Community members from Mwachikezga Village in the area of Traditional Authority Mwalweni in Rumphi district say their lives are socially and economically improving, thanks to Khwakazi Irrigation Scheme.
The scheme is being implemented by Find Your Feet Organization.
“We are now able to harvest enough food for our families’ consumption and se sell the other one to carter other basic needs,” this is according to the scheme’s vice chairperson, who is also a resident in the village, Samuel Mbale.
Mbale has disclosed this during a media tour organized by Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)/DanChurchAid (DCA) aimed at tracking progress of its interventions in various districts.
“I am happy because all members of the scheme are able to have enough food for their families through irrigation. We are now yielding bumper harvests as compared to those days when we did not have the scheme,” he added.
While concurring with Mbale, Black Mkandawire, a farmer and a member of the scheme, highlighted some of his achievements since he migrated from only rain-fed agriculture dependency syndrome to irrigation farming under the scheme.
“I now have goats, an iron sheet-roofed house and bags of fertilizer. I have managed all these after selling the tomatoes I cultivated,” he explained.
Mkandawire has further projected more benefits from what he is doing under the scheme. “I am expecting to realize more than K1.5 Million from tomatoes I am growing this year. The profit will be higher than that of last year.”
He has since applauded Find Your Feet Organization for implementing the scheme in the area and asked the organization to extend the project to other areas who may need it in order to address food insecurity challenges rocking the country.
Reacting to the development, NCA/DCA Communications Officer, Francis Botha said their organization is satisfied with the way the scheme is running since it is meeting its aims.
Find Your Feet Organization is implementing a Sustainable Food Systems for Rural Agriculture Transformation and Resilience (TRANSFORM) program, which aims at improving food and nutrition security, resilience to climate change and income among smallholder farmers in Malawi.
The program, which targets 150,000 agriculture-dependent rural households within the selected groups in Rumphi, Mzimba, Kasungu, Dowa and Kasungu, is being coordinated by NCA/DCA Malawi with support from the Royal Norwegian Embassy.
