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I
was dispatched to a small
South African country, Malawi, for a little less than one month
from July 14, and I returned on August 10. July and August
are the most comfortable time of year in Malawi, located in the
southern hemisphere because of the relatively low temperature and
the dry season. I was going to tell everyone of my return
right away, but my circadian clock has gone out of the rhythm with
all this jet-lag and the heat in Japan. There was also the
farmwork that has kept me busy, my fatigue piling up, so I haven't
been able to get around to it until today.
This was my third
and last time for fieldwork in Malawi. This project was
conceived in 1998 with the task on mind to seek the methodology
that will lead to successful development when the Japanese
government is involved with agricultural assistance to African
countries. And in Malawi, we have aimed to create a system
in which local residents take the initiative in proceeding with
development by directly participating in a small-scale development
project in each district.
First, we selected a
target village, and then studied the existing conditions and
identified problems in the village. We have incorporated
solutions to the problems in a development plan and, at the same
time, launched several projects in the form of pilot studies
to examine their effectiveness and validity. The work has
been truly enjoyable, having had meetings with the village people at
every step of the way to tell them our ideas and listen to theirs.
The village people,
though a bit dubious of our briefing during the first fieldwork,
have come to understand what we wanted to accomplish as we
repeated our dialogue with them in each subsequent fieldwork, and
they did in fact accomplish more than we'd ever expected in the
end. Let me give you one example.
One big problem the
village was facing was food shortage. Crop productivity
was low because the soil was infertile and the people were too
poor to afford fertilizers. On top of that, they could
plant only once a year during the rainy season. Moreover,
owing to no irrigation water, they could hardly plant any crop
during the dry season from May through November. Further,
not only the quality of groundwater was bad but rain water and mud
would mix into the groundwater during the rainy season and there
had been outbreaks of cholera, diarrhea and other diseases.
In order to solve
this problem, we thought of digging deep wells with hand-pumps and
using them for both domestic water and irrigation. Supply of
safe water reduces the breakout of diseases derived from water on
the one hand, makes it possible to plant crops during the rainy
season by irrigation on the other. This idea gained complete
support form the people and thus was put to practice.
Construction of
wells was entrusted to local companies and altogether three wells
were built between January and April this year.
The study we did
during the trip this time was the first after the wells were built.
We were
both anxious and expectant to find out how the wells had been
used, whether or not crops had been planted during the dry season after all, etc.
However, when we saw what they had
done, we even thought that there was no more work left for us to
do.
[Trans.:
TS]
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They
cultivated communal fields beautifully and planted various
vegetables. Then, used the hand-pumps to pump water in
buckets, carried them on their heads to the fields, and irrigated
the vegetables diligently. And sold their harvest at markets
in their villages and earned more than three times what they had
paid for the seeds of the vegetables they grew.
There were several
other successful results, including establishment of farmers'
associations and group activities.
I learned a lot during
the three years of this study. There were many things that I
learned from the village people, too. The more things there
are to learn, the more ideas spring up. I am convinced that
the numerous times we communicated with the villagers led our study
to a success. Above all, it was great to see that people
in Africa (though there has been only this one case so far) could
unite and work together with wonderful cooperative spirit and
beautiful coordinated efforts, if the conditions were set right.
There still remain
some problems. They had no previous experience in irrigating,
for they had cultivated their crops dependent solely on rains during
the rainy season. As if they seem to think the more water they
give, the faster crops grow, they water small seedlings relentlessly
and excessively. As a result, their crops grow too long and
because of the excess humidity, become prone to diseases. The
physical labor required to pump water for irrigation and carry it to
the fields can also become quite substantive. It is possible
to reduce labor and prevent outbreaks of diseases at the same time,
it will take some time for them to learn it by experience.
When crops catch
diseases, agricultural chemicals become necessary. This is
another problem. During our stay this time, we provided them
with one agro-chemical sprinkler and though we demonstrated to
them its usage and instructions on its operation, we are still
worried. Agricultural chemicals can be purchased at a store in
a town about 20km away. However, the store clerks did not know
much about agro-chemicals. Besides, there were chemicals that
had no instructions written on the labels, or even if there were,
most of them were written in English. Almost nobody in the
village could read English. Moreover, there were those
agro-chemicals that were banned on use for potential health hazards
to human over 20 years ago in developed countries including Japan
still being sold. Although agricultural chemicals, which
are expensive to the farmers, are not something they could purchase
so often, we cannot deny the possibility that they become sick as a
result of sprinkling chemicals with the sprinkler we gave them.
We conveyed these
problems to the staff members at the local office of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Irrigations of Malawi, who had been cooperating with
our study all through the way, and have asked them to follow up on
them. It is most desirable that the people of Malawi
themselves be able to continue the development on their own even
after we are gone.
Development, after
all, is supposed to be an act to make human living convenient.
Yet, its methodology cannot be applied in the same way and equally
to everyone on earth. You must study and come to understand
the lives and culture of the people and the environment of the
target area, and at the same time, must identify and seek with them
the most suitable development.
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