Editorial Comment: Channel more resources towards irrigation schemes

witnessed globally have resulted in a change in rainfall patterns and this has adversely affected crop production.
The permanent solution to this global challenge therefore is to grow crops under irrigation. A number of irrigation schemes were established before and after the country’s independence but unfortunately many of these are not operational because the infrastructure needs rehabilitation.
The country can only be guaranteed food security if the majority of farmers grow crops under irrigation as opposed to relying on dryland cultivation as is the case now. Communal farmers should have plots at irrigation schemes while new farmers that have been allocated farms should be assisted to establish irrigation schemes.
We want farmers to grow crops throughout the year as opposed to once a year. It is pleasing to note that Government continues to allocate resources for dam construction but the pace at which irrigation schemes are being established or rehabilitated is not encouraging. The announcement by the Government that the funding for the long-awaited Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project is about to be concluded should rekindle hopes for the establishment of the envisaged green belt stretching from Matabeleland North to Bulawayo.
The MZWP is made up of three components which are the Gwayi-Shangani Dam, the Gwayi-Shangani pipeline to Bulawayo and the Gwayi-Shangani pipeline to the Zambezi River. The Gwayi-Shangani pipeline to Bulawayo is expected to end the perennial water shortage problem for the country’s second largest city while at the same time providing irrigation water for communities in Hwange, Lupane, Nyamandlovu and other surrounding areas thereby creating a green belt right up to Bulawayo.
Speaking at the commemoration of the World Water Day held at Great Zimbabwe, Water Resources Development and Management Minister, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo said funding for the project from China’s Export and Import Bank was expected to be availed this year. The President, Cde Mugabe, at the same function announced that the construction of the Tokwe-Mukorsi Dam will be completed next year.
This dam and the MZWP are big projects that should make a huge impact on the country’s new thrust to put more hectares under irrigation. President Mugabe said it was critical in the short-term to fully exploit the country’s irrigation potential and combat extreme weather conditions created by climatic change by  adopting requisite technologies like drip irrigation. Desert countries such as Egypt and Israel have managed to grow even surplus food for export under irrigation because they have adopted new technologies such as drip irrigation.
Now that the implementation of the MZWP looks very certain, work on identifying land to establish irrigation schemes that will draw water from the pipeline should start now.
We want to once again implore Government and non-governmental organisations that have over the years complemented Government efforts to feed the people during drought years, to channel more resources towards establishing irrigation schemes as well as rehabilitation of those schemes that are not operational.
The issue of Government and NGOs feeding the people even in drought prone areas like Matabeleland could be a thing of the past once adequate irrigation schemes have been established.