JAMES CHAVULA
Staff Reporter
In Malawi, mention of Kasangazi evokes the wonders of Colred Nkosi, a 41-year-old innovator who generates electricity using scrapyard motors in a river which splits the hilly terrain in Mzimba.
Descending the mountain range on the battered earth road from Mzimba town to Eswazini, visitors are overwhelmed by the rustic poles and wires that transmit hydropower from the crude turbines in Kasangazi River to dozens of homes, a nearby school and a health post.
The mini-grid testifies to the marvels of a self-made engineer who brought more than lights to the remote population sidestepped by the national grid, which powers just about four percent of the country’s rural majority.
“The young man has shown us the power of water to transform our livelihoods,” says Chindongo Chirwa of Yohane Village in the area under Traditional Authority Kampingo Sibande.
Lights on irrigation
The 54-year-old father of six grows maize, tomatoes, cabbages and Irish potatoes three times a year.
A proud farmer who prefers calling himself a businessperson, he is the president of Kasangazi Water Users Association.
Chirwa leads a group of growers who irrigate various crops with water from the river where Nkosi’s turbines spin electricity—and the lights shatter darkness in the dead of the night.
During the day, the growers are seen working hard, caring for their crops that paint every part of the village and its surroundings green—come rain or sunshine.
The green cover greets visitors with stunning vividness during the dry season, when most fields in Malawi are left brown and dusty, with whirlwinds blowing unobstructed.
“Thanks to the gift of water, we have no time to rest,” says Chirwa, adjusting a sprinkler watering maize in his backyard field.
He grows maize, Irish potatoes and cabbages for sale in neighbouring communities, schools and health facilities.
For him, irrigation is “the difference between poverty and prosperity”.
He narrates: “Like many farmers in the country, I used to rely on rainfall, but it was unpredictable. I was getting poorer because I was growing crops once a year. For over half a year, my small field was lying idle.
“However, irrigation guarantees us two to three harvests a year and there is no time to rest. If you doze off, you’ll die poor.”
Such is the grinding routine in the village that when some farmers are planting, others are harvesting. In between, there are crops of different sizes and varieties that guarantee them diversified diets and uninterrupted cash flow all year round.
“The idea is that there shouldn’t be a break when we have nothing to eat or sell,” Chirwa says.
The village speaks of the power of irrigation to end hunger and poverty amid impoverishing effects of climate change.
These farmers have made it a habit to grow diverse crops beyond the rainy season and they are cashing in.
Chirwa has constructed a decent house with iron sheets and acquired an oxcart and two cows from his farming efforts.
The communal farm enterprise has made Chirwa a farmer to watch and his village a place to go to.
In 2019, Kasangazi Irrigation Scheme won MBC Innovation Award.
The lead farmer travelled to Lilongwe to receive the award presented by President Lazarus Chakwera at Kamuzu Palace.
Such is the allure of irrigation fields forked between fertile alluvial valleys and homesteads that departed Vice-President Saulos Chilima would soon visit the village he termed a living example of mindset change.
Established in 1999, the 45-hectare (ha) irrigation scheme sits on over 100ha irrigable valley and hillsides.
Its success story and potential growth attracted the Malawi Resilience and Disaster Risk Management Project, funded by the World Bank, to construct a modern dam to boost water supply, irrigation and electricity generation in the rural area.
A 2.5-kilometre pipeline now carries water across 2.5 kilometres from the new dam to smaller pipes that lead to sprinklers whipping the crops for higher yields.
Last winter, Chirwa got 20 000 maize cobs from his two-acre field. He sold each at K200.
“That’s about K4 million,” he brags. “At this pace, it is just a matter of a year or two before I buy a vehicle regardless of the weakening local currency. I will label it ‘Chindongo Chirwa Transport’ so that everywhere it goes, people know that farming pays.”
Chirwa says his grand plan to buy a vehicle to carry passengers at a fee between Mzimba and Eswazini was disrupted by the 44 percent devaluation of the kwacha in November 2023.
However, Vestina Nkhoswe and Joel Chirwa are living their dream.
The youthful couple has acquired a motorcycle used for transporting farm inputs and a minibus that carries passengers at a fee on the hilly earth road.
They are among 300 people benefitting from the 45ha irrigation founded by 56 people who shared 3.5ha at the onset 26 years ago.
Like their leader, the family of four grows maize, cabbages and Irish potatoes.
“Irrigation is cool. With unpredictable rainfall, we can control when to water our crops and how much water to sprinkle,” says Vestina, watering cabbages in the shadow of maturing maize.
And the family of four is acquiring assets they could only dream of when the man migrated to South Africa in search of better economic prospects.
“We bought the minibus at K2.5 million from maize sales. The motorbike cost us K1.5 million after selling tomatoes. We have also replaced our grass-thatched hut with a red-brick house roofed with iron sheets, thanks to profits from Irish potatoes,” she narrates.
Joel has obtained a driver’s license for the passenger service vehicle. He drives the minibus which leaves the village at 7am and returns at 3pm every day. It moves people and goods from the leafy village to town, making businesses tick.
“Every trip speaks of a community on the rise,” he says. “The trips testify to an enterprising community on the move. Every morning, a busload departs for town not to beg or seek piecework, but to sell our farm produce and order manufactured goods that we sell in shops that are mushrooming here.”
The transport business earns them K100 000 to K150 000 daily, enough for buying improved seed, fertliser and assets, including electronic appliances to reap the benefits of the electricity generated by the community’s famous self-made engineer.
With such financial inflows, the farmer-turned-driver regrets migrating to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he spent three years labouring in vain in a desperate escape from poverty.
Just like that, a community where boys and girls used to quit school to join the exodus to South Africa is dreaming big, working together to create wealth on the home soil.
“Had I known, I would have stayed put and joined the pioneers of this irrigation scheme in unlocking the wealth which was hidden in our soil,” Chirwa says.
Then, the scheme was non-existent, save for isolated fields that dotted wetlands around shallow wells.
The scramble for water with their neighbours, especially Dzimbe Village uphill, often resulted in conflicts that fractured the peaceful co-existence of people who were not only living and trading together, but also intermarried for decades.
“With the expanded dam, we no longer fight for water with our neighbours at Dzimbe, who used to divert the water, leaving our fields dry.
“These days, everyone gets enough water and we happily farm together and prosper together. As we travel to and from town, we share tips on high-yielding farming methods and profitable businesses,” says Joel
