Hopes high at Redwood irrigation

31 Jan, 2016 - 00:01 0 Views
Hopes high at Redwood irrigation Hose-reel irrigators

The Sunday News

Hose-reel irrigators

Hose-reel irrigators

Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
THE farming equipment acquired by the Government under the $98 million 15-year loan facility provided by Brazil to support small-scale farmers has raised hope for farmers at Redwood Vukusebenze Irrigation Scheme in Umguza District, Matabeleland North Province of enhancing their household food security and revenue generation.

Farmers at the 60-hectare irrigation scheme have been struggling to crop the entire field since the inception of the project in 2004, largely due to lack of equipment but since benefiting from the farming implements under the South American country’s More Food Africa programme the prospects of fully utilising their land and attaining optimum yield from their crops is within sight.

The irrigation scheme which is home to 25 members was allocated three tractors, a horse reel, two planters, two disc harrows and a plough.

“The equipment we received from the Government has brought joy among irrigation members as we are now focusing on cropping the entire scheme. Over the years we have been utilising a quarter of this land due to lack of adequate equipment. We used donkeys or oxen for draught power or hired a tractor from our neighbouring commercial farmers. This year we anticipate a famine thus we have already started using the equipment to crop maize and we are assured that our members will enhance their food security,” said the scheme’s chairman, Mr Vusa Mpala.

Through use of the Brazilian equipment the farmers cropped 14 hectares in the first week of January and are looking forward to harvesting in March.

“We recently applied chemicals to get rid of the weed and now we are in the process of spraying the crop because we want to control stalk borers.

“As members we have also pulled together our financial resources and purchased two submersible pumps to effectively and efficiently draw water from the source to the irrigation scheme,” Mr Mpala said.

He said the main threat against their targets was continuous power cuts by Zesa owing to a debt of $15 000, which has accumulated over the years.

“Zesa has been cruel to us imagine about five years ago it cut our supplies and we lost four hectares of wheat that was about to mature due to moisture stress as there wasn’t electricity to draw water recently we lost two hectares of potatoes due to unavailability of electricity for over a month but we were made to believe that there was a fault,” Mr Mpala said.

Most of the produce realised which include maize and wheat as well as horticultural products such as butternuts, tomatoes, onions, potatoes and carrots from the irrigation scheme is marketed in Bulawayo.

Department of Irrigation and Development Matabeleland North Provincial Chief Engineer Charles Makhula expressed satisfaction at the developments at Redwood Irrigation Scheme adding that the thriving maize crop planted after the installation of the irrigation equipment late last year was an indication that farmers had the ability to enhance viability at their enterprises if they have adequate resources.

“The crop at Redwood is wonderful and we are looking forward to other schemes emulating what the farmers there are doing.

“So far we are in the process of installing irrigation equipment at the last three remaining schemes,” Chief Eng Makhula said.

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