Much of Southern Africa is caught in a cycle of droughts and floods, making it very difficult to grow crops without an irrigation system in place. Swaziland, a small country sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique, is no exception, and its people often require food aid as a result.

To address this issue, IRD is helping communities in two provinces— Shiselweni and Lubombo—construct rainwater harvesting systems and increase farm yields through runoff farming water harvesting and conservation tillage techniques.

Fourteen schools are working with IRD to construct water catchment systems that will provide drinking water for students and the surrounding communities. At the same time, students are given lessons in proper hygiene and encouraged to wash their hands frequently in order to reduce the spread of disease. Over 300 teachers, community school committee members, borehole water committee members, and health activists have been trained to keep up these lessons after the project has finished.

IRD has trained nearly 700 farmers in conservation farming techniques for growing corn (the staple crop), including:

- Advantages of early planting as opposed to late planting;
- Differences between conventional and conservation methods of farming by indicating the affordability to all people to practice conservation farming; and
- Step-by-step method for field preparation for conservation farming.

Some of these farmers have also started small “backyard gardens” to grow crops other than corn, such as spinach, tomatoes, beets, onions, lettuce, cabbages, and carrots.
The total number of individuals affected in the targeted area is 75,000, and the total number of program beneficiaries is estimated to be 6,880.

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