Deputy Minister of Lands Deus Gumba has expressed satisfaction with the on-going customary land registration exercise at the Shire Valley Transformation Programme (SVTP) in Chikwawa and Nsanje districts.
Gumba expressed his satisfaction on Saturday at SVTP construction site in Chikwawa where he and other officials from the Ministry of Lands went to evaluate the land registration exercise.
The deputy Minister Gumba said the exercise which is in-line with recently amended Customary Land Act will help to empower local communities and citizens to hold and own land.
“The process of registering land in Shire Valley is critical to the SVTP as it will help secure land for farmers who are in the process of consolidating their land for commercial farming. This will help them to operate effectively as cooperatives,” said Gumba
According to SVTP Communications Officer, Alice Kaunda, over 46,000 parcels of land have been adjudicated and demarcated in the first phase of the project which covers 52 kilometres.
Shire Valley Transformation Programme (SVTP) is a Government of Malawi programme under the Department of Irrigation which is expected to construct an irrigation scheme in the Shire valley.
SVTP will irrigate 43,370 hectares of land by abstracting water from the Shire River at Kapichira Dam and conveying it by gravity to the irrigable area in Chikwawa and Nsanje Districts through canals.
 in Chikwawa and Nsanje districts.){kind=link}