Kenya: Lower Nzoia River Irrigation Project Works Begin

The Kenyan authorities have recently started work on the lower Nzoia River irrigation project site after more than a year's delay. The work, costing a total of 7 billion shillings ($70 million), was awarded to China's hydroelectric engineering and construction company, Sinohydro, which was selected in 2017.

The work will consist of the development and rehabilitation of an existing dyke on the Nzoia River, as well as building another 35 km long dyke.

The Lower Nzoia Irrigation Project also includes the construction of a concrete diversion weir, a 135 m connecting channel and a 2.7 km channel. Funding is provided by Kenya’s central government, with the support of the World Bank.

It is a project that will protect the populations of Siaya and Busia counties from “persistent flooding”, and it will be crucial for local agriculture, especially fruit cultivation. The cultivation of cereals such as rice will be the highlight of this agriculture. Farmers in the Rift Valley will be able to alternate this water-intensive crop with soya beans.

The Kenyan government also estimates that the exploitation of the waters of the Nzoia River will be a springboard for the extension of the area of irrigated plantations by more than 4,000 hectares. At present, the irrigated plantations in the project area have an area of less than 1,000 hectares. In the near future, the government also plans to set up a rice-processing plant in the region.

The actual start of work on the Lower Nzoia Irrigation Project, however, is the result of intense negotiations between the central government and the people affected by the project in Trans-Nzoia County, who were claiming 1.2 billion Kenyan shillings (close to $12 million) in compensation. Their opposition to the project caused a delay of more than a year. The government eventually gave in to their demands.

Full article...

Giant Dam Project, Irrigated Sugar Plantations Disrupt Ethiopian Communities

A giant dam and irrigated sugar plantations are “wreaking havoc” in southern Ethiopia and threaten to wipe out tens of thousands of indigenous peoples , a US-based thinktank has claimed. The Oakland Institute says that while the Ethiopian government has made considerable progress on human rights under prime minister Abiy Ahmed, it has yet to address the impact of state development plans on indigenous populations in the lower Omo valley, where people face loss of livelihoods, starvation, and violent conflict .

Acute hunger is now widespread, the organisation said in a report, due to blockage of the Omo River by Gibe III, Africa’s tallest dam. Since late 2015, the dam has stopped the river’s annual flood, a natural event that the valley’s inhabitants have relied upon for centuries for farming. As a result, entire communities have been tipped into destitution.

Responding to the report, Seleshi Bekele, Ethiopia’s minister of water, irrigation and electricity , said that while the government accepts there are problems, “the points raised in the paper are not properly documented or balanced.” Seleshi said solutions had been put in place to mitigate the impact of the dam, including small-scale irrigation and outgrower schemes.

According to the report, however, such promises have not materialised. Moreover, said the study, communities claim they were tricked into leaving their ancestral land in order to make way for sugar plantations built by the Ethiopian Sugar Corporation as part of its mammoth Omo-Kuraz sugar development project (OKSDP). The project, a 100,000 hectare (247,000 acre) irrigated agricultural scheme, is fed by the waters of the Omo.

Indigenous populations were told the sugar plantations would bring hundreds of thousands of new jobs to the region. They were pressed to give up nomadic livestock-herding and adopt sedentary lifestyles, as part of the Ethiopian government’s controversial “villagisation” programme, which has since been halted. Some were threatened with having their cattle seized or killed by police.

The report alleges that resettlement sites are not big enough to feed families, and that promised services – schooling, healthcare, grinding mills, food aid, and electricity – either remain undelivered or have been woefully inadequate. Only a small percentage of new jobs have materialised, with a large majority given to migrant workers from other regions of Ethiopia.

Seleshi countered that the Sugar Corporation had spent 79m Ethiopian birr (US$ 2.7m; June 2019) constructing infrastructure and social services in the valley, including schools and health centres.

This is Oakland’s fourth report on South Omo. In 2013 it accused the Ethiopian government of using killings, beatings and rapes in order to force indigenous communities to accept the sugar cane projects. It also accused western aid agencies of covering up evidence of the abuses. Other international groups such as Human Rights Watch and Survival International have also condemned the government for abuses in South Omo in the past.

