The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
THE much-awaited opening of Pollards-Ilamba Irrigation Scheme in the drought-prone Bubi District in Matabeleland North Province has brought a glimpse of hope and prospects of improving food security and generating revenue at local households.
Plans to come up with the irrigation scheme were mooted more than a decade ago but efforts to start the agricultural project have been delayed due to lack of adequate funding from the Government over the years.
The 45-hectare Pollards-Ilamba Irrigation Scheme is home to 108 farmers, mostly elderly women and widows. Cropping activities at the scheme started last year, with members cropping 12 hectares of maize each. Most of the members realised meaningful yields from their allotted plots and the grouping is optimistic of a bumper harvest in the near future.
“Last year we put 12 hectares under maize and through the yields we realised from the project, most of us managed to sell the green mealies and generated revenue to pay school fees for our children and even had surplus to improve our homes as well as our household food security.
“We had one woman who managed to get as much as $500 while another one managed to start a thriving poultry project and has since managed to buy a car from the proceeds she realises from selling chickens, which is a very big achievement for a rural folk. We anticipate that this scheme will play a big part in improving our livelihoods,” said the irrigation scheme’s chairperson, Ms Auntillah Ncube.
The scheme’s members are expecting to harvest their second crop of maize at the end of this month including a hectare of beans which was cropped for experimental purposes.
Ms Ncube, however, said the scheme was faced with a challenge of drawing water to irrigate their crops from the nearby Pollards dam as its canal irrigation system had numerous leaks which affected efficient water flow.
“Our canal has numerous leaks and as a result it loses a lot of water and we also have one (Department of Agricultural and Technical Extension Services) Agritex extension officer who lives about 10 kilometres from the scheme. Our plea was to have him resident near the scheme so that we can always seek her services timeously. We also need a storeroom to house our yields and farming implements,” said Ms Ncube.
Department of Irrigation Matabeleland North provincial chief engineer Charles Makhula said there was a need for the scheme’s members to work on improving productivity.
“There is a need for the farmers to intensify production. We appreciate that they are on a learning curve and need to be assisted on the extension services side of things but we also realise that our extension officers are not fully capacitated thus there is a need to train them because we are having a situation whereby they are teaching farmers while they also need to be taught,” he said.
Eng Makhula said in the long run there was a need for the scheme to shift from using the canal system for irrigating and adopt latest irrigation system technologies.
“We also encourage them to adhere to their constitution and by-laws as this will be a cornerstone of their association. In future there will be a need for them to invest in drilling boreholes as the dam which they are drawing water from will be overwhelmed by the growth of the rural centre. They will also need to change their irrigation from the current canal system to a modern one like the centre pivot which will require them to farm as one group or company,” he said.
Speaking at the official commissioning of the scheme recently Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko said there was a need for the scheme’s members to do away with the concept of allocating each other small plots but endeavour to crop the entire field as an association.
“The concept of coming up with an irrigation scheme was very good but I don’t go along with the idea of apportioning each other small pieces of land and individual farming. This whole 45 hectares should be put under one crop and harvested for the members who will be shareholders of the company with them sharing the revenue obtained from the venture,” said VP Mphoko.
However, what cannot be taken away from the irrigation scheme is this could be an example of what the country needs to adopt in the wake of unpredictable rainfall patterns which have resulted in recurrent droughts.
