Observing wetland microenvironments as part of a whole in southern Africa

By Adrian Wood, Patrick Thawe, and Alick Mbewe

Small seasonal wetlands, such as stream valleys and the complex shallow headwater wetlands known as dambos in southern Africa, tend to be neglected in discussions on food security and rural livelihoods. Because of their relative invisibility to researchers and decision-makers, they have been termed "unobserved microenvironments". When poor rainfall affects upland farming and devastates the harvests on which people normally rely, however, these microenvironments are a lifeline. How governments respond to crisis will determine whether southern Africa's seasonal wetlands can continue to support the communities that live in and around them.

Colonizing wetlands with winter crops to counter drought

In 2024, severe drought struck several countries in Southern Africa, with harvests in Zambia and Malawi estimated to be down by nearly 50% and 25%, respectively. Governments responded with large-scale imports of maize from Tanzania, plans for relief distribution, improved cash transfers, and food-for-work initiatives. Governments also appealed for increased local food production during the dry season, with calls for "winter farming" in Malawi and the growing of winter maize in Zambia.

In Malawi, the President declared a state of emergency in late March and identified the need for food imports and an expansion of the recurrent winter farming initiative. A loan product, developed under the National Economic Empowerment Fund, is being offered to farmers with access to dambos. These loans can be used to buy solar and motorized water pumps for irrigation to expand winter production. Initiatives such as the Programme for Rural Irrigation Development (PRIDE) have expanded irrigation in dambos, while the Ministry of Agriculture, with development partners like the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, have distributed maize and sweet potato vines while advocating for winter farming.

In Zambia, in early May, a Drought Response Appeal was launched, and the government offered funding contracts for producers of a minimum of 500 metric tons of winter maize. The Constituency Development Fund, on the other hand, focuses on addressing drought and hunger, and includes support to viable small-scale dambo farming ventures.

A risky approach to wetland use

The overall response by governments to drought, then, involves directing small- and medium-scale farmers to produce winter maize in the seasonal wetlands. Given that these occupy over a tenth of cultivable land in Malawi and 19% of Zambia's area, the potential contribution of winter farming to addressing the current food shortage is considerable.

However, also considerable is the potential for damage to both the ecology of wetlands and the economic condition of farmers due to the lack of guidance on sustainable farming. Environmental challenges related to the use of seasonal wetlands include various types of land degradation: gulley formation, which lowers water tables and can undermine protected domestic water supplies; water pollution from the use of fertilizer; and the loss of ecosystem services, including biodiversity, as the ecohydrology of these areas changes. In times of drought, low river flows also dampen hydropower production, leading to load-shedding that compels communities to increase charcoal production, a destructive practice that relies on the burning of biomass.

The resulting degradation of catchments can lead to more intense runoff and erosion in downstream valleys and wetlands, which may be exacerbated by cultivation. Degraded catchments will store less water in future rainy seasons and so lead to lower dry season flow and less seepage into cultivation sites for winter farming. This vicious cycle damages the prospects for food security for the poorest and reduces the income from export-oriented production of specialist crops such as onions and garlic, which are major export crops for rural communities, often in remote areas.

Zambia has a national wetland policy that acknowledges the multiple use of these areas, and recognizes the need to go beyond conservation and protection. However, guidance for cultivation in wetlands is still some way off. In Malawi, development of a national wetland policy is underway, but according to a team member involved, a major bottleneck is that "wetland farming is a challenge for which we have no case studies of success". An official in Zambia conceded, "We don't know what the best way is to use these areas. We have not worked out how to maintain soil fertility and sustainably use these wetlands."

Towards a sustainable wetland use policy

Such a rare admission on the part of government suggests that the approach so far has been too focused on short-term crop yields and income generation at the expense of a long-term balance between use and conservation of wetlands. The dash towards winter farming needs to be tempered by farming practices guided by a more holistic appreciation of how water, food, land, energy, and ecosystems interact - an approach advocated by the CGIAR initiative on NEXUS Gains. What better than to draw on the local knowledge that farmers of seasonal wetlands have built up over generations?

Policy implementation needs to understand the social and economic reality of the people and communities already engaging in the cultivation of seasonal wetlands, and account for how they secure their multi-component livelihoods. In the complex process of developing and securing approval for a technical package that can adequately support these communities, stakeholders such as conservationists, hydrologists, infrastructure engineers, food reserve agencies, irrigation departments, and soil scientists should be consulted. Guidance needs to be flexible and adaptable to different field conditions. Responding to drought must therefore involve more than humanitarian interventions such as emergency imports of grain. A major investment of time and resources is required to successfully roll out the range of guidance and practices needed - small seasonal wetlands can no longer remain "unobserved".

Adrian Wood is Emeritus Professor of Sustainability, University of Huddersfield, UK; Patrick Thawe is Natural Resources Management and Climate Change Adaptation Expert, Malawi; Alick Mbewe is Provincial Fisheries Officer-Copperbelt, Department of Fisheries, Zambia.

Header image: Intensive cultivation of seasonal wetland, northern Malawi. Photo by Adrian Wood.

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