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Performance of Small‐Scale Water Management Interventions on Crop Yield, Water Use and Productivity in Three Agro‐Ecologies of Malawi
Author(s) -
Kadyampakeni Davie M.,
KazomboPhiri Samson,
Mati Bancy,
Fandika Isaac R.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
irrigation and drainage
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.421
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1531-0361
pISSN - 1531-0353
DOI - 10.1002/ird.1886
Subject(s) - irrigation , environmental science , agriculture , productivity , rainfed agriculture , irrigation management , yield (engineering) , agricultural productivity , crop yield , waterlogging (archaeology) , water resource management , psychological intervention , agricultural science , deficit irrigation , farm water , agricultural economics , agricultural engineering , agronomy , water conservation , wetland , geography , engineering , economics , biology , ecology , psychology , materials science , archaeology , psychiatry , metallurgy , macroeconomics
Agricultural water management interventions play a critical role in mitigating hunger during droughts and dry seasons in southern Africa. A study was conducted in Malawi to compare the performance of improved agricultural water management interventions with traditional water management practices to assess the performance of the interventions on crop yield and water use. The study used questionnaires and focused group discussions to collect data from farmers and key informants. The results showed significant gains using regulated surface irrigation compared with unregulated surface irrigation. The results showed that yield increases of 33 and 37% for onion and tomato respectively were obtained from wetland seepage irrigation compared with upland cultivation. Treadle pump irrigation increased crop production by 5–54% compared with water can irrigation. Treadle pumps also increased gross and net incomes by ≥12%, suggesting that farmers using the treadle pump were able to realize higher incomes across all crop enterprises compared with farmers using water cans. However, there is a dire need to improve the efficiency of the surface irrigation systems for rice production because the water applied was about two to three times the gross irrigation requirement which could result in environmental degradation through increased salinity and waterlogging. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.