From poor harvests to abundance

Barely four years ago, 41-year-old Salome Tembo from Masoakhumbira in Traditional Authority Mkukula in Dowa, could not afford to own a chicken, the most common domestic animal for most households in Malawi. She lived in abject poverty, the next meal for her family not guaranteed.

Today, Tembo is a proud owner of several domestic animals, thanks to the income she is earning through her involvement in the Tiyanjane Irrigation Scheme and her money that is growing in Tadala Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) to which she is a member. She is dreaming in colour.

Salome did not have an opportunity to go to school. At the age of six, her parents separated. She grew up with her jobless and illiterate mother who could not afford to send her to school. She ended up marrying a man with no steady source of income at the age of 16.

Poverty and chronic food insecurity were the norm for Salome’s family for many years. The only source of income for the family was a small business of weaving mphasa (a local mat made from reeds) and sold them to fellow villagers at a low price. Their large family of seven children increased pressure for more food, clothes and other basic necessities.

The burden of caring for the children was unbearable. In desperation Salome joined many of her friends who were doing piecework in exchange for food at Dzaleka Refugee Camp, a site located about 8 km away from her house.

“I used to go to Dzaleka (refugee camp) everyday to wash nappies in exchange for a small amount of maize flour which couldn’t even last for a day. It was bad,” recalls Tembo.

In 2009, Care International Malawi, with funding from Usaid, introduced a project on the mitigation of drought through Irrigation Promotion and Conservation Agriculture Extension (Dice) in T/A Mkukula’s area. The project, among other things, aims to promote small-scale, sustainable and replicable irrigation systems among vulnerable communities.

Together with local leaders, Care identified an irrigation site covering an area of 6.9 hectares along Vyazi River to run Tiyanjane Irrigation Scheme. To Tembo, this was good news. She became one of the first 13 people to join the scheme, which now has 62 members, 42 of whom are females.

“When Care came here to assist us I was one of the first to mobilise others to join Tiyanjane Irrigation Scheme, hoping I could escape the recurring food shortages my family was experiencing in the past. I realised about K16 000 in the first year and in the second year, my proceeds jumped to K36 000,” says Salome, adding she had never had so much money in her life.

She kept reinvesting in irrigation farming. She secured an additional piece of land and increased her farm inputs like fertiliser. Her income from irrigation farming grew steadily.

“In 2011, I secured an additional piece of land in the scheme and on top of maize; I added onions and Irish potatoes. I made a total of K167 000 (US$417.5) from the sale of these crops,” says Tembo.

The Dice project moved out of the area in 2011, but the Tiyanjane Irrigation Scheme, building on the skills acquired from Care, continued to grow in membership and activities. Tembo is proud that her eyes have seen the scheme transforming the lives of many people who could otherwise have been suffering from chronic food shortages.

Today the burden of caring for her seven children does not weigh heavily on her family. She has six children in primary school. She can feed and send them all to school. This is the life she never experienced as a child or for greater part of her married life. Indeed, until four years ago, this was a far-fetched dream.

Her home, located three kilometres away from the irrigation site, attests to the fruits of irrigation farming. Her compound has a number of domestic animals including pigs, goats, rabbits and chickens.

Around the house is a modern granary filled with 850 kg of maize. Ironically, Care with support from WFP is distributing food aid in the same Mkukula area. There are about 5 773 households (about 31 753 people) that have five months of food deficit, according to the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Mvac) report released in July 2013.

Tembo’s food abundance can best be described as a story in contradiction. While some 168 households around her area are food insecure during the lean period from October 2013 to February 2014, Tembo and her family do not only have enough food for themselves, they also have surplus to take them to the next growing season.

With this surplus food, Tembo plans to hire more farm workers who will get maize in exchange for labour. The tables have turned for her as she used to do the same at Dzaleka Refugee Camp—getting food for the family before joining Tiyanjane Irrigation Scheme in 2009.

Tembo is thinking big. She is saving money to acquire more land to grow more crops and she plans to build a modern house with corrugated iron sheets.  She also plans to have a dairy cow to increase her income base.

The Dice project is being implemented by Care in partnership with Total Land Care and ministries of Agriculture and Water Development and Irrigation.