Nsanje farmers bemoan lack of markets
People of Nyanthana Village in Bangula, Traditional Authority (T/A) Mbenje in Nsanje can testify on changed living standards, following a multi-million kwacha irrigation project – Tiyanjane Irrigation Scheme currently underway in their area.
However, their biggest challenge according to the scheme’s chairman, Manjolo Banda and the treasurer Maiton Faiti is that of finding better markets to sell their produce.
“This scheme has the potential to produce enough food for the district and further; but one of our challenges is that of finding better markets. At present, we are only selling to vendors coming from Bangula trading centre and sometimes, produce like tomatoes rot within the gardens,” they said.
In an interview recently, Blue Zone managing director, Kim Garder Jacobsen, noted that before the project came to the area late last year, men were in brick moulding while women were making clay pots as their main sources of income.
“They have almost stopped all these activities because of this project. Food security for instance, is already proving itself in the area as the members of the scheme are involved in farming activities of various crops including maize , cabbages, tomatoes, onions, carrots, and other vegetables ,” he says, adding that from the unsafe water they previously drank, they now get safe drinking water.
He further indicated that since the project started in October 2012, 25 million litres of water have been produced free of charge to the community and members have harvested three crops of maize since.
“They are expected to harvest the forth crop before the onset of the next rainy season in October this year. They have also been harvesting vegetables throughout this period,” said Jacobsen.
The purpose of the project according to him is to ensure social sustainability through clean water, by improving health and living conditions.
It also aims to provide financial sustainability through revenue from the crops and environmental sustainability through the use of solar energy among other things.
The scheme chairman stated that they aim to expand the scheme to accommodate more members by increasing the hectarage under irrigation. The system at Nyanthana is capable of irrigating 15 hactares, but so far nine hactares has been covered.
Apart from the Tiyanjane Irrigation scheme, Blue Zone have carried out a similar project installing two systems in Rumphi and are currently installing three OTHERsystems at Jenda, Mzimba District.
The project is a solar irrigation system and water is provided for irrigation from a borehole using a submersible pump underground while the power to drive the pump comes from solar panels that sit on top of a purpose built pump house.
Nyanthana irrigation scheme has two pumps, each of which can pump 41 000 litres of water in a day.
The project is under the partnership of several organisations: Churches Action in Relief and Development (Card), Danish Church Aid (DCA), Grundfos Denmark and Bluezone Malawi Limited.rned with regional cooperation in weather, climate and water.
