Malawi National Irrigation Policy and Development Strategy.

The Republic of Malawi National Irrigation Policy and Development Strategy is a cross-sectoral strategy extended over 20 years (2000-2020) with a mission to manage and develop water and land resources for diversified, economically sound and sustainable irrigation and drainage systems under organized small holder and estate management institutions and to maintain an effective advisory service.
To help with better nutrition the strategy foresees extending cropping opportunities and provide a wider variety of crops in both wet and dry seasons to improve nutritional status, especially of children and women. Further, efforts will be focused on increasing agriculture production and enhancing food security through irrigation, which will ensure some production during droughts, and the dry season.
The strategy seeks to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable. To this end, efforts will be focused on creating an enabling environment for irrigated agriculture, by facilitating and encouraging the private sector to invest in irrigation development, and encourage rural communities to manage irrigation projects in order to fully utilize irrigable land in Malawi.
To reduce rural poverty, the strategy will contribute to poverty alleviation by targeting resource poor small holder farmers for irrigation development to enhance farm income and by supplementing the recommended strategies for rain fed agriculture outlined in Malawi's "Agricultural and Livestock Development Strategy and Action Plan". Efforts will be focused on assisting small holder farmers to develop and manage new and existing irrigation schemes through establishment of local farmer organizations that can assume full ownership of existing irrigation schemes and the new pilot schemes. Further, work will be done to transfer the ownership of existing government schemes to the beneficiaries, through participatory methods that will enhance farmers responsibility and obligations towards the management of the schemes.
Enabling more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems is another goal of the strategy. In this regard, the government will: Optimize government investment in irrigation development by applying principles of cost sharing and cost recovery; Enhance human capacity for irrigated agriculture in the public, parastatal and private sector in order to facilitate effective research in irrigation technology and marketing of irrigated produce; Create the spirit of business culture in the small scale irrigated agriculture sector, to promote and provide competitive financing of irrigation projects and improve the marketing system at national and international levels; Assist the informal irrigation sector, through greater presence of the Irrigation Department in Regional, District and Rural Communities to provide irrigation technology advice where it is needed most; Conduct research in irrigation technology in order to promote the use of appropriate advanced and simple technologies in irrigated agriculture with due attention to efficient utilization of water resources; facilitate the establishment of a well coordinated marketing system with considerable local processing and better storage/transportation of farm produce; address specific problems that women face in irrigated agriculture in order to achieve greater participation of women in the small scale irrigation sector.
Regarding governance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation will be at the centre of irrigated agriculture development. As such, the Ministry will be responsible for ensuring close coordination between the various Departments and sections; Agricultural Research, Extension, Crops, Mechanization, Agricultural Development Divisions, Rural Development Projects and the Extension Planning Areas. Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation will also ensure coordination with other Ministries, Departments and relevant parastatals and NGOs.