adminZIMBABWE has received $12 million from the European Union (EU) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC), for the rehabilitation of more than 20 small holder irrigation schemes in three provinces across the country, an official has revealed.
EU and SDC provided $6 million each.
Director of Irrigation Development in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Dr Conrade Zawe told Sunday News last week that the funding was a timely boost to the country’s efforts to increase food security.
Most parts of the country, particularly the Southern region, are facing droughts as most crops have failed owing to erratic rainfall received this summer cropping season.
Dr Zawe said 28 small holder irrigation schemes in Matabeleland South, Manicaland and Masvingo had been targeted to benefit from the rehabilitation exercise which will be undertaken in conjunction with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Ten smallholder irrigation schemes will be rehabilitated in Matabeleland South, another ten in Manicaland province and eight in Masvingo province.
River Ranch, Kwalu, Jalukanga and Bili irrigation schemes in Beitbridge district, Shashane, Valley and Mbembeswane in Matobo district, Tshankwa and Moza in Bulilima and Tuli-Lushonkwe in Gwanda are the irrigation schemes that have been selected for rehabilitation in Matabeleland South.
Dr Zawe said the rehabilitation exercise which will include replacement of obsolete pumps and pipes, fencing and levelling fields, aims at increasing productivity in small holder irrigation schemes as well as improving food security in the country.
“The money will go a long way in assisting us to resuscitate infrastructure at the irrigation schemes that we have targeted. Most of these irrigation schemes were either operating below capacity or were not functional at all because of obsolete infrastructure.
“Rehabilitation of irrigation schemes will obviously take us a step further in our efforts to increase food security in the country, especially at a time when the country did not get enough rains.
“The summer crop failed in most parts but however, there were enough rains to fill dams. In such a scenario irrigation will be the way to go, which is why we are making efforts to resuscitate irrigation schemes around the country,” he said.
At the beginning of the year Government allocated $10 million to the Agriculture Ministry for the rehabilitation of small holder irrigation schemes in the country and 25 irrigation schemes around the country were set to benefit.
This would put to $22 million, money that has been set aside for rehabilitation of irrigation schemes and 53 the number of irrigation schemes to be rehabilitated countrywide.
Some of the small holder irrigation schemes that are already undergoing rehabilitation courtesy of the $10 million availed by Government include Nyanyadzi and Nenhowe in Manicaland which measure a collective 1000 hectares , Hama-Mavhaire and Mhende in Chirumanzu district which measure 100 and 73 hectares respectively and Chimwe-Chegato in Mberengwa which measures 95 hectares.
Dr Zawe said his department had so far rehabilitated about 20 percent of the targeted small holder schemes under the Government funded programme.
“What we are trying to do is to ensure that we increase productivity in small holder farmers. We want those irrigation schemes to become the hub of the country’s agricultural activity.
From the $10 million that was set aside by Government we have so far covered 20 percent of the work that we target to do and it is still work in progress. This $12 million will obviously increase our capacity and will see us rehabilitating more irrigation schemes around the country.
“In Masvingo where we have rehabilitated two irrigation schemes so far we now expect to rehabilitate about 80 percent of the small holder irrigation schemes there.
In Manicaland we expect 70 percent of the schemes to be fully operational after we complete our rehabilitation exercise and in Matabeleland we are targeting 50 percent irrigation schemes to be fully operational,” he said.
Dr Zawe revealed that his department was also targeting to increase land under small holder irrigation to 6 000 hectares from 3 500 hectares by end of this year.
He said that plans were afoot for the setting up of silos at various irrigation schemes around the country to store grain as government steps up efforts to improve food security in areas that are often affected by drought.
“Like I said before our main target is to turn small holder irrigation schemes into the country’s agricultural hub. We have plans to set up silos at various irrigation schemes to store grain either harvested at the schemes or brought from the northern part of the country where the rains are good.
All we want is to improve food security in the country,” he said.
Climate change experts have suggested irrigation as the panacea to drought due to erratic rainfall patterns being experienced in Sub Saharan Africa where food production has been predicted to decline by 50 percent by 2050 owing to effects of climate change.
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