Wetland management in Malawi A focal point for ecologically sound agriculture and dimbaareas are suffering the sameprob- lems as the seasonalcroplands, overuse, resultingin "mining"of the environmental resources.So, severalfarming communities havebeen encouragedto considerdevelop- ing a moreecological approach to managing these wetland areas which will hopefully renewtheirnatural resource base and ensure its sustainability.The whole process initially focusedaround small-scale aquaculture and the possibilityof pondsacting as a focalpoint for improvingnatural resource management. lntroducing ponds One problemhas beenthat ponds are not a commonfeature of Mdawianfarms. Eternal E agencies have thereforeimplemented dis- z E cussionand farmerparticipation to enable E farmersto see if such ideas are relevantto 6 their agriculturalactivities. Where farmers Some farmerc in Malawi (Central-So.uthem Africa) are beginning to manage have decided to changetheir wetlandman- their wet lands in ways which are improving the ecological sustainability of agement,they are designing their own crop- their farms and iltimately their economic viability. The case studies presented pond systemssuited to their local needs. in this article illustrate how farmerc have designed their own integrated pond- lnitially,fish production to supplementprotein crop systems for converting marginal wet lands into ecologically sound and supplyand cash to thehousehold dominated highly productive land units. the integratedsystem. However, some farm- ers havemoved beyond this to producetheir own idiosyncraticand highlyeffective dimba- Reg Noble adjacent to rivers. Ceftainly,farmers have pond systemswith emphasison vegetable alwaysattempted ttr developavegetable gar- production.This usually involvesimproved alawianfarmers, like many in Africa, den (dimba)in such areas to maintainfood useof bioresources,waterand land. appearto be facinga bleakfuture in productionthrough the dry season. However, One majoreffect of placinga pond ina wet- termsof ensuringthe ecological and with growing pressureon land, the dambo land area is to control water supply and economicviability of theirfarms, Escalating populationgrowth and its attendant land pressure problems are forcing farmers to 'l. abandon"traditional" practices of land man- Figure Totalnet income lrom each rcsource type 0n Salimu farm, Miumbe, Zomba Districl, Malawi agementwhich previously helped to maintain theirnatural resource base, In Malawi, almost 20.00 80% of its estimated9./ millionoeoole are smallholder farmers and 78o/oof this group 18.00 have land holdingsof less than a hectare 16.00 (NSO1996) Tryingto sustainthe food supply from such smallfarms has resultedin rapid 14.00 soil degradationand depletion of natural resources.Consequently since 1992, the c 12.00 governmenthas hadto supplementfarm pro- S' ductionby dispersingfood staplessuch as B 10.00 maizeto the most needy ruralcommunities. However,food handoutscan only ever be a _3 o.oo short-termsolution. More innovativeand o I o.oo longer-termstrategies are urgentlyneeded to syslems$rilh dike gardens antl help farmingcommunities sustain their food 4.00 security. In response to these problems, some 2.00 MdaWan farmers,with the help of govern- mentand internationalagencies, have already 0.00 started developingnew ways of managing theirland resources to counteracttherr eco- -2.00 logical degradation,Emphasis has been N0le:total nel income =balance of cashand non-cash inpuls and oulputs (e.9. opportunity costs for family directedto rehabilitatingor bringinginto pro- labour,useolownseedslorplanling,produceealenorgivenaway,hitedlabout,purchaseoflerliliser ductionthe marginalwet lands(dambos) that etc.). Notelhat the nel income per resoulce type is expressed inthe Y-axis as US$/100 m'/yr. ll isfar occur in low-lyingareas of their farms and easierlor latmers and lay people to understand outpul per 100 m'lhan per heclare. t . ILEIA NiWSLlll:t. JUIY1996 9 t ----:-- reducethe dangerofflooding. So pondshave Figure2. C10p ploduction from each resource lype on lhe Salimu farm, Mlumbe, Zomba Dislrict, Malawi made areaswhich were normallyimpossible to in the wet season,now available cultivate munoa evolveswithponddikegardensand forfarming.Presence of pondstrapping water ! havealso maintained soil moisture content of sunoundingland well into the dry season, thusexlending the growing season for vege- tables,Farmers have found that both effects resultin increasedcroo oroductionfrom dim- hc a:rrlonc ad ).6-l tn thoir nnndc Fnr vuvg|vvl|vuu]uUvl o example,in 19BB/89, a farmbelonging to the 2s00 Salimufamily had only seasonalcrop land € (nunda) and a perennial,lowland vegetable F zooo garden (dimba) some distance from the homestead.By 1991/92, an uncultivated wetlandarea (dambo) adlacent to theirhouse had been rehabilitatedand ponds had been builtto harnesswater for fishand nceproduc- tion, However,as droughtset in 1994 the Salimufamily decided to developsmall dim- gardens pond ba on the dikes.Water supply 1988/89 1991/92 1992/93 1993/94 1994/95 was decliningso rapidlythat they let some of 0roughlycar Droughtyeal Droughtyear their ponds dry up and stored fish in two tlole:In 1994/95, ploduction from welland was in excess 0f 5000 kg/ha/year. remainingponds. In the dry pond bottoms, they grew maizeand pumpkinand hand- watered them from their full ponds, Productionwas veryhigh becauseof the fer- Results even with severe droughts between 1992 tilepond mud. Likewise,crops on the pond Boththe mundaand dimbaareas of the rest and 1995.Production from munda and dim- dikesgrewwell when fertilised with mud from of the farmproved far less resiiientto drought ba were much morevulnerable to rainfallfluc- the ponds.Figure 1 illustratesthe economic comparedwith the pond-cropsystems in the tuations, effectsof thisgradual evolution of a pond-dike wetlandarea. Figure2 demonstratescleady Figure3 illustratesthe evolutionaryprocess system incorporatingcycling of fish and how croo oroductionon the wetland was whichproduced the above results depicted in .1 crops, maintainedand graduallyincreased overtime figures and 2. Between1988 and 1995,a Figure3. Evolution olwetland management onSalimu larm in Malawi ttrJlttllt hllhl damboland adiacentto homestead thisarea was prone to flooding and was not cultivaled inputs:waste maize bran, goatmanure, waste food grasses damboconverted to rice-fish ponds wild andherbs !o usedas inputsto ponds homestead walerlor o outpuls: o internalrecyclingolwasle rice strawand bran back into pond householduse and live- stock,fish, rice dryseason vegetable inputs:maize bran, goat gardenin pond bottom wildgrasses manure,waste food andon dike 1994/35 andherbs usedas I*.li_{ii..:.:.t i' : flver inputsto ;, :. ! i it' i i :r.l ilt: ponds ,g homestead internalrecycling: water t0 dike and dry pond a bottom,pond mud to dike, vegetable waste to d outputs:rice, fish, water, pond,rice slraw and bran into pond, lertile mud 5 green E vegetables,maize, indry pond used to grow crops in pond E pumpkin ro ILEtA llaWStEtTrl. JUI,Y1996 Flgure4: f{umber of internaliloresource flows on slr larmsIn Mlumbe, Zomba Distric't, Malawi ly and economicallypond-dimba systems can profoundlyaffect the 30 sustainabilityof pondspresent on larms(excepttor Duwa whose ponds stad In 199142) smallfarms. Their success is due to their designbeing wholly in the handsof thefarm- ers and being based on sound ecologrpal meannumber of linls:14 principaisof recyclingnatural resources, The slandarderror: 0.9 slandarddev.: 4.5 latterprocess has enabledfarming families to min:L mar:26, 95% limils:1.9 bring marginal,unproductive land into pro- duction and raise the productivityof land whichwas degradingthrough overuse, None -g 1s of theseprocesses occuned overnight, farm- moannumber ol links:4 erswere given initial stimulation and they took Standarderror: 0.3 E standarddev-: 0.75 up the ideas, modifiedthem, created new min:3,max: limits: 10 5, 95% 1.9 designsand evolvedwetland systems which are now the focaidynamo for regenerationof theirfarms. I Reg Noble, PO Box 521, Zomba,Malawi. E-mail:[email protected] presented gathered 1987/88 1988/89 1990/91 1991192 1992/93 1993/94 1994i95 The resuts in thisarticle were under the ICLARM-BN/ZAfrica Aquaculture Fesearch Project.in l\,4alawjandwas completetysuppoted by Bunoes m nrsteriumfur WirtschaftlicheZusammenarbet und Entwicklung(Bl\.42 through the DeutscheGesellschaft fur TechnischeZusammenarbeit (GIf of Germany rapid change took place from no manage- Noble,1995). This is a reflectionof improved References - BrummettRF and FP Noble.1995. Aquaculture for ment of the wetlandsto a very sophisticated ecologicalefficiency and recyclingof resourc- African smallholders. ICLARI\,4technica repod,16, 69 arrangementof integratedrice, fish and veg- es helpingto maintainsoil feftilitywithout pp. etables which boosted the food and cash recourseto expensiveexternal inputs such as - NSO. 1996, Small-holder Household Composition productionof the household.One of thefea- chemicalfertiliser, Linkages are the success Survey Beport. NationalSamp e Surveyof Agrcu ture 1992/93 Voi 1. 274 pp NationalStat sticat Of{ice (NSO), turesof this integratedwetland system is the of managingthese wetlands integrations. Va'aw. internalrecycling of resourceswhich helps to Farmershave created nutrient links between - UN/N.4alawiGovernment. 1993. Situation analysis of mdntainsoil and pond nutrients and thus pro- dimba ano pond, wasle vegetac)lematter poverty in Malawi. 2Ogpp. l\,4ontfordPress, lvalaw. ductionfrom yearto