Land Resource Conservation
The Department is responsible for promotion of programmes that ensure proper management of land based natural resources for improved agricultural production and other uses in order to avoid sectoral land use conflicts and ensure sustainable socio-economic growth and development
Guiding Policy Frameworks
The department is guided by the following policies, strategies and technical guidelines for effective implementation of land resources programmes: • National Land Resource Management Policy and Strategy (2000) (due for review)
Land Resources Conservation Strategic Plan
Rainwater Harvesting Manual
National Catchment Guidelines
Conservation Agriculture Guidelines
Land Resource Evaluation Reports
Climate Smart Agriculture Framework
Land Cover Atlas
Climate Smart Agriculture Training Manuals for Supervisors and Frontline Staff
Department of Land Resource Conservation Structure and organization
This unit is responsible for providing policy guidelines for land management training programmes, reviewing and developing systematic human resources development programmes. The unit collaborates with internal and external training institutions involved in land management in building capacities at different levels
Responsible for generating, analyzing, updating, publicizing and disseminating land resources information at national and district levels for production of sustainable land use plans and targeting of interventions
The Environmental Conservation and Education Unit is responsible for development and promotion of technologies in environmental and land conservation and education and sensitization of farming communities and the general public on environmental issues
Strategic Objectives
- Improve the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of land resources conservation programmes;
- Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Land Resources Conservation staff and partners in management and implementation of programmes;
- Improve the knowledge, skills, and attitude and abilities of staff and land users in sustainable land management;
- Provide clear direction to staff and other stakeholders in land resources management.
- Provide Malawi’s priority areas for land management in the context of the NAP;
- Contribute to sustainable and resilient agriculture sector for the economic growth of the country
Current Programmes
In order to fulfill its mandate, the Department has several field programmes in the following broad areas, Soil and Water Conservation, Rain Water Harvesting, Conservation Agriculture, Agroforestry and Soil Fertility Enhancement, and Land Resources Surveys and Evaluation.
Our Priority Areas
To foster sustainable irrigation development, the department has embarked on Development of new irrigation schemes with the aim of increasing area under sustainable irrigation; This entails construction of new irrigation infrastructure to put more land under irrigation. It is estimated that the country has over 600,000 hectares of irrigation potential but only about 103,000 hectares has been developed.
The Department is rehabilitating existing irrigation schemes in order to sustain desired crop production levels. This is based on the need for proper management of developed areas for sustained productivity. However, beneficiaries are required to operate and maintain the infrastructure so that the designed capacities are maintained to support desired crop production levels.
In order to address the challenge of technical competence amongst irrigation stakeholders for sustainable irrigation development and management, the Department is implementing a project aimed at building the capacity of its staff and other stakeholders. This is based on the background that development and management of irrigation requires adequate technical and administrative capacity. The technical competence within the public and private sectors including training institutions and beneficiary communities is critical for sustainable irrigation development and management
There are four irrigation technologies which are utilised by the smallholder farmers namely; Gravity-fed, Treadle Pumps, Motorised Pumps and Watering cans. The gravity-fed technology accounts for 56% of the total developed area under smallholder farmers. This technology is the most commonly used because of its cost-effectiveness as it does not need fuel as is the case with the motorized pump-based technology. In addition, the technology does not need much man power like the watering can and treadle pump-based technologies.