Maravi

(HERALD) Irrigation scheme pays dividends

Irrigation scheme pays dividends
By Obert Chifamba

WITH more than 90 percent of plot holders at Dotito Irrigation Scheme earning an average monthly income of between US$200 and US$300 from the sale of their vegetables and other horticulture products, the relevance of formal employment is fast diminishing in the eyes of most Ward 9 residents.

Dotito Irrigation Scheme is among numerous projects that Vice President Joice Mujuru has been instrumental in forming in Mashonaland Central Province and has 93 households who have half-a-hectare each of irrigated land.

Irrigation water is drawn from the nearby Dotito Dam while the irrigation equipment was all sourced by the VP with the aim of improving the socio-economic realities of the people in her constituency.

"The establishment of the scheme was also borne out of the need to atone for the province’s failure to provide adequate land for the resettlement programme, which was implemented to economically empower the people, help resuscitate industry and re-build the economy," Senator for Mt Darwin South, North and West constituencies, Alice Chimbudzi said.

Senator Chimbudzi also indicated that VP Mujuru had secured two tractors, ploughs, disc harrows, generators and reappers and she also linked them with a company called Exhort, which deals with fresh horticulture produce.

Besides securing markets for the farmers, VP Mujuru also took some of the participants on an exchange visit to Chimanimani in Manicaland Province where similar horticulture projects are in operation. The farmers produce fine beans, potatoes, baby corn, baby marrow and gooseberries to name just a few.

It is also within VP Mujuru’s long term plans to construct a grading shed and install refrigeration equipment like cold rooms and pack rooms for the safe storage of the produce before farmers can send it to the markets, Senator Chimbudzi added.

The establishment of the scheme has had widespread ripple effects on the immediate community with enterprising producers engaging other less privileged members of society and paying them either in cash or kind.

The scheme has turned out to be a major source of income and employment for many families in Dotito while the issue of perennial food shortages has also suffered a silent and sudden death.

"We can now afford to have two meals a day, adequately provide for our families and even extend a helping hand to others who are not part of the scheme by employing them," a member of the project, Nyasha Mutyambizi said.

Idleness among the youths has also been reduced to a minimum as many now commit most of their time to tending their crops, seeking markets and holding fruitful farming discussions and experts and farmers alike.

Mutyambizi is one of the producers who have enjoyed a fairy tale run in their operations and have significantly changed their lifestyles for the better. Some have even managed to buy cattle and boast of being among the first to adopt the use of the multiple currencies courtesy of their trading partner, Exhort.

Initially, the farmers received input handouts, as they did not have adequate capital to buy from their own savings but most of them are now managing to spare enough from their sales to secure inputs.

Sadly, they have since parted ways with Exhort after a series of misunderstandings over alleged poor produce prices offered by the company. This development could have spelt doom for the farmers, the majority of whom do not know much about the marketing and exporting of horticultural produce had it not been for the timely arrival of Trans Zambezi Industries to replace Exhort.

The arrival of TZI saw almost all of the farmers, even those who had remained loyal to Exhort sever ties with their first trading partner and switch to TZI, who are offering better prices.

A host of other operational and logistical problems have since checked the impetus of the farmers. Just recently, the main pipe that draws water from the dam was vandalised leaving them unable to irrigate their crops for they needed to hire divers to do the repair works under the water, which proved very costly and beyond their means.

Once again the farmers turned to VP Mujuru for help and the problem was subsequently rectified giving them the leeway to resume operations.

But the struggle is not over yet. The irrigation pipes are grossly inadequate as each farmer may sometimes endure waiting for more than 12 days before her turn to have the pipes.

"Rotational irrigation tends to frustrate the farmers as they need to produce crops within very short periods of time and sell to generate income for the purchase of more inputs and fund the production of fresh crops," said Garikai Chipunza.

He is a resident technician with the Department of Irrigation in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development tasked with assisting the farmers in the general management and use of irrigation facilities.

Just like Agritex, his department has decided to have a resident extension agent on the site to give the farmers technical advice.

The majority of the farmers come from a smallholder and communal background and grew traditional food crops like maize and groundnuts only.

Their romance with delicate horticulture cash crops is still fragile and therefore calls for lots of technical guidance to meet the quality standards that both local and international consumers demand, Chipunza explained.

He said at the moment farmers have had to make do with 270 pipes and 150 sprinklers since the establishment of the scheme in 2007, a situation that could be improved if the number of pipes could be raised to 800. At the moment each farmer is allocated eight hours of irrigation time before passing on the pipes to the next.

The shortage of pipes aside, the project has been grappling with very high electricity bills, which until recently had been seesawing in the region of US$800 or more per month. The figures only dropped to below US$200 last month. And this has given the farmers a ray of hope, as they can easily pool resources and settle the bills without fears of any losses.

And the next thing the farmers want to see happening to their project is to have a fence erected right round to protect crops from marauding livestock. Of course some have already started erecting fences to protect their source of livelihood.

"The cost of 800 metres of barbed wire rolled into a bundle is currently in the region of USD130 or more, which makes it a bit difficult for us to mobilise funds for the purchase of adequate fence to secure the entire project," one of the beneficiaries said.

Of course the farmers may find it hard to go it alone but the redeeming reality is that most of them are on the verge of becoming self-reliant.

They can adequately feed and provide for their families. Their economic reality has vastly improved, thanks to the altruism of the VP.

Labels: AGRICULTURE, DOTITO IRRIGATION SCHEME, IRRIGATION, JOICE MUJURU

posted by MrK @ 12:19 PM