Kapako A irrigation scheme farmers tending to their tomato field

15 July 2019, Malawi - Farmers in Chingale Extension Planning Area (EPA), in Zomba district, south of Malawi are improving their livelihoods through various interventions that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development are implementing under the European Union (EU)-funded project called Strengthening Community Resilience to Climate Change in Blantyre, Zomba, Neno, and Phalombe. 

The project is being implemented in districts where communities continually experience droughts, intermittent rainfall and floods, resulting in crop losses, which translate into food insecurity and malnutrition. In this context, this intervention holistically blends disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in order to achieve strengthened resilience among the target communities.

According to the District Agricultural Development Coordinator for Chingale EPA in Zomba district Lovemore Binali, developments under the project are proving crucial to the achievement of food security in the area.

“Through irrigation structures that have been established under the project, farmers are now able to grow maize, tomatoes and other vegetables. A successful goat pass-on programme is also ongoing. Further farmers have been trained and are making compost manure, and using energy saving cook stoves, a development that is helping to arrest the wanton cutting down of trees in this area,” said Binali during a tour to the project implementation sites within the EPA.

In addition to these interventions, farmers and extension workers have been working together in identifying hotspots where they have constructed check dams, planted vertiver and bananas on many of the gullies in the area in order to overcome the problem of soil erosion. Binali further stated that the project is supporting 38 irrigation schemes in various sections of the EPA to enable members of farmer field schools to produce more out of crops of their choice over a longer time.

"The farmers are supported with all relevant materials to undertake various ways of irrigating their crops. For instance, there are 8 seepage wells in Malasa Section alone. The farmers are also trained by capacitated extension workers on modern methods of farming and how they can identify and properly care for crops that suit climates for their respective areas," explained Binali.

A visit to Kapako A irrigation scheme in Village Head Sikinala, Traditional Authority Mlumbe, showed farmers busy in their irrigation scheme, utilizing a seepage well that has been dug up and treadle pumps, pipes and a water tank that have been provided to enable the 34 members of the farmer field school to irrigate their tomatoes, maize and potatoes.

Lead farmer for Malasa Section of Chingale EPA, Willie Makasu, said each member of the farmer field school has been allocated a quarter of a hectare at the scheme and that a farmer would make over K3 million after investing only K40,000.

"This is the only way we hope to amass our own fortunes and supplement our crop produce from rain fed farming which is heavily affected by climate change nowadays. I urge many other farmers to emulate what their colleagues are doing because with the support being provided, farmers here are empowered to fight poverty, hunger and malnutrition," he said.

The Strengthening Community Resilience to Climate Change project’s goal is to build the resilience of vulnerable smallholder farmers to climate variability and change in order to secure their socio-economic well-being and improve their livelihoods. With funding from the European Union (EU), FAO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, is providing technical, social, financial and material support to the farmers through transformative community empowerment outreach processes such as the Farmer Field School.

The Strengthening Community Resilience to Climate Change in Blantyre, Zomba, Neno, and Phalombe project is aligned with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13, which, among its targets, aims for strengthened resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries. It also aligns with SDG 2, which calls for action to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.