Yet there are some signs of a change in approach. At an April seminar on South Omo’s livelihood challenges,  government minister Seyoum Mesfin told visiting academics and journalists that the new government recognised certain “development interventions in the pastoralist areas … came with a cost.” The minister ... and added that the government “will not allow a repeat of those situations”.

Full article...

Zimbabwe Sugarcane Output Up 3rd Year In A Row

Zimbabwe sugar output to reach 500 000 metric tonnes this year, surpassing 2018’s 460 000 tonnes.

The Commercial Sugar Producers Association (CSPA) said members had initially projected to increase production from 95 tonnes per hectare to 97 tonnes but had since reviewed the figure upwards to over 100 tonnes.

Sugar milling company Tongaat Hulett has projected a productivity increase of from 15 tonnes per hectare to 120 tonnes per hectare.

The developments are partly attributed to increased irrigation capacity from full dams, despite the rest of Zimbabwean agriculture suffering from the effects of a crippling 2018/19 drought.

Sugar is second to tobacco in Zimbabwe’s foreign currency earnings from agriculture.

Tongaat Hulett, the South African firm, produces about 80 percent of the total sugar production while 20 percent is produced by private farmers. It produces from its plantations in Hippo Valley and Triangle.

At least 65 percent of the produced sugar is for domestic use while the rest is for export.

Before the land reforms of the year 2000, sugar cane production was a sole preserve for Tongaat Hulett.

CAJ News

German agricultural concern invests US$25 million on Zambian dams

German company, Amatheon is constructing two dams at a cost of over US$25 million to boost farming activities through irrigation in the Mumbwa area of Zambia. The two dams Abba and Katanga, are expected to be fully operational by 2016/17, respectively.


Amatheon Agri Group founder and chief executive officer Carl Heinrich Bruhn said the total investment for Abba dam is over US$15.6 million while Katanga cost is US$10.6 million. Bruhn said Katanga is a joint venture between Amatheon Agri Zambia and Toyota Tsusho Corporation with intentions to develop 2,700 hectares of land for cropping of maize, wheat and soya beans while Abba is part of a farming bloc expansion to develop 10,000 hectares for irrigation farming as well as cattle ranching and rain-fed cropping.

Amatheon operates projects in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Uganda. 


African Agriculture

Ghana: cocoa drip irrigation to combat dry conditions?

 Cocoa is an important crop to the Ghanaian economy, but changing weather patterns that threaten reliable yields are a worry.

Tony Fofie, chief executive officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board, has suggested that drip irrigation is being considered as a recourse, to reduce dependence on rain..

 “The rainfall patterns have actually changed, we risk losing cocoa in periods of drought. We are looking at sinking boreholes within very large farms where we can have drip irrigation for the plants,” he said.

Cocoa production for 2012/13 is forecast at 800,000 tonnes compared to the previous season's all-time high of more than a million tonnes. The drop is partly attributed to less favourable rain.

Most of Ghana's cocoa is produce by scattered small holder farmers, rather than on the kind of large plantations on which irrigation might be consistently possible. It would neither be quick or easy for drip irrigation to be a realistic resort for most farmers.

African Agriculture

Small scale farmers drive more uptake of irrigation

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has found that in Africa and Asia, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of simple and inexpensive irrigation techniques by small scale farmers.

This is not at all surprising, and is in keeping with what one observes from any prolonged time in many of Africa's rural farming areas.

Population, climate change and many other pressures have made water much less available or accessible. Governments talk an awful lot at the problem, but rarely is there any action. For farmers for who water is life and livelihood, it is imperative to find solutions.

Various new technologies in recent years have brought down the cost of simple, rural-appropriate water pumps, making them an increasingly attractive and viable option for small scale farmers. Where central governments are very remote in terms of providing any assistance, these new developments give even cash-strapped farmers options survival options that were not available a few years ago.

News agency IRIN has the report.

