The Sunday News
Johnsias Mutonhori, Mildands Correspondent
AT least 6 100 hectares of irrigation schemes, mostly in communal areas will be rehabilitated in four provinces this year as part of improving food production.
A total of 2 000 hectares are set to be completed by the mid year, an official has said.
The rehabilitation exercise is being done through the Smallholder Irrigation Agriculture Revitalisation (SIRP) programme, which is also being funded by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD).
SIRP programme coordinator Mr Odreck Mukorera said they were working on smallholder irrigation schemes in Manicaland, Masvingo, Matabeleland South and Midlands.
“The programme is being implemented mainly in four provinces of the country which are Manicaland, Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland South.
The main objective is to rehabilitate 6 100 hectares of irrigation schemes in the communal areas of these four provinces.
Some irrigation schemes are complete and some are partially functioning, some have got dilapidated infrastructure.
Basically on that aspect we’re looking at bringing to life all that infrastructure so that all farmers irrigate more efficiently and more sustainably,” he said.
Mr Mukorera also said the programme is also targeting to capacitate farmers on the whole value chain of farming as a business.
“There’s the second aspect of the programme that we call Climate Smart Agriculture and Market Access where we say, after rehabilitating irrigation schemes we need to make sure that they are sustainable.
This is because there are other reasons why farmers fail, which is not necessarily all due to infrastructure, but some softer issues ranging from the leadership, governance and types of crops they are growing.
“Are farmers really going to make money out of those crops and where are they going to get markets after producing whatever they are producing.
So we are trying to organise that side so that they produce for a market, they produce profitably and they are taught how to run farming as a business and that’s a significant and important component that our efforts will see benefits streaming to these communities,” he said.
Mr Mukorera confirmed that they have managed to rehabilitate 1 000 hectares out of 6 100 hectares to date and hope to double by July this year.
“So far, 1 000 hectors we rehabilitated are now irrigating and we are hoping that by July we’ll be able to complete 2 000 hectors because we have contracts running in the provinces.”
He said the programme will also fund the training of farmers on managing farming as a business.
“We also figure out that small holder farmers have a problem of organisation.
So we are trying to address these issues starting from the leadership.
We are training the leaders on how to manage conflicts.
If they are not capacitated to manage conflicts, a simple thing can trigger a snow-bow effect.
Where the whole scheme can be crippled because of small things.”
In Midlands, the programme has seen the rehabilitation of Mayorca Irrigation Scheme.
The rehabilitation process of Mayorca comprises of the installation and electrification of two pumping units on a pontoon, installation of 480m of PVC line, installation of 315kva transformer, erection of a boundary fence, while five double leaf gates and five pedestrian gates were also erected.
This has turned 76 subsistence farmers into commercial farmers where each farmer is entitled an acre of land under irrigation.
