Bucket list harvest for bulilima farmer: bucket irrigation saves the day for Somnene family

WHILE many farmers were mourning the late start of the rainy season and later the prolonged dry spell due to the El-Nino weather effect, a family from Bulilima District in Matabeleland South used buckets to water its Intwasa/Pfumvudza maize crop and the trick has worked perfectly well.

The family proved that crops planted under Intwasa/Pfumvudza just need little water to thrive until the next rains.

Like an oasis in a desert, the Masiza family field from Somnene area in Bulilima has a thriving maize crop. The family has in fact started selling green mealies to their neighbours who are busy planting due to the late start of the rainy season while others are replanting after their crops wilted due to the prolonged dry spell.

The family prepared its Intwasa/Pfumvudza plots early and planted with the first rains in October but there was a prolonged dry spell thereafter which resulted in most crops wilting.

It was during the prolonged dry spell that the Masiza family adopted an innovative drip irrigation using buckets as they do not have a conventional irrigation system. The bucket for each plant drip irrigation proved very effective as the family’s maize crop survived the prolonged dry spell.

The news crew visited the family which said it is overwhelmed by demand for green mealies from the locals as they seem to be the only ones with a thriving maize crop.

Their situation is in total contrast with what is obtaining in the fields of their neighbours who are either planting for the first time or replanting after their crops wilted.

Mrs Precious Masiza said they planted with the early rains in October but there was a prolonged dry spell later which forced them to drip irrigate using buckets.

“We planted this maize crop on October 6 and due to the prolonged dry spell later, we decided to drip irrigate using buckets. This is a gatshompo (Intwasa) crop and when we realised that the rains were not coming as we expected, we started watering the crops using buckets,” she said.

Mrs Masiza said the family has a borehole but does not have a conventional irrigation system hence was manually using buckets to drip irrigate its maize crop.

She said together with her five children, they collected water from the borehole using buckets and then drip irrigated their maize crop.

“Our maize crop as a result survived the prolonged dry spell hence we have this thriving crop which is almost mature. This is the first time that we have been forced to use buckets to drip irrigate and it has proved very effective,” said Mrs Masiza.

She said they are overwhelmed by the demand for green mealies from mostly locals as many families were either planting or replanting. They are selling a maize cob for R6.

One of the children, Nkosiphile (18) said this year’s good maize crop has inspired them to do more in future.

He however, said there is also a need to invest in irrigation infrastructure to boost production saying using buckets was labour intensive and as such they could only irrigate a small piece of land.

“Going forward we need to change from the bucket system to modern irrigation which is not labour intensive,” said Nkosiphile. Matabeleland South Agricultural Rural Development and Advisory Service (ARDAS) official Mr Mkhunjulelwa Ndlovu commended the family for their determination to harvest despite the erratic rains.

He said agronomists were encouraging farmers without irrigation systems to adopt bucket drip irrigation although the uptake has been very low.