Agronomic and socio-economic analysis of water management techniques for dry season cultivation of common bean in Malawi

A study was carried out in Malawi to compare agronomic and socio-economic aspects of different water management practices for two advanced bean lines. Four irrigation technologies and one control were studied in Chingale Area Development Program in Zomba District in southern Malawi. The technologies encompassed motorized pumps (MP), treadle pumps (TP), water cans, gravity-fed surface irrigation (GR) and a non-irrigated practice that used residual moisture. The study found that technologies that used <2 labour hours m^?3 were appropriate for such small-scale irrigation systems. The aggregated bean production labour cost and labourday thresholds were $893 ha^?1 and 2,978 LD ha^?1, respectively. An irrigation supply in the range of 7,000–10,000 m³ ha^?1 for the TP, MP and GR would be adequate. Assuming 20 irrigations season^?1, 400–600 m³ irrigation^?1 would be adequate, supplying 40–60 mm every 5–7 days. The study found that poor small-scale farmers in Malawi, particularly those using MPs, need fuel subsidies in order to offset operational costs. Basing on the findings in the study, we recommend further research on several bean lines in different agro-ecologies of Malawi using technologies that showed high yields, low labour efficiency and high water use productivity.