A Virtual Irrigation Academy to Improve Water Productivity in Malawi and Tanzania

Richard Stirzaker (right) demonstrates some of the learning tools at the Inception workshop in Morogoro, Tanzania

Pause

Project leader:

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Dr Richard Stirzaker, Principal Research Scientist, Land and Water

ACIAR project manager:

Dr Evan Christen

Start Date:

1 June 2015

End Date:

31 May 2019

Partners:

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)

ASARECA (Association for strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa)

Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) Department of Agricultural Research Services (Malawi)

National Irrigation Commission (Tanzania)

Irrigation and Technical Services Division (Tanzania)

Ministry of Agriculture Food Security and Cooperatives (Tanzania)

AIFSC Investment:

$2,245,000

Tabs

Overview

This project has been developed in response to major new irrigation investments that are being rolled out in Malawi and Tanzania. In the past, irrigation development projects in sub-Saharan Africa proved more expensive and had lower economic rates of return than those in Asia and South America. Many lessons have been learned concerning design and construction of irrigation infrastructure, but little regarding water management.

The aim of this project is to improve the profitability of irrigation farming by better water, salt and fertiliser management. The project objectives to achieve this aim are:

To refine and deploy farmer-friendly monitoring tools that measure soil water, nutrients, salt and depth to watertable;
To develop a “Virtual Irrigation Academy” (VIA) through on-line visualisation of data from the monitoring tools linked to a virtual discussion, learning and teaching space with skilled facilitators;
To determine how the VIA promotes the social and institutional learning that improves irrigated farm productivity;
To develop partnerships for the post project continuation of the VIA and monitoring tools.

Location

Malawi: Dedza, Chikwawa

Tanzania: Iringa, Chamwino, Kilombero

The Team

Project Leader:

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Dr Richard Stirzaker, Principal Research Scientist, Land and Water

Australian commissioned organisation, Administrative Contact:

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Sonja Slatter, Project Support Team Leader

Partner country (Malawi and Tanzania), Project Coordinator:

ASARECA (Association for strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa), Dr Hezron Mogaka, Programme Manager
Partner country (Malawi), Project Coordinator: CCARDESA (Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa), Mr Calvin Sambo, Programme Officer

Partner country collaborating organisation (Malawi):

Department of Agricultural Research Services, Dr Isaac Fandika, Research Scientist

Partner country collaborating organisation (Tanzania):

National Irrigation Commission, Irrigation and Technical Services Division, Ministry of Agriculture Food Security and Cooperatives, Dr. Amandus Lwena, Assistant Director for Irrigation Research and Technology Promotion

Arusha Technical College, Dr. Nuru Mziray, Principal Researcher/Lecturer