Despite the strong emphasis on irrigation development in Southern Africa, different initiatives from technology developers, policy developers and development organizations to encourage water transport technology adoption have often been disappointing. The lack of long-term success can partly be contributed to a mismatch between farmer realities and technology packages, national irrigation management and development aid policies. In order to better design and promote adoption of water transport technology alternatives, it is important to create a clearer understanding of the full spectrum in which farmers operate and make farming and investment decisions. This study therefore analyses the diversity in decision-making variables influencing the adoption of water transport technologies, and considers the implications for policy & technology developers, researchers and development facilitators. Following the Q-methodology, four different factors of participants with respective sorting characteristics were identified. Thereafter the study reviews how conventional ways of grouping farmers in policy and development programs hold up against the statistically formed factors. The results show that the definitions used in the conventional way of grouping are inadequate in dealing with the subjectivity surrounding adoption of water transport technologies in Malawi. With this new appreciation for the heterogeneity of farmers comes an understanding that technologies, policies and programmes must move away from the traditional one-size-fits-all approaches to more targeted, tailor-made approaches that are more likely to facilitate efficient, sustainable and long-term uptake of water transport technologies. Policies and technology packages do not have to be tailor-made on individual scale, but should recognize the idea that there are many different kinds of farmers that base their decision-making on different variables. Recognizing this and translating it into contextualized support and technology packages can more effectively encourage uptake of water transport technology by farmers. Also, the study shows that Q-methodology can act as an useful tool to better understand farmer decision-making, feeding policy and technology discussions and development. The research seeks to contribute towards the understanding of farmer decision-making and improved action around implementation of water transport systems.

This study investigates the many dynamics of the Manyame Catchment and comes up with recommendations on how to adapt or become more resilient to the risks at hand. The bad politics and forthcoming economic situation of Zimbabwe has led to instability and dramatic inflation over the last decade. This has resulted in a terrible investment climate, limited aid received from foreign countries and an outflow of educated population. Exploitation of water resources by industries, mines and urban centres located close to the rivers resulted in a decline in the quality and quantity of the environment. Especially the Manyame River Catchment, that supplies the capital Harare and flows north into the Zambezi, has been greatly affected. The catchment suffers from several pollution sources such as agriculture, mining, industrial dumps and wastewater inflow. Poor management and the deterioration of the drinking water supply and sanitation infrastructure has led to the recent outbreak of cholera. Although the Manyame Catchment has enough water, another main issue is the spatial distribution of its water resources. In some areas there are dams, but no farmers to utilize the water. In other areas farmers are desperate for water, but don’t receive any. The increasing dry spells due to climatic changes, has had disastrous effects for the non-irrigating smallholder farmers dependent on their maize production for survival, while floods created by the backwater curve from the Cahora Bassa Dam in the Lower Manyame sub-catchment have washed away the livestock, crops and infrastructure on the fertile areas in the flood plains. The situation stresses for better awareness, monitoring and guardance of the water resources. This will provide information for improvements in the planning, policy and management of water resources. Although the history of Zimbabwean governance would suggest it is purely acting on crisis management, proactive planning would be preferable to the alternative; to wait for the aquifers to dry up only for people to realize the real value of water.