Partnering with Local Development

Many development projects fail because the target communities do not adopt them. Often this can be averted by simple, inexpensive consultations with the community members and the leadership. We have to consider the local customs, environment, and resources, as well as the interests and goals of the people. 

 Last week we began consulting with the Ngabu Area Development Committee (ADC), which is a group of local residents who advice the chiefs and communities on development issues. The ADC helped us to identify groups of farmers who could participate in focus group discussions. The overall purpose of the engagement is for us to develop a clear idea of the problems facing their community, and then to create a possible solution together with them.

When we asked the ADC what farmers worry about when they first wake up in the morning, the response was a clear "FOOD!". They believe that climate change is the cause of the current food shortage, siting droughts and floods that destroyed crops last year. This year is not looking much better, with most of the area in drought conditions.

We will continue working with the community to develop a way for them to have food throughout the year. The largest river in Malawi is just a few kilometers from where the meeting took place. There must be a way to get that water to the crops so that people will always have food.

Our Resilience Innovation Challenge

In December 2015, AWP was awarded a grant by the Resilient Africa Network (www.ranlab.org) to develop a prototype for irrigation in Chikwawa District of Malawi. Chikwawa is in the Southern Region of Malawi, along the Shire River Valley. The Shire River is the outlet of Lake Malawi that flows into the Zambezi River and out to the Indian Ocean through Mozambique.

River and pump house in Chikwawa

Chikwawa is an environmentally vulnerable district. Flood and droughts that periodically affect the country tend to have their biggest impact in Chikwawa. Heavy rain upstream does not benefit crops in the ground at Chikwawa, but can still result in floods that wipe out entire villages.

Defunct Irrigation - many irrigation sites in Chikwawa have gone out of use. Why and how do we prevent that?

AWP will be working with two traditional authorities (i.e. chiefdoms the size of small counties) to design new irrigation methods and technologies that are appropriate for the district. While we have our ideas, we are inviting the local communities to provide insight into the design they think will best serve them. For the next six months, we will be developing the prototype, and eventually presenting the design to the community for their feedback.

Power at the river bank. Sounds like a good place for irrigation.

If the design is successful, AWP may have the opportunity to pilot, test and scale the design.

Chikwawa District Executive Committee - collaborating with other development workers

The pump house for an electric motor pump. The site is not operational but has potential. What can we do better?

Prime for irrigation. The Shire Rive cuts through the valley.

Irrigating in the Rain

Wind blows year round - why not use it?

Malawi has a rainy season and a dry season. Unfortunately, the rainy season can sometimes be rather dry. As we train farmers in irrigation, they are looking to capitalize on the dry season for food production and income generation. Perhaps the bigger impact comes during a dry rainy season, or drought as it is usually known.

AWP Demo Garden - teaching farmers about rainy season irrigation

The 2015/2016 rainy season has provided below average rainfall for most of the country. Farmers who have irrigation skills and equipment can save their crops by covering the water deficit through pumping ground water. Because the rain still supplies most of the water, the farmers are able to irrigate larger plots than they would be able to if they had to supply the full water requirement.

After a very bad harvest last year due to low rainfall, farmers cannot afford another drought. By irrigating during the rainy season, they will be able to keep food production up to prevent the devastation of hunger and malnutrition.

Maize suffers from water-stress - drought effects

New Farmers Take On Hunger in Community

Every year around this time, Malawians are preparing their gardens to be planted at the first sign of the rainy season. Farmers in our training programmes are no different, except that's not all they are doing. Irrigation farmers are preparing to harvest at the same time they are preparing to plant. 

These pictures show the dense, deep-green fields of our newest trainees at Ngwangwa. The local Extension Office estimated a shortage of 50% after the 2015 rainy season harvest. December is half way to the next harvest, and many families are beginning to ration food, or even run out completely.

 A harvest of just 500 lbs of grain can carry a family over for 4 to 6 months when other food supplies are dwindling. Many of these farmers can expect to harvest as much as 1,000 lbs of maize from their irrigated fields.

 The farmers were trained in a strategy that would both increase their production, and ensure that the food is available when it is most needed. Irrigation is the backbone of the strategy because it allows them to grow food at any time. Irrigation provides a farmer with tools to fight hunger whenever the need arises.

