Farmers ponder replanting after floods

When Mary Mopiwa, 30, left her house for her maize garden on January 11 2015, she had no idea she would find all her crop gone. Situated about three kilometres away from her house in Nancholi, Blantyre, the garden had been soaked in sluggish water that collected when rains poured consistently for days and led to flash floods in some parts of Blantyre.

Mopiwa’s field was hardly recognisable as the plants had been swept away.

“I had just applied fertiliser to the plants,” Mopiwa laments, “I have a health problem on my back and I cannot farm on my own. The garden is not mine, I borrowed it at a fee and all work was done by hired workers. This means all that I invested is lost,”

She estimates the damage on the one hectare field to be hundreds of thousands of kwacha.

“I hired workers at K250 000 (US$556) because the field had trees and shrubs. I bought hybrid seeds, fertiliser, farm tools and other costs. I do not know where I will get additional money to replant,” Mopiwa says.

Similarly, Harriet Makawa, a beneficiary of the National Smallholders Farmers Association of Malawi (Nasfam) programme in Zomba, worries about the crop she lost to the floods. She lost half of her farm and is now in a dilemma—she does not know whether to replant or not.

“If I plant early maturing seeds and apply some fertiliser, maybe I will harvest something,” Makawa says.

The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) says 116 000 farmers have been affected, 163 531 hectares of farm land submerged and 35 000 hectares affected.

Fears of a hunger crisis are already gripping. Apart from growing crops for subsistence, smallholder farmers contribute to national food reserves.

People along the Shire Valley have already been replanting after the floods. However, this year’s disaster was so devastating and prolonged that some farmland is still submerged in waters.

Predictions from the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services (DCCMs) indicate that rains will continue in some parts of the country. Again, because the water table is raised, overflow of rain water is inevitable and this is threatening farmers’ efforts to replant.

While reacting to parliamentarians’ call for the need to start replanting affected fields, Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Allan Chiyembekeza said replanting is not the best option.

“As Government, we are still figuring out the best way to salvage the situation and minimise a catastrophe. Currently, we want to begin distributing cassava cuttings and sweet potato stems, but the option of replanting in these areas is not the best,” said Chiyembekeza.

But random interviews conducted by The Nation reveal that some farmers want to replant.

“It is better to harvest even little than nothing,” insists Mwaiwathu Joshua, a smallholder farmer in Nancholi.

President of the Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM), Alfred Kapichira Banda ,says replanting should not be ruled out. He argues that government cannot afford to provide each of the affected households with food throughout the year.

“It is time government puts Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) to full use by engaging it to carry a survey and come up with a recommendation on possible crops that can be planted instead, to help farmers have something to harvest some weeks later,” suggests Banda.

He says Malawi relies on two harvests a year which are guided by rain and irrigation and so, while it is good to concentrate on tuber crops growing, government should also consider replanting other fields with early maturing maize varieties.

“If we engage Luanar, they will recommend early maturing varieties that can do well in less than 70 days. These can give better yields. I also know a maize variety called Kamchesana, it matures earlier. So my point is government has to consult. We still have a chance to replant,” he says.

But Nasfam says while planting tuber crops is good, it is also possible to replant other crops in farmland near water sources and irrigate them.

Nasfam’s policy coordinator John Chipeta says there is lack of proper national action to such circumstances.

“As a country, we need to jack up on institutional strengthening during such kind of natural disasters. It is sad that the Dodma did not have adequate resources. We need to strengthen public institutions response.

“Secondly, we need adequate coordination in doing things between government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Thirdly, build community resilience. We are talking of climate change as number one factor. In building climate change resilience, communities will be able to act on their own.

“Investing in climate or weather risk insurance as a way of managing such risks is one way to go. We need a proper risk management.  For farmers that have lost crop, they should be able to clam insurance in times of natural disasters such as this,” says Chipeta.

He says while his organisation commends government for the disaster management policy, it is not enough because it needs huge investments. Nasfam also calls for the need to promote irrigation farming.

“This relates to root and tuber crops and irrigation. We do not invest much in irrigation farming. We cannot harvest two crops a year without irrigation. However, our investment in irrigation is minimal. We have the Green Belt Initiative (GBI) which is one of the programmes with potential, but management of this programme has been minimal due to change in coordinating ministry and the level of investment is not consistent.

“In budget allocation, we can note that in one year the programme has more money, the other year it has less money. In addition, the GBI is focusing more on large scale farmers. We need inclusion of smallholder farmers,” says Chipeta.

Nasfam, therefore, calls for a strategic system that safeguards farmers from any disaster and guarantees the country’s food reserves enough stocks in spite of disasters through a well managed and financed disaster risk management system.

This would save additional costs of production.

For instance, this year, Chiyembekeza says government will spend an additional $16 billion (about K7.2 billion) to help affected farmers and ensure there is food security in the country. This is approximately 14 percent of this year’s Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) budget of $111 million (about K50 billion).

Chiyembekeza says government is communicating to farmers through non-governmental organisations working in affected areas and they will continue being on radio and engage the media to ensure everyone is informed on the new steps.