Irrigation can raise farmers’ income by 500% - ZNFU

Irrigation can raise farmers’ income by 500% - ZNFU
By Mutale Kapekele
Tue 16 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT

LOCAL farmers will increase their incomes by 500 per cent if they build irrigation systems, a senior official of the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) has said.

ZNFU head of outreach member services Coillard Hamusimbi said if farmers could build irrigation systems and produce crops like tomato and green maize all year round, their incomes would greatly improve.

“If a farmer grows tomatoes all year round by building irrigation systems, they will have 500 per cent more income than when they depend on rain,” Hamusimbi said. “If they grow green maize, they will have 250 per cent more income than when they sell dry maize.”

He said irrigation farming would guarantee food security and improve household incomes for many small-scale farmers. He also disclosed that ZNFU has partnered with Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) to help local farmers access funds to build irrigation systems.

Hamusimbi said following the collapse of the Irrigation Development Fund (IDF), which the government set up in 2007, farmers in the country had problems in writing proper business proposals, which would enable them to access funds from CEEC.

“We didn’t want to make farmers special when it comes to the CEEC funds,” Hamusimbi said.

“They have to follow CEEC guidelines. We noticed that proposals from our farmers to the CEEC were taking long to be reviewed and accessed, so we agreed to work with CEEC and they have written to us and as we speak, a technical committee is being instituted to specifically look at irrigation projects.”

He said the committee would include officials from the ministry of agriculture, ZNFU, CEEC and the private sector.

Hamusimbi said the move would help farmers to come up with viable irrigation projects and the committee would also help farmers to focus on production and marketing of their produce.

“As a union ZNFU, we will filter potential projects and this will help to ensure that irrigation projects are part of those that the CEEC will give money,” he said.

“The committee will evaluate and select projects before they are passed on. This will not just help improve the quality of projects but also increase on the number of farmers applying because now they will have people to assist them with the paper work which has kept most of them from applying for funds from the CEEC.”

He said ZNFU would use its local structures in the districts to identify farmers that had potential for irrigation projects.

Hamusimbi also urged farmers to be business minded if they were to progress from small scale to commercial farmers.

“If the CEEC defied business projects just to accommodate farmers who were not business minded, then they will fail,” he said.

“If a farmer is business minded and they are given funds for irrigation, immediately the benefits will be seen because their production will improve and their marketing as well because they will not just irrigate but also find the market.”

Hamusimbi said this needs to improve as many small- scale farmers lived in areas where there were plenty of water sources.

“Empowering the small scale farmer with irrigation will greatly improve farming in general and reduce our country’s poverty to minimum levels,” said Hamusimbi. “As a union we can’t wait to see that day!”

The multi million US dollar IDF was introduced in 2007 to improve productivity of the farmers but was later moved to the CEEC after the formation of the commission.