 This year, AWP trained 325 farmers in irrigation and food security strategies. The farmers grew maize in response to last year's drought and low yields. Some farmers were in desperate situations following crop failures, and while they are still struggling, the situation is less grim, more hopeful. Farmers have a sense of purpose, rather than helplessness, because they have the means to respond to the food shortage. Other families are now looking to them for help.

Doing more with less

The concept of efficiency is critically important as it applies to many different aspects of the farming life in Malawi. The yield per acre; farm output versus input; the percentage of water pumped that reaches the roots of the crop; the amount of time spent in the garden versus the level of production. Farmers who waste land, inputs, water, or time are less efficient, and therefore more at risk of hunger and malnutrition.

Farmers need to be able to do more with less. That's where good, simple pumps come in. The area that one young woman can grow with a pump is more than what two strong men can manage with watering cans.

This girl was put in charge of watering a huge field of cabbages by herself. Her father trusts that she can manage to do it, even though without a pump he couldn't do it himself. On top of that, she still has time to get home and take care of her other chores and schoolwork.

 A field of cabbages of this size can provide enough income to pay two years of school fees. Families that could not normally pay for their kids' education can work together to grow a crop that will meet all their needs and even improve their lives through education, healthcare, better housing, better drinking water, etc.

Deriving Windmill Data from a Bicycle Odometer

Many development projects lack data to support their implementation. This does not mean that the projects are not having a positive impact. It could simply be that the data is harder to collect than the project is to implement. After all, for us to know how much water our windmill is pumping we would have to sit and watch it 24/7. It's just not feasible. Or it wasn't until now.

Our demonstration windmill, which has supplied more than one million liters to the garden, is under its own trial to produce data that can be used for redesign and replication. One of the challenges is to understand the behaviour and performance of the windmill over a long period of time, without constantly having to be present at the garden.

To address this, we have modified a bicycle odometer to record data in real time. On a bicycle, the computer takes input from a magnetic sensor that signals every time the magnet on the spokes goes around one revolution. It is essentially recording RPMs and converting that to distance and speed. We have adapted the computer to record RPMs on the windmill. First, the windmill's RPMs are usually much slower than a bicycle's, so instead of one sensor, we use 6 evenly spaced around the spokes of the windmill. Now the sensor can pick up much slower speeds, but we have to divide all of our measurements by 6.

Next we record the distance, speed, and "trip time", from the computer. Distance corresponds directly to number of rotations. In this case, we use an input tire circumference of 1,667mm in the computer. This yields approximately 100 rotations per kilometer. We can also convert the speed to RPMs. That is, 1 kilometer per hour is approximately 1.67 rotations per minute. The "trip time" simply let's us know how many hours the windmill was moving since the last time we recorded the data.

The piston pump driven by the windmill falls into a category of pumps called "positive displacement pumps", or PD pumps for short. The important thing about PD pumps is that their output is in direct linear proportion to the cycle rate of the pump. (This is in contrast to a centrifugal pump which has a diminishing return on increasing speeds beyond its intended speed). We can convert the RPMs to pump output by multiplying the RPMs by the displacement of the piston. In our case, each stroke of the pump displaces 1.13 liters. So, 1 kilometer per hour is equal to 1.67 RPMs, which is equal to 1.88 liters per minute.

Finally, we can analyze the data from the computer to learn:
1. How much water the windmill pumped
2. Its average speed/output during the times when it was moving
3. The "up time" or proportion of time it was actually moving

Our goal is to maximize the amount of water pumped. When we make modifications to the windmill, we observe changes in the average output and up time. For example, if we decrease the pump displacement, we would expect to see average speed and "up time" increase because there is less resistance. We can now see if these increases are enough to overcome the loss of displacement to pump more water overall.

Using Data to Improve Project Design

The AWP Demonstration Garden is an important component of our project because it is a platform for teaching and research. Already this year we have conducted a tomato trial, resulting in a production of 880 lbs of tomatoes on a 4,500 square foot plot. The results of the tomato trial have been used by two partner organizations in planning their own irrigation activities.

Currently, we are conducting trials of cabbage, onion, tomato (again), potato, and maize. Farmers in the area are observing these trials so that they can learn how to achieve similar results. The results of the trials will guide organizations across Malawi on project design, helping them target realistic goals with their farmers. This is one way we help farmers achieve food security without directly training them ourselves.