International workshop on ‘African Water Laws: Plural Legislative Frameworks for Rural Water Management in Africa’, 26-28 January 2005, Johannesburg, South Africa Irrigation reform in Malawi: exploring critical land-water intersections

Malawi, similar to other Southern African countries, has adopted new water, land, and irrigation policies and legislation involving promotion of decentralized management, user groups, and privatization of resources previously under customary or public tenure. We examine how the water and land policies intersect with the new irrigation policy, and are being played out in the context of two smallholder irrigation schemes in the Lake Chilwa Basin, which are being transferred to farmers’ associations. This new policy setting has opened the door to contestation over rights of access to irrigation scheme plots by traditional authorities, scheme management personnel, and farmers. Rather than adopting a sector-by-sector focus, we examine how the policies are intertwined and interact with existing customary rights and practices in ways that have not been fully considered. The study demonstrates the need for a livelihoods perspective in determining who benefits and loses from these new policy directions.