A study was
conducted in Malawi to compare the performance of improved agricultural water ma- nagement interventions with traditional water
management practices to assess the impact of the interventions on crop
yield and water use productivity. The study used questionnaires and focused
group discussions to collect data from farmers and key informants. The results
showed significant gains in crop yield, farmer income, and water use
productivity using the regulated surface irrigation compared with unregulated
surface irrigation. Treadle pump irrigation increased crop production by 5% - 54%
compared with water can irrigation. Treadle pumps also increased gross and net
incomes by >12% suggesting that farmers using the treadle pump were able to
realize higher incomes across all crop
enterprises compared with farmers using water cans. However, there is a
dire need to improve the efficiency of the surface irrigation systems for rice
production because the water applied was about 2 to 3 times the gross
irrigation requirement (~10,780 m3·ha－1) which could
result in environmental degradation through increased salinity and water
logging.
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