Impacting Lives with Water Pumps?
Yes!
The story of Langton Alick
Irrigation using watering cans is time consuming and is hard work. Most farmers in Malawi who practice irrigation farming use watering cans because they cannot afford to buy the right irrigation equipment. Africa Windmill Project is encouraging farmers to stop using watering cans by providing them with rope and washer pumps and windmills to help them irrigate their crops with ease. Here is a story of one of the beneficiaries of the rope and washer pumps on how it impacted his irrigation farming.
Langton Alick is a lead farmer for Chitsanzo club. He is married to Alinafe Alick they have been married for 17 years and together they have 6 children. Langton is from Mtsukwa village and he is part of Chitsanzo club under Mngwangwa EPA. He joined the club in 2019, ever since he joined the club he has attended a number of trainings conducted by AWP where he was taught how to use rope and washer pumps, how to use a windmill, crop management and how to make canals and irrigation basins. The trainings he attended in the past helped him change his farming ways now he is able to produce bumper harvests from the crops he plants unlike in the past when he didn’t have guidance on how to practice irrigation farming.
““When AWP gave me a rope and washer pump I took it lightly but when I started using it, it made irrigation farming easy for me now, I can’t wait for the windmill to be installed in my garden because it will make irrigation more simple for me and will help me save a lot of time.”
Irrigation farming wasn’t a new way of farming to him but the only thing he lacked was proper knowledge and the tools to use for him to be financially stable and food secure by using irrigation farming. He used watering cans to irrigate his crops now he has a rope and washer pump but soon he may have a windmill installed in his garden. Having a rope and washer pump has made irrigation farming easy for him; he has reduced the amount of time spent on the garden. He used to irrigate everyday using a watering can but now he irrigates twice a week which gives him more time to monitor how his crops are growing.
Langton has a plot which is half an acre in size and he plants leaf vegetables, tomatoes and maize and he has currently planted these crops in his garden. At the moment, he has invested MK40, 000.00 ($62.5) and he is expecting to make a profit of MK250, 000.00 ($312.5) from all the crops he has planted in his garden. From this profit he wants to buy goats fertilizer and also he wants to buy pigs. With irrigation farming he is able to provide his family with everything they need and they are food secure.
Africa Windmill Project is making sure that the farmers have enough resources and knowledge to use when practicing irrigation farming by giving them rope and washer pumps and windmills to use when irrigating crops.
