In 2019, Cyclone Idai hit Malawi hard. Crops, livestock and harvests were wiped away leaving most farmers in the southern region destitute. The infrastructure such as roads, bridges and irrigation schemes that support livelihoods of myriad farmers were heavily damaged and left in shambles.
This catastrophic tropical cyclone, which was coupled with strong winds and extensive flooding, also left several farmers homeless and without food. Up to now, the negative impact of Cyclone Idai is still haunting most of the farmers that were affected.
As one of the interventions for supporting the affected farmers to cope with the shocks of Cyclone Idai, the Government of Malawi through the Agricultural Commercialisation (AGCOM) Project has finalized procurement of maize for restocking the country’s Strategic Grain Reserves (SGRs) and is currently rehabilitating the damaged irrigation schemes and feeder roads leading to these schemes.
Dr. Teddie Nakhumwa is the National Project Coordinator for AGCOM. He said, “Following the March 2019 floods, a Post Disaster Needs Assessment was conducted by several stakeholders and it revealed that 15 districts and 2 cities were affected.”
He added, “In response, the World Bank in August 2019 approved a US$20 million under the Contingency Emergency Response Component (CERC) budget under AGCOM to fund the 18-month Emergency Action Plan (EAP) to support farmers in the affected districts.”
According to AGCOM National Project Coordinator, the EAP support from the Project focuses on rehabilitation of damaged irrigation schemes (US$7.5 million), rehabilitation and repair of access roads and bridges to the damaged irrigation schemes (US$5 million), procurement of maize for the restocking of the strategic grain reserves (US$7 million) and implementation of safeguards (US$ 0.5 million).
“Implementation of CERC activities will be completed by December, 2020. But we are glad for the milestones achieved so far because we have already completed the procurement of the maize for restocking the SGRs. In addition, most rehabilitation works on irrigation schemes and feeder roads is currently progressing very well,” said Dr. Nakhumwa.
Richard Nomanda is the Chairperson for Kanjedza Irrigation Scheme in Phalombe which is being rehabilitated by the Project. He said the 2019 stormy rains and floods adversely affected farming and made lives of many farmers difficult.
Nomanda said their scheme was heavily damaged and since 2019 the farmers have been failing to produce more volumes for consumption and for the market.
“Thanks to AGCOM for considering our scheme to be rehabilitated. We are glad with the work the contractors are doing. When the rehabilitation works are completed, farmers will once again be able to produce enough for food and income.”
AGCOM is a five-year (2018-2023) national project funded by the World Bank through an International Development Association (IDA) credit amounting to US$95 million. The objective is to increase commercialisation of agriculture value chain products with strong prospective market or commercial (value chain – buyer) linkages.
The Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade are implementing the AGCOM Project. Other key implementing agencies are the Ministry of Lands, Malawi Investment and Trade Centre and Malawi Bureau of Standards.
CERC is component 3 of the Project. Building Productive Alliances is component 1 and has matching grants, partial credit guarantee and last mile infrastructure as key interventions.
Support Investment Enabling Services is component 2 which focuses on supporting the trade environment to deepen and sustain market linkages and improve financing for productive alliances and producer organisations. Project Coordination and Management is component 4 and it involves financing and coordinating Project implementation.
Under CERC, AGCOM is rehabilitating 20 irrigation schemes and 17 feeder roads leading to irrigation schemes in Balaka, Zomba, Machinga, Thyolo, Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Phalombe, Mulanje, Dedza, Ntcheu, and Nsanje.
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