African Agriculture

If Jain Irrigation is in trouble back home in India, can it raise $375 million to invest in Africa?

Why do foreign profit-seeking ventures in Africa have to so often be hidden as if they were free 'assistance?'

There is widespread new global interest in and excitement about the potential to make money in Africa, including in agriculture. The great potential itself is not new, but apparently there are more people across the world now willing to see it, partly by looking beyond the dominant ‘international media’ stereotypes about Africa.

But clearly, the paradigm switch from seeing Africa as a place of opportunity rather than as a perennial target of aid is proving very difficult for some. The CNN/BBC/’international media’ stereotypes are for many still much stronger on the imagination than the realization that along with its problems, ‘Africa’ is also a place on the move, with ‘normal’ people and great opportunities both because of and in spite of the many challenges.

Jain Irrigation, an India-based company is eager to exploit the opportunities that lie in providing irrigation equipment to the agriculture sector in African countries. The G8 Summit seemed to Jain like a good opportunity to express its Africa interest. Like many others, they can already smell money to be made from the newly announced G8 plan for the private sector to play a bigger role in agricultural ‘development’ in Africa.

Here are snippets from a May 21 Times of India article:

‘Jain Irrigation Systems said the company will invest $375 million over the next few years to improve income of small and marginal farmers in African countries, including Nigeria, Kenya and Rwanda…The company said that it is launching significant African expansion programme which aims to provide an integrated set of irrigation and infrastructure solutions for small-holder and commercial farmers. It would also invest in creation of storage, handling, supply chain and processing infrastructure in the African countries.’

It reads like yet another ‘project’ from a selfless, kind-hearted external ‘donor’ touched by the plight of Africa’s ‘small and marginal farmers.’ Yet behind the propaganda about investing to ‘improve the income’ of those farmers, what Jain obviously has in mind is to set up a presence in the countries mentioned in order to sell its products and services to these ‘small and marginal farmers.’

In other words, they want to do business in these countries. What is wrong with that? If they provide a good deal, indeed irrigation products accessible by small holder farmers should be a potentially very lucrative business opportunity for Jain. So why pretend to speak about it as if the planned/purported $375 million investment will be some kind of donation?

It turns out that the company may be in some trouble, and perhaps in not such a strong position for the currently fashionable ‘business philanthropy’ bandwagon that Africa is currently a target (victim?) of, and that Jain seems to want to join.

But according to ‘Jain Irrigation Systems: Can’t pay its huge debt and wants to conquer Africa,’ published in a different publication on the same day of the company’s Africa investment announcement, ‘from where will it get the money, still remains unanswered…because the company has huge debt on its balance sheet in India and has not been paying its dues to the banks. Even its receivables for FY11-12 were 343 days, which means the company has yet to receive cash for its sales done almost a year ago.’

Aha! So perhaps this is a company in trouble at home, hoping to make easy pickings in Africa?

Sure, it is a welcome development that the rest of the world is waking up to the fact that there are opportunities galore in Africa, and that perhaps much of the media they are exposed to gives them a very distorted, uni-dimensional picture. But boy, do those who naively think the ‘poor helpless Africa’ of their stereotypes is a place to just pick money off the streets have a steep learning curve waiting for them!

Here’s wishing Jain Irrigation good luck and good business, both back home in India and if and when it comes to Africa!

African Agriculture

Swaziland farmers increase sugar cane planting, use of irrigation

Swaziland, Afriac's fourth largest producer of sugar (after  South Africa, Egypt and Sudan), is set to increase production as more small scale farmers take up sugar cane cultivation, and access to irrigation increases. A replanting programme with higher-yielding varieties is also underway.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Mike Matsebula, chief executive officer of the Swaziland Sugar Association, projected that production may rise to 656,250 tonnes in 2013, a rise of 5% over the 2012 figure of 625,000 tonnes.

African Agriculture

Rwanda irrigation project to make maize farming more secure

In 2010, farmers in Rwanda’s Nyagatare District lost over 4,000 hectares of maize due to a serious drought during the rain/cropping season. In an at least sectors of the district, a new government irrigation system will reduce the climate risks of rain-dependent farming.

