Chiyembekeza clarifies remarks on irrigation

Allan Chiyembekeza

Chiyembekeza; We ware working.

Malawi’s Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Allan Chiyembekeza has clarified his recent remarks in which he implied that few people would choose to grow maize using irrigation farming.

Speaking to a local media outlet last week, Chiyembekeza said proponents of irrigation do not know what they are talking about because the country has produced bumper yields using rain-fed agriculture since Farm Input Subsidy Programme started 11 years ago.

The remarks were widely condemned by different stakeholders in the agriculture sector.

However, this week the minister told the media that government is still considering irrigation as a viable means of agriculture production in the country.

He said people living in areas which are near rivers should be using the rivers for irrigation to reduce food shortage. Chiyembekeza mentioned areas located near Shire River as an example of places where irrigation can be done.

The minister also encouraged farmers to continue with irrigation farming and promised to provide means of connecting with the private sector so that they can help assist in irrigation initiatives.



  1. Matias, I fully agree with you some of these ministers’ brains are just grey as their hair. They can’t think beyond their nose.
    Irrigation farming in South Africa yield a lot so much so that harvesting takes place twice a year if planned well.
    Malawi is a blessed country with so many perennial rivers though I know deforestation has messed the country’s rivers big time. However, it boils back to not having visionary leadership like this current minister of Agriculture in question. His thinking and pronouncements he has made are contradictory and misleading. He is a minister without brains and one wonders why he is allowed to head such a vital ministry any way.
    God bless who so ever placed him in that ministry.

  2. Kuba ndalama basi pangani canzeru m’bomamo palibe ndinu nduna nseu kwanu wabwino ziiiiiiiiii, ulimi othilira sizingatheke, nduna za ku malawi kkkkkkkkkkkk konzani kwanu ku masambanjati ziiiiiiiiii

  3. Iya! mabungwe ake ndi aboma ose okuba okhawokha atipulumuse ndani amakhalangati afuna atipulumuse akutipachika. Thandizo lathu amayamba agawana kaye zosalazo ati ponyere

  4. These ppo r killing the country! They don’t love their country, From when u started the so called irrigation schemes? N where’s the food? Just getting much allowances 4 nothing, don’t u feel shy when ppo r starving with every tym hunger ? Idiot u minister n ur so called gvnt

  5. Shame to u minister chiyembekeza. How can few pipo make irrigation farming and expect to end the hunger crisis we are facing. Take a good example of Israel, it is a country with a small population of pipo as compared to Malawi, it is in a desert and its water is salty yet it makes irrigation and export agricultural products worth $ 5 billion a year and Malawi’s economy is less than $4 billion per year. Lack of vision and leadership is what Malawi is lacking.

  6. Shame on you Minister of Agriculture.Kutokota ngati zoona but deep down mukudziwa kuti zomwe mukubwebwetazo mwangodzilemba papepala and you will just lock up in your office kenaka kumangolemba malipoti abodza monthly kuti zinthu zikuyenda pomwe nzotsayamba komwe.Kodi mudzasiya liti kutinamiza ndikuyamba kugwira ntchito yomwe anthu adakuvoterani?M’midzimutu muli ma irrigation schemmes akufa but when you go in their offices kuyambira ku ma E.PA

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