Irrigation Project

Project Status

In progress

There is an urgent need to ease the annual variations of an environment where drought and distance from rivers can be mitigated through irrigation. The local chief has donated a plot for the project and there is a well in place that has a verified flow of 7200 Litres/hour (1584 Imp Gal/hour) with a depth of 43 metres (141 feet).

The Chigumukire irrigation project is located on a property gifted by the local chief of approximately 5.5 acres on which the Timotheos Foundation would grow crops. These crops would be used firstly by the Child Care Centre (CCC) with any surplus being sold to offset the operational costs of the farm.

This project will also serve as a pilot project for potential future expansion where the community could alsogrow their own crops. Historically the village has irrigated through flooding irrigation ditches which will necessitate a change management approach to teaching and monitoring how this project is implemented. To this end, annual operational costs are important to the success of the project. While this is a significant upfront investment, there would be a reduction in the annual operational costs each year of success and the expectation for it to become self sustainable.

Latest update

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Green Oasis

The irrigation project has been going well.

The water shortage has reduced the crops somewhat. For the regular vegetables, it seems that the return is not as good as initially planned. Hopefully this water issue will be resolved soon, so we can see it’s full potential. Completing the electrical upgrades to the irrigation pump will allow for more regular irrigation even when their is no solar power. The banana’s will still be a few months before harvest.

On a positive note. All of southern Malawi knows about the “green oasis” from Timotheos. Two seed companies have recently offered to supply free seed, pesticides and fertilizer, in exchange for them to walk some farmers around the plot for advertising purposes.