Irrigation canals are currently being constructed in the Matimba and Musheri sectors of the district, with the scheme expected to be ready for farmers’ use in time for the 2012/2013 farming season.

The first phase will cover 400 hectares, with gradual expansion to the rest of the district. Rwanda’s New Times reports that it is a long term project ‘expected to last for over 20 years.’

An agronomist in the ministry of agriculture said, “Farmers have been carrying out their activities in valleys and swamps during dry seasons…but this new project will even see upland farming during the dry spell.”

African Agriculture

Kenya irrigated rice to be expanded

by Patrick Beja

Kenya is cultivating rice in irrigation facilities along the Tana and Athi rivers.

Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority (Tarda) chairman Mr Mturi Ndegwa said rice production has been successful in the Tana delta since the revival of a farm under the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP).

Regional Development Authorities PS Mr Curey Orege said the Ministry of Agriculture was urgently seeking Sh300 million to put a 2,000-hectare rice farm in the lower Tana to address food security.

Orege made the remarks at Gamba in Tana River County when he launched rice harvesting using combine harvesters.

Tarda has put 800 hectares under pishori rice and expects to harvest 2,500 tonnes.

Last season, Tarda put 850 hectares under commercial rice and harvested 1,500 tonnes of paddy. Tarda invested Sh56 million and reaped Sh106 million profit.

Orege said rice farming in the area was revived under the ESP when government allocated Sh800 million to repair the water canals, dykes and milling plant.

The Standard

Irrigation with seawater

A new system which allows food crops to be irrigated with seawater will solve global problems of food production, according to researchers at the University of Surrey, UK.

"97.5% of the world's water is salty and not usable for the great majority of agriculture," says Professor Adel Sharif, team leader. "With this approach, there is no need for investment in genetically modified crops or ongoing treatments for the soil. The technology will be accessible and will genuinely solve the problem for people without access to fresh water for agriculture."

The low-cost solution, which makes seawater irrigation on a large scale a realistic and sustainable solution to food supply problems, does not require high pressure pumps or expensive distillation units. Instead, the new approach makes use of the natural process of evaporation alongside a membrane designed to retain the impurities in the water, including the salts, allowing only pure water to reach the plants.

The project has built on Professor Sharif's work on Manipulated Osmosis Desalination (MOD), which is used in Gibraltar and Oman to produce drinking water for human consumption. MOD is currently the leading technology for desalination, reducing energy use by up to 30 per cent compared to conventional desalination plants, chemical consumption and the carbon footprint.

From water rights and desalination treatment processes to community-scale sustainable technology, the University team is continuing to work alongside governments and disaster relief NGOs worldwide to improve water for drinking, sanitation and agriculture.

New Agriculturalist

Mozambique government builds small scale irrigation schemes

New, small scale irrigation systems are being installed in the districts of Gorongosa, Buzi and Nhamatanda, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala, by the Ministry of Agriculture in order to increase food production.

The Sofala Provincial Director of Agriculture, Miguel Coimbra, said the new irrigation systems will bring water to an area of about ten hectares in each of the regions of Move, Chitunga, Bebeto and Lamego.

These small irrigation schemes, aimed at peasant farmers, are part of a series of Ministry of Agriculture projects covering 130 hectares of food crops in Buzi, Marromeu, Dondo and Chemba districts.

The projects also cover include control of the lethal yellowing disease that is severely damaging Mozambique’s coconut palms, and controlling the fruit fly infestation in Caia, Dondo and Nhamatanda districts and in Beira city.

Meanwhile, the Beira Economic Activities Services have distributed 110 tons of rice seeds at subsidised prices to producers in the green belt around the city to enhance rice production.

The head of the Economic Activities Services in the city, Fabiao Simhane, said that the improved seeds benefited some 3,000 rice farmers – almost twice as many peasants as the 1,600 cultivating rice around Beira in the previous season.

