Pedal pump

This is what our new pedal pumps look like. We incorporated more bicycle spare parts and the frame is all galvanized steel. It can be made by a bicycle repairman with off-the-shelf hardware.

Farmers see first signs of success

Farmers in Salima are seeing the first signs of successful irrigation. Their 1 acre of maize has pushed through the soil. The sprouts have got them excited for what they will eventually harvest to suplement the rainy season crop.

New Irrigation Sites with NAPHAM

The National Association for People living with HIV and AIDS in Malawi (NAPHAM) is an organization established in Malawi to look into the needs of people affected by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). NAPHAM engage in advocacy campaigns, testing and counseling, education, and livelihood development. With over 1,000 support groups throughout the country, they reach out to tens of thousands of people to support their efforts to live positively even with the reality of HIV and AIDS in their communities and families.

Africa Windmill Project began training members of the Nathenje support group under a NAPHAM project aimed at developing nutritious and income-generating gardens. With such a great potential to improve the well being of their members, NAPHAM has decided to send the project into another community. This is the second phase of a long process of bringing irrigation training to thousands of their members across the country, people who generally struggle with insufficient nutrition.

At the Likuni support group outside Lilongwe, we saw relatively good irrigation activities already taking place. Using watering cans, most farmers are growing small plots of tomatoes and greens. It is our hope that with better water pumps and training, these farmers will be able to scale up to larger fields and diversify their crops.

AWP will return on Friday the 12th of July to begin the training process.

In View

An irrigation chain: approx. 2,000 maize plants, 500 bean plants

The demo garden pumps:

A view of most of the demo:

Water flow at the demo: (onions at 2 months)

Flow at the corner:

Watering onions, with mulch:

Onion nursery near the demo, belongs to one of the Mziza club members:

Katsumwa Irrigation: Up and Running

Irrigation is underway at Katsumwa Village, Lilongwe. There are five irrigation farmers using this system and 15 additional farmers participating in the training course, to eventually start their own irrigated gardens. Up to three acres of irrigable land sits within range of the water tank. For a start the farmers have cultivated about half and acre.

Due to the sandy soil the farmers had to dig a well farther from the water tank. In order to fill the tank over that distance we installed a 200 liter drum near the pump which is connected by ground pipes to the 13,000 liter tank. As the drum fills, the pressure in the drum exceed the pressure in the tank, and water begins to flow into the tank.

The water pump can usually pump faster than the water transfers from the drum to the tank, which could lead to an overflowing tank. However, this does not present a problem under normal conditions because the farmers take short breaks while pumping, allowing the drum and tank to equalize.

Water tank:

 Distribution pipes:

 Flow under minimum pressure:

 Farmers learn pump maintenance:

Demonstrating how to water-in the basins:

 Demonstrating how to direct water into the basins:

 Demonstrating how to mulch the basins:

Wind Power!

Here is a brief look at some of the windmills we are working on this season:

Old Faithful: the AWP Demo Garden windmill has been pumping water into the reservoir since the end of last dry season. The windmill was disabled during the rainy season. Yesterday we hooked everything back up to mark the start of irrigation at the Demo.

Salima, a lakeshore district, is an exceptionally windy area. The potential for wind power is known by some local village residents. One such resident has constructed his own windmill not far from our Siyasiya irrigation site. When we venture into the area we always stop by his windmill to see what progress he has made. On our last trip we brought him some PVC turbine blades to improve the efficiency of his design. He was able to get some consistent voltage from the attached bicycle dynamo but not enough to light his house. As he refines the design, we will give him any advice and assistance we can.

More windmill to come as the 

Siyasiya irrigation training

Last week, we went to Siyasiya in Salima to train farmers in basin irrigation. We were invited by World Relief international who support Ministry Teams from local churches in development and relief projects in the area.

The group picked up the ideas and techniques quickly and had a quarter acre ready for planting by the time we left. Over the next two weeks they will expand their garden up to 2-3 acres, where they will grow onions, tomatoes, maize and green vegetables.

Nathenje Compost training

Our latest training in compost making.

Mzindo Irrigation

It had just stopped raining in Mzindo families run to the village headman house to hold a meeting with him. The ten families remain standing waiting for traditional leader to come out. He comes out, and finds people with clothes dripping. One representative tells the chief about the irrigation farming. The farmers did not know that AWP had already met him to discuss irrigation farming in the area.

Later that day, AWP starts off on the 30 km drive to Mzindo village to hold the first meeting with farmers interested to participate in irrigation farming. AWP finds farmers sitting around a big tree with a big canopy that provides good shade to children, mothers, fathers and the aged. During the day, most people would converge around these trees to relax after working in the crop fields; play Bawo; listen to cases; attend village meetings; watch traditional dances like gule wamkulu and any other traditional activity.

This day, only adults sit around to hear what AWP has brought to the village. Children play in the tall grass nearby. The meeting begins with introductions and finishes with AWP telling farmers about sustainable irrigation farming and the water pumps that would help them to have improved crop yield each irrigation season. AWP asks the farmers for their commitment to an irrigation project in the area. This sends farmers into hand clapping and ululations.

One farmer rises up and tells AWP how they have had problems using watering cans to irrigate the crops; the activity of drawing water alone is tiresome as compared to the irrigation technology they saw in Mziza village, not far from their village. This farmer finishes by saying the introduction of hand cranked and pedal pumps for irrigation farming will help them to harvest more food in a year. The farmers want to be the beginners in learning the new concept of farming.

The meeting ends with a visit to a new site where the village headman has offered land for establishing an irrigation garden for other farmers within and the neighboring villages. 

Katsumwa Irrigation Project

The Katsumwa Irrigation Project is now under way, in partnership with Good Neighbours International.

There are 20 farmers in the irrigation club. All of them will be fully trained this year. Five of them, the lead farmers in the group, will be farming a 1-2 acre garden using AWP pedal pumps and a brick water reservoir. Next year those farmers should have raised the money and gathered the resources to implement irrigation gardens on their land, and each season a new group of five will be given the chance to use the club's demo garden for experience and the chance to raise their own funds.

The abandoned primary school makes a good classroom for our farmers:

Farmers gather in the classroom:

Participation yields a user friendly calendar for February: 

Irrigation Students at Natural Resources College

On the afternoon of 26 November, the lecture theater at Natural Resources College (NRC) was full with irrigation students and their lecturers awaiting a presentation on irrigation technology by Africa Windmill Project staff. The opportunity for the presentation came about after the lecturers visited AWP irrigation demonstration garden and were impressed with the irrigation technology.

NRC offers various courses regarding natural resources and agriculture. The irrigation course is relatively new to the college, having started just a few years ago. With tight budgets and few hands-on opportunities, students only get familiar with irrigation technologies by visiting the much larger agricultural college, Bunda College, or possibly by visiting Ministry of Irrigation sites within a few kilometers radius.

AWP shared with the students how the technologies are developed, the amount of water they pump, the maximum effective acreage for each pump, and the cost. Students gave feedback on the design and implementation of the irrigation schemes. Among many good points, they brought up the potential cultural challenges for women to use a cycling pump. They suggested that we make a few changes that could better accommodate the lady farmer.

At the end of the presentation, the students had a chance to see a pedal pump in action. The pump had to be set up without a well, which led us to pump only a modest one meter of head. Nonetheless, the students were able to ask questions and try out the pump, putting a practical spin on the course material they have been studying.

We hope that the students may have a chance to come out to our demo garden next year to get their hands dirty with their fellow farmers at Mziza.