Mangochi communities tame poverty through irrigation farming
Communities from Mpundi village in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Namabvi in Mangochi have said they have found gold in irrigation farming.
The communities have owed their success to Pemphero Community-Based Organization (CBO) for providing them with farm inputs and irrigation materials.
“Unlike in the previous years when hunger used to bite us hard and reduced us to perennial beggars, this time around, we are now “masters” as opposed to “servants” since we are living the world of plenty,” said Weza Amini, one of the farmers from the area on Tuesday during the field visit officials of Pemphero CBO organized.
She expressed satisfaction with the fruits they are getting from the irrigation farming.
“Before we embarked on irrigation farming, we used to be food insecure. Families were leading miserable lives as we were surviving on doing piece works from well-to-do people and in turn we were given
either money or food. But now, this is history as we have food for both consumption and commercial,” pointed out Amini who is 53 years old, married and have 7 children.
She said through this non-rain fed farming; she has managed to build iron-roofed house, bought livestock, able to send her children to decent schools apart from embarking on money saving schemes such as
village banks and among other savings.
Sharing Mkwate’s sentiments was Asiyatu Imani, 45, from the same village who said she is now happy that she leads an accomplished life.
“Previously, our family which is composed of 8 people used to be a laughing stock among peers. We cannot talk about malnutrition because it was the order of the day. But since we embarked on this farming
under the wisdom of Pemphero, things have drastically changed,” said Imani.
In his remarks, Pemphero CBO Project Coordinator, Ishmael Amadu said his organization with funding from Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Coalition for Research and Action for Social Justice and Human Dignity (CRASH) is implementing community resilience project in the area aimed at empowering vulnerable people.
