adminTHE 2014-15 farming season can be aptly described as a catastrophe given the high magnitude of crop failure and looming food shortages. We hope that as the intense dry period continues afflicting our crops and livestock, it does not eventually degenerate into a famine. As things stand, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. The bulk of the crops have been written off before maturity and soon animals are likely to perish.
The eventual results are enhanced losses and destruction of the source of revenue for people.
Our major undoing is reliance on rain-irrigated agriculture. This is despite the fact that our seasons are being characterised by limited and unreliable rainfall that is concentrated during a short rainy season with the remaining period tending to be relatively or absolutely dry.
The increased climate unpredictability and the effects of atmospheric temperature increases has significantly contributed to shifts, intensity and frequency of extreme floods and drought in Zimbabwe.
Why then, despite highly variable and in many cases insufficient rainfall and a high incidence of droughts, does our food production in Zimbabwe remain entirely rain-fed? Why is irrigation not playing a significant role in our agriculture?
Why do we talk of irrigation development and at the same time continue being plagued by droughts of high proportion? Are we ignorant of research which proves that irrigated crop yields are double or more comparable to rain-fed yields?
Irrigation development should be considered an important cornerstone for agricultural development in Zimbabwe.
In Zimbabwe, irrigation has the potential to boost agricultural productivity by at least 50 percent. Zimbabwe has the capacity to irrigate 2 244 800 hectares, but despite this enormous irrigation development potential, only about 206 000ha is equipped, of which a paltry 150 000ha is currently irrigating.
Of this, 154 500ha fall in the commercial subsector, while 51 500ha fall in the communal sub-sector. The communal irrigation sector with a total equipped area of approximately 100 000ha is the most affected and vulnerable having less than 65 percent of the schemes fully functional.
The 2005 Commission for Africa report, for example, called for a doubling of the area of irrigated arable land by 2015. Reliable irrigation improves crop yields, makes multi-cropping possible, enables smallholders to cultivate high-value crops and provides year-round farm employment.
Since about 70 percent of our poor live in rural areas and mostly depend on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihood, irrigation development is the key to poverty eradication. A switch to irrigated agriculture could have huge implications for these smallholder farmers who can triple their food production by pumping their own water. This would introduce the stability they need to settle in one place, allowing them to earn a reliable income, feed their families and educate their children.
Irrigation has many benefits, the major one being that the overall crop yields will likely increase with the use of irrigation. This is because cultivation can go on all year round and is not limited to specific periods of the year.
Experts even estimate that Africa may attain its millennium development goals of being self-sufficient, reduce poverty and promote economic growth through irrigation development.
It is against this background that we applaud the move by Japan to rehabilitate irrigation infrastructure at Nyakomba Irrigation Scheme in Nyanga and further expand the scheme by 143ha. Nyakomba, which measures up to 430ha, was established with the assistance from Japan from 1997 to 2000 but was damaged by Cyclone Eline and since then it has been operating below capacity.
We also call for the speedy development of the $198 million irrigation scheme around Osborne Dam which will cover 10 000 hectares of land stretching between Odzi and Nyazura.
For thousands of poor families, access to irrigation obviously makes the difference between hunger and a full belly, a well-nourished child and one stunted by malnutrition and a productive livelihood and one mired in poverty.
Online Reporter