Ensuring conservation for land and water resources in Malawi

“When you own the land, you have a responsibility to take care of it, to ensure that your family benefits from it. Not only that. Land ownership secures your children and grandchildren their livelihoods, should they wish to use it. If you know someone can come and claim your land any time, it is difficult to do much to improve it.” Such are the thoughts of Odeta Chiwanga from the Chiponde village in Malawi’s Kasungu District. She is a mother of four and the head of her household. “How can I invest in the land when I know someone can easily come and claim it for themselves?” she asks.

Low levels of tenure security affect much rural land in Malawi, with serious repercussions for food and nutrition security. Like many farmers, Odeta has little incentive to commit to improved soil and water management practices, due to uncertainty over the land she farms. In the long term, this leads to degradation of both soil and water resources, which subsequently affects agricultural productivity.

To address issues of tenure security and ensure sustainable use of productive resources, FAO and the Government of Malawi are working together to implement a project funded by Belgium’s regional Government of Flanders. The project entitled ‘Land use planning and sustainable land and water management for improved agricultural productivity in Kasungu and Mzimba districts’is being implemented within the framework of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the context of national food security (VGGT), as a catalyst to ensure that land and water resources are conserved for improved agricultural productivity.

“The project is taking a participatory approach to sustainably manage land and water resources using existing Farmer Field Schools as entry points for outreach to target communities,” explains Yvonne Mmangisa, FAO Head of Technical Section in Malawi. “Through the project, we expect to achieve systematic land registration, participatory land-use planning, sustainable soil and water management in integrated watershed management, and mainstreaming of land-use planning and integrated watershed management in agricultural extension delivery.”

As part of project activities, FAO and the National Authorities of Malawi have conducted a detailed land degradation assessment exercise, mapping 345 hotspots and identifying 18 catchments for registration of land in the two target districts. Appropriate soil and water management and forest landscape restoration measures have been proposed for each site, with two gullies identified as in need of reclamation. The project has also supported the development of national land-use and resettlement policies, with buy-in secured from all relevant stakeholders at national and district levels.

Secure land tenure for sustainable land use and water management

Ten land clerks have been deployed in Kasungu District to kickstart activities related to land registration, with a focus on driving land registration at community level by interacting with communities, increasing awareness of its importance, and carrying out data collection and registration itself. There are plans to appoint 27 more land clerks by the end of the first half of this year. In addition, the project is supporting communities in developing adaptation plans and livelihood options, based on the sustainable use of natural resources and selected low-cost soil and water management techniques and technologies.

“Insecurity of land ownership can create inequality and conflicts if it is not addressed”, said Odeta, who has expressed strong interest in the land registration process. “Owning the land assures that we are not displaced, it prevents disagreements and helps us to invest, confident that wewill profit from it in the end. It is especially important for us women in the villages to have land registered in our name, as it will definitely reduce incidences of land grabbing by men in our communities. My children will not have any problems in investing in land which has been registered.”

You can read more about this project in the FAO Malawi Office newsletter

Learn about the support the Government of Flanders provides to FAO here