In addition to the seeds the farmers also benefited from fertilizers, pesticides and other agricultural inputs, as well as fruit trees to improve the diet of Beira citizens.

The Zimbabwean

Floods destroy crops at Kenya irrigation scheme

More than 100 acres of crops estimated at over Sh5 million have been destroyed by floods in Kiboi Irrigation Scheme after River Yeptos in Baringo County (Kenya) burst its banks.

About 200 farmers who had crops at the scheme feared food security may be threatened as a result of the floods.

The scheme chairman, Julius Aengwo, said farmers expected a bumper harvest this season but their hopes have been dashed by the raging floods.

“Since we experienced adequate rainfall this season, we had anticipated enough food for our families and surplus for sale but for the past two weeks, the entire crop has been flooded and we have incurred huge losses,” said Mr Aengwo.

He said several acres of crops such as beans, butternuts, watermelons, maize, cassava and sweet potatoes were submerged and had began to rot.

Aengwo urged the Government to consider the farmers’ plight and provide them with seeds to start planting afresh after the heavy rains subside since they had invested all they had on the farms.

According to Baringo North district crop officer Wesley Chemjor, almost half of the crops in the irrigation scheme have been extensively damaged.

“We had projected farmers would earn about Sh10 million from maize, beans, watermelons and other fruits such as mangoes and bananas but it’s regrettable almost the entire crop was destroyed,” Mr Chemjor said.

Area District Agricultural Officer Kibett Maina reiterated that farmers at the scheme had suffered greatly as result of the floods.

He urged farmers in Kiboi and Barwessa irrigation schemes to embrace soil conservation measures to prevent more losses.

“For now, farmers should make water canals, plant trees along their farms and make use of the water divisional boxes to prevent over spilling and avert more flooding in the future,” said Mr Maina.

He said last year, the Government and the World Food Programme (WFP), had rehabilitated the irrigation scheme and anticipated to benefit more farmers and boost food security in the semi-arid area.

“The Government together with WFP had injected about Sh8 million for construction of water divisional boxes, construction of a night water storage tank and construction of canals,” said Maina.

About 100 families have been displaced in Nyatike District, Migori County. 90 victims have sought refuge at Nyora Primary School where they were taken by the Red Cross officials after their houses were submerged after River Kuja burst its banks.

In 2 East Africa

Zimbabwe: 11,000 hectares of tobacco put under irrigation

At least 11 000 hectares of irrigable land has so far been put under tobacco for Zimbabwe's current agricultural season, an official said on November 23.

Last season, 52 000 farmers registered to produce tobacco on 65 000 hectares, 13 000 hectares of which was under irrigation. Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chief executive officer Dr Andrew Matibiri told New Ziana much of the crop would be planted as soon as the country began receiving rains.

"Most of the planting will start this week since the country has begun receiving rains," he said.

The bulk of Zimbabwe's tobacco is grown under rain-fed agriculture.

Tobacco farming has attracted more farmers in the past two years due to the multiple currencies.

Analysts have tipped tobacco production to increase on the back of attractive prices and orderly marketing. Zimbabwe is the world's sixth largest exporter of the flue-cured Virginia tobacco after Brazil, India, the United States, Argentina and Tanzania.

More than 120 million kilogrammes of tobacco were sold last season with the contract system contributing the bulk of the sales.

The country is determined to return to the peak production levels of more than 200 million kg reached in the late 1990s before Western countries imposed economic sanctions which saw most sectors going on a free fall. Last season the industry had projected an output of 77 million kilogrammes to go under the hammer but this was later revised twice, first to 93 million kg and then 114 million kg.

An estimated 250 000 people are directly employed in the production of tobacco.

The Herald

Irrigation helps Mozambican farmers survive unreliable rains

by Fidelis Zvomuya

It’s mid-morning in Cunze village in Mozambique’s Gaza province, and farmer Antonio Alfonso Chibuto stands in a muddy field by a roaring irrigation stream, trying to work out how soon he dares plant again this season.

Water spills down a hand-hewn dirt canal, bubbling and pooling until it arrives at a deep pond that distributes it to rows of healthy, organically grown crops.

