Experts, govt lock horns on dormant irrigation act

Fifteen years since its enactment, the Irrigation Act—a law put in place to promote irrigation agriculture in the country—has remained dormant with most of its key provisions not operationalised.

The law, which was assented to on November 30 2001, is  being  hailed as  progressive  as it provides for the  National  Irrigation  Board to regulate irrigation  activities,  and  the Irrigation Fund, to help raise funds and loan out  starter-packs  for  irrigation  activities.

However, its dormancy has riled irrigation experts and players in the agriculture sector who have described the move as retrogressive.

Foundation of Irrigation for Sustainable Development (Fisd) director Frank Mwenechanya said in an interview without the Act kit, irrigation activities are not coordinated, regulated and monitored effectively.

“We have a situation where everyone can venture into irrigation and do things his or her own way. We do not have standards of practice and this can be damaging to a country that is always suffering from food shortages due to over reliance on rain-fed agriculture,” he said.

Civil Society Agriculture Network (CisaNet) national coordinator TamaniNkhono-Mvula noted that the problem of funding—which is one of the biggest challenges in irrigation development—could have been reduced if the Irrigation  Fund  was  functional.

“We have lots of graduate engineers who may want to go intoirrigation, but funding is the biggest hindrance,” he said.

Nkhono-Mvula said if government, for instance, had been making an annual investment of K5 billion into the fund since the period the Act has been in place, Malawi could have made at least K75 billion ($99 .5 million) investment into irrigation development.

He said: “Some of the development partners and other international bodies could have been able to invest into the fund. Government must, therefore, not be the first to complain of funding when it is failing to put in place mechanisms to mobilise resources for irrigation development.

“The fund, also being revolving, could have kept on growing. One may ask as to why potential investors do not just go to a commercial bank and take a loan. Our assertion is that the irrigation fund would provide conditions relevant to farming as opposed to most commercial loans that are not agriculture friendly.”

But director of   irrigation in the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development   Geoff Mamba, has disputed that government is failing to operationalise the Irrigation Act.

In an interview, he, however, acknowledged that the Irrigation Act 2001 indeed provides for the establishment of the Irrigation Fund to be managed by the National Irrigation Board.

“The establishment process for the Irrigation Fund was initiated in 2012 with the drafting of the Irrigation Fund Guidelines with support from the European Union under the Rural Infrastructure Development Programme Component two: Irrigation,” said Mamba.

He said as expected, the Draft Irrigation Fund Guidelines went through a review process involving the private sector, civil society, development partners and public sector, including Treasury and Solicitor General and the Final Draft Irrigation Fund Guidelines are currently at Treasury for endorsement.

Mamba said the ministry with assistance from a number of stakeholders is also in the process of completing the development of Standards and Guidelines for Irrigation Development.