In Nkhotakota, rice is the lifeblood of many farmers, cultivated twice a year in the wetlands along the shores of Lake Malawi, brooks and the riverside dams.
Rice production levels this year have declined due to torrent rainfall that washed off the yields. Some farmers who rely on the Lipimbi scheme for survival are in peril, as the heavy rains also washed away and broke some irrigation pipes.
Beaver Mvula, president of Lipimbi Water Users Association (WUA) expressed concern about the longest period it can take to register themselves as a cooperative if the situation at hand persists.
‘The pipe lining is not in place because pillars were destroyed as a result 20 pipes of 250mm size and boxes that were used to draw water from the dam need replacement and maintenance and all these have partly contributed to a decline in production by forty percent from the 100 hectares of land that we managed 2 years ago.’ He said
According to Mvula normally, during the lean season, the scheme could accommodate up to 130 farmers for 100 hectares of land that has extremely go down to 26 hectares this year.
‘We are now downsizing because at the moment the scheme only accommodates 84 farmers this season over 26 hectares of land that has been shared.’He said
The lean season’s operations for scheme members is dependent on irrigation pipes carrying water from the boxes to end pipe line of the scheme.
However, the volume of water leakage inversely affect the efforts farmers have made in improvising to tighten the pipe lining with supporting poles and strings.
Eventually, the immense decrease in production soar high lingering the livelihood of hundreds of farmers at Lipimbi cooperative.
However, one Nkhotakota-based non-governmental organisation-UmunthuPlus, has bemoaned reluctance to embrace value addition by common farmers to be another contributing factor depreciating the profit margin gap that would atleast help them cope with unpredictable circumstances.
Throughout the past week, the organization has been conducting a refresher business management training with some farmers from Kasangadzi,Chiguluwindi,Navikhawo,Chilingali and Lipimbi targeting both registered and non-registered cooperatives.
Lipimbi in particular, not registered cooperative has been incorporated in the program to ensure that farmers have a vast knowledge of agribusiness management.
Conducting refresher training, umunthuplus said that they are committed to conducting the trainings from time to time because they believe the ripple effects from individuals level of knowledge cripple the operations of the association they belong to.
‘ Whether at cooperative or merely an association we are still registering new members from time to time so, it's of essence to take them on board as we also encourage the farmers to engage in entrepreneurship aside from working with fellow farmers as an association or a cooperative.’She said
In his remarks, the community development Assistant officer-Misheck Katudza stressed the need for farmers to keep updating their data bank as the farming innovations are revolving.
‘Knowledge gap in farm records keeping, insurance, resource mobilization techniques, and marketing skills among farmers have left many cooperatives and associations static despite successive years of entrepreneurship, so we want farmers to move with time.’He said
The trainings are being implemented under the Sustainable Malawian Agriculture to enhance resilience to climate change-SMART CLIMATE Project which also integrates afforestation, tree regeneration approach and soil conservation techniques to enhance the livelihood of communities.
However, for Lipimbi scheme, the journey is far from over, but with each step forward, the farmers have learned to harness their resilience, turning the tide of uncertainty into a wave of promise.
