This is to be financed by the African Devel-opment Bank (AfDB) under the multimillion- dollar Smallholder Crop Production and Marketing Project.
The assignment will be carried out in three phases, and the first phase will involve a review of designs for 12 irrigation schemes, tendering, evaluation of tenders and supervising the construction of the irrigation scheme.
The second phase will involve the preparation of designs, bills of quantities, tendering, the evaluation of tenders and supervising the construction of 11 irrigation schemes.
“A total area of 3 055 ha will be designed and developed by the end of the second phase,” says the ministry.
The ministry is also seeking bids from consulting firms for three other contracts under the same Smallholder Crop Production and Marketing Project, which include undertaking a market competitiveness study and training, and an audit of the project’s accounts, and the preparation of environmental and social management plans for the project.
The AfDB, which has spent about $800-million on Malawian projects since it started operating in the country in 1969, is also funding 14 food security projects that are part of the multi- million-dollar Smallholder Irrigation Project (Ship), which is being implemented in seven districts in the country.
The Ship project, which involves construction of multipurpose dams that are mainly used for irrigation and the provision of water for domestic use, has increased the number of beneficiaries in irrigation projects in Malawi from 10 000 to 13 000.
The AfDB’s country representative in Malawi, Frank Kufakwandi, hails the Ship project, saying the average income for the farmers, which is below $500 in areas that are not taking part in project, has gone up to $1 000 in the project areas.
“Farmers can now have three cropping circles with irrigation farming and, in the process, increase harvests,” says Kufakwandi. He says the farmers who were in the past growing crops on a subsistence scale have now increased their harvest from an average of 900 kg/ha to 3 000 kg/ha.
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