adminFarming Matters
INCREASING crop productivity in arid and semi-arid communal areas is often regarded as a mammoth task due to a combination of highly erratic and low rainfalls and over used soils lacking in plant nutrients.
The peasant farmers in these possible-to-ignore and marginalised areas – often women and youths – are resource poor, have little support and their plight seldom touches anybody.
They are economically invisible and never feature on economic spread-sheets. They have very little access to community service, national programmes and even to the processes of democracy. Perennially, the peasants struggle to meet increasing demand for food and household income. That rains are erratic means food crops often wilt in the scorching heat before reaching maturity.
Their inability to gather together a more than marginal lifestyle has a discernable negative effect in that it diminishes their overall purchasing power as rural people.
More-so, these peasant farmers lack the requisite financial biceps to make the kind of long-term investments in productivity improvements that could catapult them out of poverty.
However, necessity is the mother of invention. Peasants in Munyuku Village, in Honde Valley, are a creative lot.
They have re-invented the wheel, working so hard to develop a micro-irrigation system, albeit a perforated resource base, into their marginal lands that in the past have been producing gains insufficient to cushion them from food and nutritional insecurity.
Without supplementary irrigation, the peasants could only produce one harvest a year – that is during the rain season. But for the more than 40 farmers that have coalesced under the auspices of Greenlands Co-operative, a variety of measures are being combined for them to reap more than one harvest a year. Greenlands Irrigation Project water-harvesting techniques allow concentration of available water where it is most needed and out of such better water management methods the farmers are able to optimise the use of this precious resource.
The initiative deserves a thumbs up and support to excel.
Apart from agricultural use, the water is used domestically.
The project is the brainchild and product of the sweat, tears and blood of the resource-poor Munyuku villagers.
Though the irrigation project coined in April 2013 was still at infancy, preliminary indications show that it has helped to improve food and nutritional security and income generation capacity of the farmers.
The farmers are into banana, coffee, beans, wheat, maize and potato production. To date the project covers 25 hectares and positively impacting nearly 520 beneficiaries.
The farmers envisage expanding the irrigable area to 40ha, but lack capacity and are appealing for support.
The farmers are appealing for financial and material assistance to improve access to water so that they could promote, protect their livelihoods and enhance commercial horticulture productivity, diversify food and income sources from gardens, orchards and fishery.
They will draw water from Nyapwizi River by pumping to a reservoir that is four kilometres away.
“The project is a true replica of economic empowerment blue print Zim-Asset. Initially it had 10 households, but as a result of mutual interest and unity in the area, the membership has increased to 40,” said the project chairperson, Mr Caleb Mareya.
From the holding tank, the water will be distributed in canals by gravity.
Households will then use 25mm pipes to divert water to their homesteads and gardens with the furthest homestead from the tank being 1 200m.
“We are looking for financial and material assistance to enable the community complete the development of this irrigation project. We need at least $30 000 to buy cement, pipes and panels for the construction of the canals.
Some of the things we have done on our own with the technical assistance from Agritex, the irrigation depart and Pungwe sub-catchment council.
“We have been granted the green light by Wattle Company to divert water from the river and a small dam is being constructed using cement, reinforcements, sand and stones,” added Mr Mareya.
The dam contains at least 180 cubic metres of water. The project’s operations are run by an elected committee.
The members utilise the plots/gardens which were allocated to them by the traditional leadership for commercial horticulture and subsistence agricultural purposes aimed at improving household income of the targeted vulnerable households.
The project mission is to improve the welfare of the poor through micro irrigation for the next 25 years.
Mr Mareya said there was evidence that crop yields in their region can be profitably increased and yield variation decreased with a combination of careful management of natural resources and low inputs of chemical fertilisers.
He said Munyuku Village was a less-favoured area, where there is an increasing demand for exploring such management practices for improving soil fertility and increasing crop production.
He added that Governments or donor agencies must create the conditions of security of tenure and food security, within which these resilient but marginalised people can maintain sustainable livelihoods for themselves.
“It is in the interest of all of us that Governments and donor agencies act now to help us the disadvantaged to help ourselves. We will also require technical support for the scheme so that we can increase production, productivity and nutritional quality of food, while preserving and enhancing the environment and local natural resources,” said Mr Mareya.
Mr Mareya argued that endless humanitarian relief is not the answer to their plight.
He said the irrigation initiative brings a permanent solution in ensuring food security in the drought-prone constituency and apart from ensuring household food security the scheme will also cough thousands of dollars into the economy as beneficiaries produce and sell the surplus.
He said there are market opportunities to fill the horticultural produce demand gap around Mutare, Rusape, Nyanga, Marondera, Harare and other Southern parts of Zimbabwe and export market.
The availability of affordable water and electricity are key components toward the increase in production at the scheme.
Zinwa should give the peasant farmers reprieve to produce the first crop and levy them later. There is no any other better head start than exemption.
The farmers must crack and maximise productivity. They must draw lesson from immediate past hardships and also jealously guard the critical equipment against vandalism.
Zimbabwe has capacity to irrigate 2 244 800 hectares.
Despite the existing enormous irrigation development potential in the country, only about 206 000ha is equipped, of which 150 000ha is currently under irrigation.
About 154 500ha fall in the commercial sub sector whilst 51 500ha fall in the communal sub sector.
The communal irrigation sector with a total equipped area of approximately 10 000ha is the most affected and vulnerable, having less than 65 percent of the schemes fully functional.
Zimbabwe is working hand-in-glove with irrigation experts from Israel, Brazil, India, China, Austria, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Belarus, Egypt, Iran and Italy.
Online Reporter