Ministry of Agriculture has reaffirmed Government commitment of scaling up irrigation as one way of boosting social economic growth of Malawi economic status.
Deputy Director of Irrigation Services in the Department of Irrigation, Engineer Anderson Mbozi was speaking Lilongwe during the public Private sector stakeholders engagement forum for Programme for Rural Irrigation Development (PRIDE).
Mbozi said currently Government has already completed the construction of 6 new irrigation schemes.
“The Construction of six new irrigation schemes, namely Marko and Mafinga in Chitipa District, Mzenga in Nkhatabay, Mlooka and Matoponi in Zomba and Lingoni in Machinga and will shortly be completing the construction of another 3 new schemes, namely Chipofya in Rumphi, Dowa Dambo in Dowa and Wowo in Phalombe,” He said.
He said the good news is that Policy and Legislations are up to date having repealed the old 2001 irrigation Act and replaced it with the current one. Again Mbozi said they are also following the National Irrigation Policy (2024), as well as irrigation Master Plan and Investment Framework (IMPIF) (2015-2035) as well as irrigation Code of Practice (ICoP)
He said apart from completing building of 6 irrigation schemes, PRIDE has also completed the detailed designs of 5 other schemes which are ready for investment and these are Kasimba Irrigation scheme in Karonga, weir-based Mpamba and dam-based Mpamba in Nkhatabay, Mdenga in Balaka and Lupenga in Mzimba district.
“For schemes that have been completed, PRIDE is exploring pathways for full commercial utilization of the schemes while for those at detailed design, PRIDE is exploring the possibility of securing private sector investment for construction. In this regard, PRIDE is organizing a private-public stakeholders’ engagement forum whose objective is to provide a platform for discussions around investment opportunities, investment and management strategies, public-private sector partnerships, contract farming, input supply agreements, aggregation and market opportunities,” he said.
At the Conference, PRIDE has invited to this forum a variety of stakeholders including representatives of farmers from the PRIDE schemes, financial institutions, investors, companies dealing in equipment and machinery, relevant government ministries and departments, government parastatals which regulate or participate in trade, finance and business such as ADMARC, Malawi Bureau of Standards and NFRA and service providers.
During the forum PRIDE and Government shared with the stakeholders, relevant information about each scheme including location, size, irrigation scheme design including water abstraction system, potential crops and possible partnerships or arrangements.
He said complexity, size and Commercialization objectives requires private sector involvement.
In his remarks, Agricultural Development Corporation (ADMARC) Chief Executive Officer Dan Makata commended Ministry of Agriculture for their efforts of enhancing irrigation.
Makata says this shows that Malawi has a potential in as far as irrigation farming is concerned.
“This meeting for for us, as ADMARC, for example, in particular, is an eye opener to look at the potential that has been developed invested in this country, but it’s being underutilized, and this has opened eyes for not only us, but other off takers and investors to come and partner the farmers in this irrigation schemes. We have been talking about production in this country, low production of various commodities, and we have talked about this for long time we need to invest in irrigation,” he said.
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