Dean of Environmental and Agriculture Science at Mzuzu University, Wales Singini, has torn into Agriculture and Water Development Minister, George Chaponda’s, medium to long term plans observing that the approach is blind to risks the country might face.
Immediately after he was relocated from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Agriculture, Chaponda devised short, medium to long term plans as means to end the aggravating food situation which include a shift in focus from rain fed agriculture to irrigation.
On a mission to the northern region to engage agriculture stakeholders on Saturday, Chaponda outlined the plans which included enhancing irrigation.
However, the meeting turned into an arena of criticism for government on the beleaguered Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) and plans to switch focus from rain fed agriculture to irrigation following observations that the country risks plunging into a crisis if government’s approach does not change.
On the long term plans, Chaponda said government plans to revamp almost all irrigation sites and utilise idle arable land to grow food.
“Our focus is on irrigation. The country currently has around 285,000 smallholder farmers and we want to empower them with the necessary tools and implements to promote their farms for irrigation farming. There are a lot of irrigation farms in the country like those in Karonga and Mzimba which we intend to revamp.
“The World Bank has given us about US$700,000 which we have invested in 4,960 treadle pumps that are being distributed to the 15 districts that were affected by floods in the 2014/15 agriculture season,” said Chaponda adding that the ministry is also talking to Treasury and the World Bank for additional funding to procure more treadle pumps to be distributed to all the districts in the country.
Additionally, the ministry has engaged multilateral companies like Illovo sugar to grow maize under irrigation that will also boost food security.
However, standing on a point of technical clarification on the matters raised by Chaponda, Singini said government needed to learn from experience on the use of treadle pumps as well as irrigation.
“In the medium to long term, technically on irrigation, we should have also, as a nation, shifted our attention from surface irrigation to piped or drip irrigation. My fear is that if we continue with surface irrigation we will end up causing a lot of damage to our soils. We are likely going to experience a lot of erosion and degradation and in the long term we will have no land on which we can grow crops even for irrigation,” said Singini.
He added: “Most of our irrigation is dependent on rivers but there is no point of water harvesting. The country gets a lot of rain but if you look around most rivers at this time of the year have already dried up and those that are still flowing might even dry up before the first rains.”
Alternatively, he said, the country can rely on underground water though solar irrigation.
Singini said government should put aside politics and employ a more technical approach to identify potential areas for solar irrigation investment.
He said government through agriculture development officers should look into identifying food baskets where specific kinds, of crops can be grown compared to Chaponda’s idea of spreading irrigation to the whole country.
Taking his turn, Traditional Authority (T/A) Mwenewenya bemoaned reduced Fisp beneficiaries.
“Since every one cannot access Fisp fertiliser then government should look into reducing the package of fertiliser from 50 kilogrammes into smaller packages like 25 kilogrammes for people to afford,” said T/A Mwenewenya.
Andrew Chapusa, from Action Aid Malawi called on government to ensure the effectiveness of Fisp noting that the programme has been targeting the same beneficiaries without graduating.
“Beneficiaries of the programme have to graduate from depending on the programme so that others can also benefit,” Chapusa said.
In his response, Chaponda said government has already received funding from the World Bank meant for feasibility studies on the areas earmarked for the irrigation programmes.
“Contributions from our universities are very commendable, and as government we would be very grateful to engage such colleges in the studies and incorporate your input.
“But as a medium term solution to address hunger situation in the country, we are distributing treadle pumps country wide,” Chaponda said.
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