklers.
These irrigation programmes have made a real difference in the
food security of hundreds of families as many have harvested an
additional crop as a result of the irrigation programme, which are
now being replicated in many parts of the district. Not only does
the scheme find long-term solutions to the hunger problem faced
by many people in Nsanje, but it also addresses the short-term needs
with food distributions.
The next phase of the irrigation project will see GOAL pilot 60
drip irrigation kits in Nsanje - a system which has had unrivalled
success in neighbouring Zimbabwe. Local communities will trial new
technology as another irrigation option that maximises the potential
of the Shire river running the length of the district.
This very simple, low labour intensive equipment uses a 230 litre
capacity tank to feed a network of pipes perforated with small holes
covering an area 10 meters x 10 meters. The network of pipes are
designed in such a way that they slowly release water into the soil
as close to the roots of the intended crop, thus reducing water
loss through evaporation, and the harvesting of unwanted plants
next to the crop.
The kits themselves will be sourced locally to help stimulate the
economy, and small repayable grants will be made available to farmers
from cash crops successfully grown on their plots using the system.
At the end of this phase of the project, the drip kits used in
the trials, costing €41, will be left with the farmers, who
will have been trained and given other necessary materials. It is
expected that at the end of the pilot, crop diversification will
have been promoted, and 30 percent of the targeted households will
have adopted the drip irrigation kit technology.
To redress the serious affect that deforestation is having on the
population of Malawi, and its contributing role in the constant
flooding in the country, GOAL last year established 40 tree nurseries
in Nsanje district which produced over 500,000 trees. These trees
have since been given back to communities to plant in schools, hospitals,
homes, and along riverbanks. This low cost and highly effective
project offered the best value for money, where GOAL provided some
plastic tubes for seedlings and training / support, and the tree
nurseries were managed by the communities themselves.
Elsewhere in Malawi, GOAL is implementing an extensive HIV/AIDS
programme providing support, treatment and care to people who are
living with HIV/AIDS, and to those who are at risk, and who are
affected by the disease.
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