Chigonthi Irrigation Project

Chigonthi Irrigation Project was a new project for us in 2017. The Chigonthi area comprises about 25,000 households in the rural north west of Lilongwe district. Our objective was to decease the risk of hunger and malnutrition in 11 communities by training farmers in 8 food security strategies.

In total, 384 households were trained. Every community has a demonstration garden, where they are practicing crop management, irrigation, organic composting, pest control, and mulching. Budgeting, planning, balanced diet, and crop storage are practiced at home.

In pictures: community and individual gardens, some have even harvested and planted again under irrigation. These crops will be met with rainfall in November and December, easing the irrigation challenge and providing a food crop late in the year when most other families are running out of food.

Farmers dig shallow wells by hand. It's a muddy job. The well in the picture below is being deepened to extend the irrigation season.

The Continuous Harvest

NGWANGWA IRRIGATION PROJECT

Farmers know that one growing season, dependent on rainfall alone, is not enough to ensure they will have plenty of food to eat and income to spare. The adopted solution is irrigation to bring in a second growing season. But how about a third growing season? Sounds good and many at Ngwangwa are already at three seasons per year.

But some farmers are going a step further: staggered planting. In this method, farmers will divide their plot into as many as 12 sections - 1 for each month - and plant at equal intervals so that there is always a crop to plant, a crop to manage, and a crop to harvest. This works best for vegetables that have a short shelf life and a long harvesting period. With leafy greens like mustard and rape, farmers who stagger their crops can have a continuous harvest all year long.

One farmer using this method grows vegetables in intervals of 3-4 weeks. He has been selling vegetables worth $30 per week for the past 3 months, while having plenty of greens on his family's plates too. Shortening the intervals between planting is one of the strategies AWP looks for to determine the sustainability of the farms.

Public Policy Makers Visit Ngwangwa Irrigation Project

On Thursday, Hon. Dr. Jessie Kabwila, MP, toured the Ngwangwa Irrigation Project with two Ugandan lawmakers and members of the National Commission for Science and Technology in an effort to gain understanding of how to fight poverty through irrigation. The AWP staff shared our experiences and advised the parliamentarians on policies that would be beneficial to rural farmers who comprise 85% of the population of Malawi.

The visiting Ugandan MPs commended AWP and the local government extension workers for collaborating to help the communities. Hon. Kabwila, who is the chairman of the Women's Caucus, believed the success of the project is a result of the inclusion of a majority of women farmers, many of them widows and single mothers.

AWP implored parliament to enact policies that would promote security and investment in rural areas. Farmers addressed the delegation with their concerns, noting the challenge of raising capital to invest in their farms.