Malawi – Shire Valley Transformation Program – Phase 2 (SVTP-2)

The Shire Valley Transformation Program Phase 2 (SVTP-2) is to develop a resilient irrigated commercial agriculture and strengthen the management of natural resources in the Program area. The Program aims at providing irrigation to over 43,000 ha through the phased construction of a new gravity-fed irrigation scheme to 27,600 ha of agricultural land presently under rainfed cultivation, as well as approximately 15,700 ha of existing irrigation areas that currently use electric pumps to abstract water from the Shire River. SVTP is a 14-year Program implemented through a Series of projects with three sequential but partially overlapping projects in Chikwawa and Nsanje Districts in the Southern Region of Malawi. The Program is structured around four coordinated pillars: (i) providing reliable, professionally managed, and sustainably financed irrigation service to a number of irrigators in a phased construction of an irrigation and drainage scheme; (ii) supporting farmer organizations within a comprehensive land use plan, and supporting land tenure strengthening and voluntary consolidation; (iii) establishing and investing in smallholder-owned commercial farm enterprises transitioning into commercial agriculture from subsistence farming and integrating them into commercial value chains; and (iv) natural resources management in and around the Program area.