The 87-year-old farmer’s green fields contrast starkly with the surrounding dry landscape, criss-crossed by bumpy dirt roads, and barefoot women and children carrying water jugs and firewood.

Cunze’s inhabitants are highly dependent on subsistence agriculture and livestock production. Over the past two decades, farming families have gone from growing everything to buying everything as increasingly unpredictable weather patterns have left half the fertile fields barren.

“We have been clinging to life on an unforgiving terrain,” says Chibuto. “The past decade has been a lot more difficult than usual because the rains have failed.”

But despite the region’s fourth con­secutive year of alternating drought and heavy floods, Chibuto is enjoying a good harvest for the first time in more than 20 years, thanks to two initiatives to protect local people from weather disasters: an irrigation scheme and a community-led early warning programme.

The irrigation technology, installed as part of the development of Parque Nacional do Limpopo (Limpopo National Park), where Cunze village is located, pumps water from the Olifants River, using a diesel-powered engine, to a reservoir from where a gravity system distributes it to farms.

Thanks to this project, Chibuto and other farmers in Massingir district are finally starting to cope with the worsening weather variability that was damaging their livelihoods.

“If you had been here a year ago, this was a dust bowl,” says Chibuto, gesturing towards his fields. “I am happy now. I have so far had my first harvest and am still calculating the profits.”

A complementary early warning system, introduced by the southeast African nation’s government in 2002, aims to prevent loss of life, homes and crops to flooding and storms. It relies on local people who measure precipitation and river levels, and broadcast radio warnings when key benchmarks are reached.

“Easy-to-read gauges of the river's level are checked regularly. If it rises above a certain point, trained assistants from the local population immediately send a radio message,” explains Parque Nacional do Limpopo administrator Baldeu Chande.

The system proved its effectiveness in 2007, when Cyclone Favio caused severe damage in central Mozambique but did not claim any lives, according to Chande.

The early warning system currently covers 9,500 families in Massingir, and is gradually being expanded. District hazard maps have also been created.

Chande says climate change is likely to be a major contributor to the erratic weather patterns, droughts and storms that have brought growing suffering to Gaza province.

The resulting decrease in the productivity of small-scale farmers has caused a spike in food prices and higher malnutrition rates among children, according to experts.

Short dry spells and unpredictable rainy seasons have destroyed crops and reduced the quality of grazing for livestock. At times, flash floods have caused the region’s spongy peat soils to disintegrate, destabilising homes and wrecking fields.

“Houses and schools are washed away, enormous gullies appear on slopes, and roads simply disappear in the deluge,” Chande says.

In recent years, farmer Chibuto can recall floods sweeping away cattle and goats, and sending mud houses collapsing back into the earth. “We used to lose so much,” he says.

The rains are also coming later, shortening growing seasons, and arriving at unexpected times.

“Such untimely rains are especially bad for us, because most of our crops do not tolerate rain at inappropriate times. And when it does rain, the intensity is higher than we are used to. The soils are not able to take up all of the water and a major amount is lost due to run-off,” says Chibuto.

Farmers who depend on rain-fed agriculture, and have few other options, are struggling to adapt to the weather shifts, according to park administrator Chande.

“Sometimes the only coping strategy available is to temporarily abandon fields and look for employment in nearby cities,” he says.

Even under normal rainfall conditions, local soil nutrients have been so depleted that yields of crops such as maize reach only about half a tonne per acre, around one-third of their historical level.

In response, the Parque Nacional do Limpopo began working on the farm irrigation project in 2005 with the German government’s international cooperation agency, GIZ, providing funding as well as training in technical skills such as sharing water resources sustainably.

It now covers three districts - Massingir, Mabalane and Chicualacuala - and benefits some 1,400 people from 165 families.

YEAR-ROUND FOOD SECURITY

Wibke Thies, coordinator of a forest management project run by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which supports the management of shared water resources in the region, says the irrigation scheme is boosting food security and will help rural communities adapt to climate change.

