Malawi Government shot in the arm

At a time when the hunger situation in Malawi is becoming worrisome, the Japanese government has helped Malawi with a whooping 61 Million Kwacha for irrigation projects under the Gift of the Givers hand.The project will see people of Lifa Village in Blantyre and Kani in Chiradzulu benefit.Japanese Ambassador to Malawi Shuichiro Nishioka said that it is very important that Malawi takes irrigation serious to boost the business sector.Chiyembekeza; Funds were needed.“Climate change has adversely affected rain-fed agriculture with almost 3million affected by hunger in the country, that’s why the Government of Japan decided to help with this grant,” said Shuichiro.The grant will be utilized for construction of irrigation facilities as well as erection of overhead tanks for provision of water from submersible electric pumps.Agriculture Minister, Allan Chiyembekeza could not hide his gratitude to the Japanese Government for the funds.He said that it is was overdue that irrigation receive such kind of a boost to help the agriculture sector in Malawi.According to Gif of the Givers, up to 100 farmers are expected with benefit in the said areas.Recently, Civil Society Agriculture Network (CISANET) says the country will remain food insecure if Malawi government continues disregarding irrigation farming.CISANET national coordinator, Tamani Nkhono-Mvula, said this when commenting on the prolonged dry spell that has hit the country.Nkhono-Mvula described the overdependence on rains as unfortunate and said Malawi has good soil and water sources which can be used for irrigation farming. According to Nkhono-Mvula, farmers in the country should be encouraged to consider irrigation farming to avoid food shortage.The CISANET national coordinator revealed that recently the ministry of agriculture was given K50 billon for the agriculture subsidy programme but 80 percent of the money was allocated to rain-fed agriculture while the remaining 20 percent was for irrigation farming.Nkhono-Mvula argued that more resources should be allocated to irrigation farming.