• Irrigation is not just for small-scale farmers.

By Ernest Mwape –

ZAMBIAN agricultural crop production set-up undoubtedly heavily relies on the rain-fed production.
It goes with little or no debate at all because even those involved in other practices like livestock production, especially for the rural based pastoral farmers; rely on the rains as it is at this time of the year that pasture is abundant.
The usual practice amongst most farmers, especially those in the rural areas, is to hang up their farming tools during the dry season as they impatiently wait for the next rain drop from high heaven in the following rainy season.
It is against such a backdrop, that Government has put in deliberate policies to encourage farmers to continue crop production and indeed other farming practices such as livestock production and fish farming even during the dry season.
Irrigation in this case, cutely comes into place as a cardinal intervention in the promotion of agricultural production in the dry season and this is exactly what the current agricultural policy is promoting, among others.
To promote irrigation, especially amongst the small-scale farmers, the Government in partnership with the Japanese Government, through the Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA) is putting up community based weirs in selected areas of the Northern and Muchinga provinces.
The five year irrigation project covering the two provinces is meant to construct 19 weirs.
A weir is a small dam constructed across a stream to impound water for irrigation purposes and other related agricultural purposes like fish farming and indeed pasture production, among others.
Nakonde District’s Assistant Techncical Officer Martin Mwamba, who is attached to the project, says the project places itself in line with government’s agricultural policy of diversification.
He strongly believes the district team shall ensure that the project ultimately bears the intended fruits.
A study which was previously carried out by JICA in selected areas of Muchinga and Northern provinces reveals that by using temporal weirs for irrigation, farmers were able to increase production and in the process raised their profits after sales of their produce.
“This time around the intention is to up-grade these selected temporal weirs into permanent weirs which are likely to be more sustainable,” said Nobuaki Chiba,
JICA’s Facility Irrigation designer in an interview with the National Agricultural Information Services (NAIS) in Nakonde recently.
This year the project has approved the construction of two weirs in Muchinga province to be done in Nakonde and Mpika districts.
In Nakonde, the construction of the weir under the Musanza Community Irrigation project is already in progress in Mwenzo agricultural camp and is expected to be completed in November, 2015 and the actual site is about 30 km from Nakonde central.
The project, the first of its kind in the district, is initially targeting about 40 households within Musanza though the benefits are expected to spill over to the surrounding areas and even beyond Musanza.
The objective of the project is to create a solid base for community smallholder irrigation    specifically targeting the small-scale farmers so as to improve their livelihoods and ultimately reduce poverty levels.
Farmers are expected to make their community contribution through piling of sand and gathering of masonry stones for the purpose of constructing the weir.
Recently, Nakonde District Agricultural Co-ordinator Mwale Kasase, and his entourage visited the site to check on the progress of the weir construction.
Mr Kasase was impressed with the progress on the ground and urged the community on site to maintain the same pace in the construction works as the weir once completed would go a long way in improving the livelihood of the community in the area.
“You should seriously adopt the irrigation practice and consider it as a business agricultural venture. When there are no rains, kindly pick on irrigation as a way of continuity in agricultural production throughout the year,” Mr Kasase told the farmers at the site.
And speaking at the same event, Mr Mwamba urged farmers to include some activities in other agricultural disciplines so as to maximize the use of the weir.
Nakonde District’s Principal Fisheries Technician Elias Chipulu said the same weir could be used as a source of water to construct fish ponds as part of integrated fish farming.
“You should realise that natural water bodies in Nakonde are scarce and you can use this same weir to tap water for construction of fish ponds so that you maximize your profits in the process,” Mr Chipulu told the farmers.
He added that Matipa fish fingerling production centre was already in place within the same agricultural camp and farmers in Musanza could take advantage of the outlet to purchase their fingerlings at a minimal fee in the event that they chose to include fish farming on their agenda.
Musanza Irrigation Scheme Chairperson Yason Siame said the community was ready to ensure that the project becomes a success.
In the Meantime, an Agricultural Extension Officer James Simbeye, encouraged farmers to concentrate on irrigated crops as they fetched much more profit as compared to rain-fed crops.
“Try and move to agricultural activities which have few participants at a particular time so that you become few on the market and in the process make more profit after sales,” elaborated Mr Simbeye.
Mr Simbeye was working on the premise that during the rainy season almost every small-scale farmer gets involved in the cultivation of the cherished maize and other related agricultural products which ultimately push the selling prices to low levels as there are so many players on the market.
An example could be cited in the neighbouring Tanzanian town of Tunduma whose irrigation farmers make huge profits by selling irrigated green maize.
The projects being initiated by Government in conjunction with JICA are extremely cardinal, especially to small-scale farmers who have limited resources.
It can only be hoped that once they are left to the community, there will be continuity as such projects are meant to alleviate poverty, especially amongst the rural populace which are unfortunately still on the higher part.
This project, just like most other organised ones started with sensitisation so that the target group appreciates the importance of such a cardinal project.
It is interesting to note that, in line with the Participatory Extension Approach government is employing in the agricultural system, the community voluntarily got on board whilst the agricultural extension officers took on the part of facilitation.- NAIS