Mwandama village

The visit yesterday to the village was very nice. The Malawi Met Service staff were very impressed with the multisectoral approach MVP is taking, and specifically when it comes to the multiple ways the project is already implementing some drought mitigation techniques. (Micro irrigation, rainwater harvesting, etc) The drought insurance will just add to the package.

It's exciting because Malawi has some history in being very progressive with drought insurance in the past few years - and this contract for Mwandama would be the first for MVP using a comprehensive approach to drought risk management. I'm excited to be a small part of it.

Below are some pictures around the village yesterday.


Adams (Agrometeorologist from MMS), Rebbie (Mwandama-MVP science coordinator/team leader), Gray (deputy director of MMS), and me in front of the MVP project offices in Zomba.


The MVP project offices building in Zomba


Downtown Zomba


A roadside market on the way to the village


Mwandama village


Chief Mwandama - he's where the village gets its name


A typical Malawian household


A typical house in the village


Cute kid!


Rebbie pointing out a borehole well constructed by the project for the Mwandama village


Gray testing out the water pump


Rainwater harvesting and storage tank - catching the rainfall off the roof of the house for domestic use and for watering the garden


A small check dam used to harvest runoff during the rainy season (it's dry now)


A larger microirrigation dam that was constructed on a pilot basis by a local community group of farmers, near a perennial stream


The irrigation trench - using low cost materials the farmers are able to divert a small amount of water from the local stream/pond to water this small plot of corn.


The cabbage garden - and tomatoes on the right


Adams and Gray speaking with a farmer from the community group responsible for the irrigated fields


The cabbage


Irrigated corn - the main staple crop of the village. Normally, it can only be grown in the rainy season - but microirrigation can produce a crop with similar yields in the dry season.

















Some kids around our UNDP vehicle as we were leaving