Securing smallholder farmers' land and water rights and promoting equitable land access in irrigation and watershed management in Malawi, Rwanda and Swaziland
Gunda, Chisomo et al.
The paper presents lessons learnt on securing land and water rights of smallholder farmers and ensuring equitable access to land in the Irrigation, Rural Livelihoods and Agricultural Development Project (IRLADP) in Malawi, the Kirehe Watershed Management Project (KWAMP) in Rwanda and the Lower Usuthu Small-holder Irrigation Project (LUSIP) in Swaziland. The experiences from the three countries provide useful lessons on securing smallholder farmers land and water rights for other countries who wish to extend their areas of irrigated land, especially in Africa. Securing land rights of smallholders and providing for equitable access to others whose land is not being irrigated is essential, but this has challenges. So does ensuring that those affected by the development of irrigation infrastructure are adequately compensated and also benefit, as does extending project benefits to users of rain-fed land as part of broader watershed management processes. The various projects mentioned have tried to ensure that issues of land tenure security and equitable access for smallholder farmers are addressed prior to major investments in engineering works, but this has proved difficult to enforce.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2013
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