Nsanje eyes irrigation to improve food security
Nsanje District Council senior irrigation engineer Jacob Moyo has stressed that irrigation farming has the potential to improve the district’s food security.
He said this on Saturday when irrigation engineers and agronomists from the country’s eight irrigation services divisions of Karonga, Mzuzu, Salima, Kasungu, Lilongwe, Machinga, Blantyre and Shire Valley toured Chimwala-Mbangu Irrigation Scheme in the district to appreciate how farmers are utilising the facility.
Said Moyo: “Our District Development Plan made food security a priority and the only way to achieve that is through irrigation farming.
“We want to revamp all irrigation schemes as rain-fed farming has proved unreliable.”
He thanked Ministry of Agriculture director of irrigation services Geoffrey Mwepa for assuring the district that government will drill more boreholes to boost water availability in irrigation schemes.
Mwepa, who expressed satisfaction with the coordination between farmers and the district council’s technical team, said water was crucial for irrigation farming.
He said: “I have noticed that water is not adequate for the scheme and plans are underway to see how best we can improve its availability. One option is to drill boreholes to tap from ground water.
“Another [way] is to construct a dam and create a reservoir to store water.”
Chimwala-Mbangu Irrigation Scheme chairperson Givemore Zambasa said there are 800 farmers who grow crops thrice a year at the 200-hectare scheme.
Mary Chakwawa from Mchinji, which is under Kasungu Agricultural Development Division, commended the contractor for installing galvanised pipes at the scheme.
Nsanje District Council and the Department of Disaster Management Affairs developed the scheme in 2021 with funding from the African Development Bank through Post Cyclone Idai, Resilience and Emergency Recovery Project.
