By Bishop Witmos

Mangochi, February 9, Mana: Farmers under Traditional Authority (T/A) Mponda in Mangochi have, for the past decade, been struggling to make ends meet through farming.

However, during this year's growing season, things have further fallen apart to the farmers due to the drought that has negatively impacted their maize fields.

An assessment visits to maize fields of some selected farmer’s weeks ago, revealed that the current drought has indeed impacted negatively on many maize fields across Mangochi.

One of the farmers in the area, Victor Malunda, told us that he was unenergetic and voiceless following the disaster.

“During this rainy season, I had all hopes that we would cultivate enough maize for my family because l managed to have access to fertiliser and maize seedlings, but right now I do not think that I would harvest due to the drought that has hit my maize field,” he lamented.

Drought has heavily hit Mangochi, with most parts of the district experiencing no rainfall for over three weeks now.

Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services (DCCMS) had predicted that during this rainy season most parts of Mangochi will experience a prolonged dry spell in the month of February this year.

“During the season, Mangochi will have normal rainfall amount. However, despite the good start, there is a high chance that the district would experience prolonged dry spells of more than 10 days in February and March,” said Chief Meteorologist in the department, Yobu Kachiwanda.

Amongst pertinent challenges that Mangochi District Council is struggling with is one to do with climate change and environmental degradation due to wanton cutting down of trees in the protected forests reserves.

Department of Land Resources for Mangochi positions land degradation as one of the major setbacks in agricultural development in the district, as land has been losing its productive layer due to running off of water.

Despite being close to the lake, communities under T/A Mponda have for the past years never utilized water from the lake for irrigation farming.

Ironically, their land is within 830 hectares Mlambe Irrigation Scheme in Mangochi, which was designed to draw water from Lake Malawi for irrigation farming, using the electricity power. 

However, the scheme has been on and off since 2007 due to poor management.

Currently, the scheme is operational for only rain fed agriculture.

Apart from Lake Malawi, Mangochi is naturally rich, as it is surrounded by two other prominent water bodies of Lake Malombe and Shire River.

With the current situation in Mangochi, farmers in Mponda feel that the only hope is through winter irrigation farming.

“With the dry spell that has affected most of our field crops, it is obvious that the district may experience hunger. As such, we believe that the only way for us to survive is through irrigation farming,” said Malunda.

The 2017 to 2022 Social Economic Profile for Mangochi District Council states that currently the district has a total area of 27,000 hectares as potential for irrigation which could be developed and sustainably managed.

However, the report indicates the current total area developed under irrigation is 2,067 hectares only, which was established through various technologies, such as small-scale gravity fed irrigation schemes, small motorized pump-based irrigation schemes, treadle pump-based irrigation schemes, as well as dam construction schemes.

Recently, government handed over the Mlambe Irrigation Scheme to the Greenbelt Authority to renovate it to a mega farm for communities in the district to practice large scale commercial irrigation farming.

In turn, in November last year, the Authority and Mlambe Irrigation Scheme entered into a five-year Memorandum of Understanding, marking the beginning of collaboration in agriculture.

The agreement allowed alternating land use by local farmers and the Authority during rainy and dry seasons. It also allowed the Authority to support farmers even in dry spells like currently.

The construction works were handed over to Shilpa Contractors, for the rehabilitation and maintenance works, worth K1.1 billion.

The assignment involved bringing the scheme back to life within 120 days, through the provision of irrigation pumps, backup generator, maintenance of water intake, as well as construction of secondary canals.

Two months later, water has started flowing from the intake in Lake Malawi, to the reservoir, ready for irrigation soon.

The development has brought smiles on faces of communities in Mangochi, as they believe that they will soon start practicing winter irrigation farming at the scheme.

President of Mlambe Water Users Association, Philip Nkwera, says within the shortest period of time the Authority has partnered with them, hopes have been raised.

“The scheme was constructed in 2007, but since then we have not fully utilized water from the lake for irrigation. But right now, we have witnessed the flowing of water from the lake into the scheme, a development which is very exciting,” said Nkwera.

Chairperson for the Greenbelt Authority board of directors, Wester Peter Kosamu, says that the authority expects large scale commercial irrigation farming to begin at Mlambe Scheme from April this year.

“On behalf of the Greenbelt Authority, am very happy that we have started on a new chapter in Mangochi. It is very important that as an Authority we should indeed start showing seriousness in order to respond to the needs of Malawians, following a call by President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera for us to venture into mega farms.

“Mlambe Scheme is an example of such farms that we are implementing, and our focus is to get this scheme running for large scale commercial irrigation farming. As such, I can assure Malawians that from April this year, the scheme will start full large irrigation farming,” he said.

According to the Chief Executive Officer for the Authority, Eric Dudley Chidzungu, Malawi has the capacity to maximize its economic gains through commercial agriculture, given the support from both public and private investors in various irrigation schemes that the authority is championing across the country.

“The country has vast irrigable land that is yet to be developed, which if well utilized, coupled with adequate investment, could help in addressing food insecurity and foreign exchange shortage.

“The Authority has vested interest in increasing investments, promoting value addition and encourage large scale agricultural production to achieve our goal, which is a 300 billion investments in the next five to seven years,” said Chidzungu.

President Chakwera launched the mega farms initiative in September last year, that aims at sinking 63,000 hectares under irrigation.

The President also unveiled plans to mechanize farming through One-Stop Private Sector Mega Farms initiative that will see 844 medium and large-scale farmers being supported in commercial farming.

Under the scheme, farmers are expected to grow crops for selected priority value chains to boost agriculture output in the country.

Launching the initiative in Kanengo, Lilongwe, Chakwera said the approach is a positive course that puts the nation on the path to national prosperity.

“The initiative, which is one of the Tonse Alliance administration's flagship campaign promises, seeks to facilitate the striking of deals and contracts in areas of financing, off-taking, tractor hiring, irrigation facilities provision, fertiliser as well as inoculant suppliers,” said Chakwera.

Later, during the launch of Linga Mega Farm in Nkhata Bay, where over 800 rice and beans farmers have already started irrigation farming on a 450-hectare land, Chakwera said that mega farms initiative is the best approach in commercializing agricultural production in the country.

“The Malawi Vision 2063 clearly outlines a path to self-reliance and prosperity by leveraging agriculture as one pillar that will spur socio-economic transformation. In view of this, through mega farms initiative that I am launching, Malawi would be able to increase agricultural production that can even be used for exporting,” he said. 

Through the programme, Malawi has already secured markets for key agricultural products, including tobacco, maize, soya and goats in countries like China and India.

Sub-T/A Mambo of Mangochi has commended government for considering Mlambe Scheme to be amongst mega farms where it intends to do large scale commercial irrigation farming.

“As people of Mangochi, it is so painful to experience hunger when we have three water bodies of Shire River, Lake Malawi and Malombe within us. Suppose we are able to utilize the water bodies, am sure that we will be able to feed the whole nation.

“We have waited for so long in order to see the Mlambe Irrigation Scheme project taking shape, as many previous governments have made failed promises. As such, we are pleased to see that the current government is serious on this scheme, and we are thanking President Chakwera for the initiative of mega farms,” said Mambo.