Transforming Malawi's Irrigated Agriculture

While maize hybrids (mentioned previously) might increase the resilience of yields to weather shocks in Malawi, they do not seem to promote long-term growth. For this, the government is developing large-scale irrigation schemes. 

I) State of water resources and development context

While overall water availability is adequate in Malawi (noticeably by Lake Malawi, the second largest lake in Africa) water resources are unreliable, due to high inter-annual rainfall variability, poor water storage infrastructure and inadequate catchment/watershed management. According to the WorldBank, agricultural expansion in Malawi has reached its limits. The increasing number of cultivated upper catchments has led to significant erosion, rapid loss of soil fertility and siltation of water courses. Poor land-use dynamics along river banks and wetlands have degraded natural ecosystems, exacerbated downstream flooding and increased the vulnerability to weather shocks. In this context, tackling and reversing these trends is a priority for Malawi. Together with development partners such as the African Development Bank and the WorldBank, the government is implementing large-scale programmes that promote natural resources and integrated water resources management. Agricultural intensification with the expansion of irrigation is at the core of Malawi's Growth and Development Strategy II (MGDS II). 

Figure 1: Malawi Country Map with SVTP location area. Lake Malawi covers
about one-third of Malawi's land mass.
The Shire is the largest river and the only outlet of Lake Malawi
(WorldBank)

II) Shire Valley Transformation Program and Shire Valley Irrigation Project

The World Bank recently approved the allocation of $166 million to transform Malawi's irrigated agriculture, which will help fund the first phase of the Shire Valley Transformation Program (SVTP-I), under the framework of the Green Belt Initiative. The Shire Valley Irrigation Project (SVIP) will also be developed under the programme, which is estimated to run in three phases, over a 14-year period from 2017-2031. According to Malawi’s Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Water Development, the project will engage smallholder farmers to modernize and commercialize agriculture, which he anticipates will lead to a ''half-billion-dollar benefit to the economy”. 

The aim of the program is to provide irrigation to over 40,000 hectares by gravity water (as opposed to pump-based), primarily to the Chikwawa and Nsanje districts (located on the map below), ''eliminating the need for electricity for pumping water from the Shire River''. The project not only aims to boost agricultural production but also improve access to drinking water services, improve the sustainable management of wetlands and protected areas and enhance the tourism potential. By doing so, local populations will be more resilient to droughts and floods which are common in the Shire Valley region, where 80% live below the national poverty line.

Figure 2: A closer look at the SVTP Area Map (Worldbank). 

The first phase (shaded in pink) of the project will include new canal infrastructures (red lines), which will abstract water from the Shire River (Kapichira Reservoir), and flow 34km downstream until the bifurcation point. The potential trade-off with hydropower production from the Kapichira dam is determined to be limited and restricted to periods of water shortages (WorldBank, p.32). A second major canal infrastructure will supply water to the Nsanje district. The project is also designed with a ''conservative'' usage of water, with farm organizations expected to select sprinkler (central pivot) irrigation (more efficient) and drip irrigation 

III) Potential conflicts

The Elephant Marsh (refer to map) was designated a 'Wetland of International Importance' in July 2017 under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. While very few villages are located within the boundaries of the conservation area, due to its proximity to the river and its valuable ''natural'' irrigation potential, I wonder whether the region will become increasingly vulnerable to incoming users and if community-led participatory management will be enough. Also, after full implementation of both SVTP phases, which are intended to intensify agricultural production with a commercial focus, the flow to the Elephant Marshes might be disrupted. The project aims to mitigate this risk through hydrological and biological monitoring, supporting management of Wetland and, eventually, establish ''Malawi's first Community Wetland Conservation Area''.  

Digging a little bit, I found that the Green Belt Initiative (GBI) which was implemented as a ''food security initiative'' ended up focusing on economic development with the expansion of sugarcane cultivation. There is nothing wrong with sugar-cane-- it was expected to improve Malawi's foreign exchange through better export earnings (Malawi is the third most competitive producer in the world!) and thus provide the means to tackle rural poverty by increasing smallholder's incomes.The GBI received funds from the African Development Bank in 2009 (which is also funding the SVTP) as well as EU grants in 2011, but only later did the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security identify on which lands the expansion of sugarcane cultivation would occur; the GBI targeted land that belonged to smallholder farmers (Chinsinga, 2016). In a three year qualitative study that assessed the effects of the GBI on the livelihoods of people in the targeted areas, Chisinga concluded that the promises (increase agricultural output, food security, employment, infrastructure, etc.) outlined under the GBI ''remained rhetorical, while communities in the investment sites are suffering through the destabilisation of the community social fabric, precipitated by persistent, and sometimes violent, confrontations with a coalition of elites determined to serve their own interests rather than those of smallholder farmers'' (Chinsinga, 2016). 

Given the commercial focus of the Shire irrigation project, I have the sense that allying economic development with conservation objectives is ambitious, considering the tendency of natural resources of being sacrificed over earning foreign exchange. However, after the failure of fulfilling, to an extent, the promises held under the national agriculture subsidy program and the GBI, the SVTP brings hope.