Participating families have seen their once dry and dusty fields transformed into carpets of lush green. Most now enjoy a secure food supply all year round, and are even able to sell excess produce on local markets, according to Thies.

Previously they could only provide their own food for six months of the year, after which time they had to sell their cattle or depend on money sent by relatives working in South Africa.

Before the installation of his irrigation system, Chibuto had been experimenting with other ways to deal with the changing climate. He started off by constructing bunds around his fields to stop water and topsoil being swept away.

“I also had to shift my cropping patterns to more heat-adapted and less water-demanding varieties such as groundnuts, maize, mil­lets and vegetables,” he says.

Then in 2010, when he was offered the chance to join the irrigation scheme, he quickly agreed, receiving hoses and a huge bucket - a rudimentary but effective crop sprinkler system for his plot. That developed into the more complex and less laborious set-up he uses today.

The farmer is now looking forward to a whole year of green fields, irrespective of the vagaries of the local climate - and to a life changed for the better.

“I am now raising in the region of around $30 per day - sometimes as much as $50 - from the sale of my vegetables. I also provide some to elderly people who cannot afford to buy fresh produce,” he says. “That is something I could not do previously.”

Alertnet

Irrigation to help South Africa’s emerging farmers

by Kim Clarkin

One of the largest irrigated farming ventures in South Africa's Limpopo province to be owned by a local traditional council has just been handed over to the Ikageng community.

Strydkraal covers nearly 400ha and is situated in the Sekhukhune district of Limpopo about 70km south-east of Marble Hall.

The R24 million project was designed and implemented by MBB Consulting Engineers and will be managed in conjunction with a strategic partner and funded by the Limpopo Department of Agriculture (LDA).

The 300ha new section of Strydkraal is a combination of old fallow land, and new land that has been cleared. The farm includes 94ha already under irrigation which produces maize in summer and potatoes in winter.

A total of 14 centre-pivot irrigation systems have been installed with coverage from 11ha to 40ha. The project also involve the installation of surface drainage and bulk water supply pipes, and the construction of two pump stations.

Members of the community working on the farm will be able to share in its profits and learn farming skills

www.farmersweekly.co.za

How a big dam fuels land grabs, hunger and conflict in Ethiopia

by Peter Bosshard

As food prices rise, the lands of rural communities are being snatched up for plantations at an alarming rate around the world. A new report documents how the controversial Gibe III Dam is fueling landgrabs in Southwestern Ethiopia right now. These grabs will compound the dam's impacts on poor communities and their unique ecosystems.

The Omo River is the lifeline of the Lower Omo Valley and the only major source of water of Lake Turkana, the world's largest desert lake. About 500,000 indigenous people are eking out a living from the fragile ecosystems of the river and lake.

The Gibe III Dam, which is currently under construction, will disrupt the river's annual flood cycle and lower the water levels of Lake Turkana. Critics have long feared that once the dam is built, the Ethiopian government will establish plantations in the Omo Valley and use the regulated water flow to irrigate export crops. The government dismissed such fears as baseless, and argued that the dam would not reduce the amount of water in the Omo River and Lake Turkana.

Now that the dam is being built, the government is showing its true colors. An official map of the Lower Omo Valley delineates three blocks of land with a total of 245,000 hectares (close to 1,000 square miles) that will be turned into sugar plantations, to be managed by a state-owned sugar company. A briefing paper by the Oakland Institute, a research and advocacy organization, suggests that in addition, 11 smaller concessions have been awarded for private cotton plantations.

Growing thirsty crops such as sugar cane and cotton for the world market does not make sense in a region that is scarce in water and prone to hunger and resource conflicts. The dam and the associated land grabs will turn the Gibe III hydropower project into a social and environmental disaster on several accounts:
A scientific study commissioned by the African Development Bank found that the Gibe III Dam will have serious impacts on Lake Turkana even without the plantations. Withdrawing large amounts of water for irrigation agriculture may push its ecosystem over the edge. The study estimates that irrigation projects could cut the amount of water in Lake Turkana by half and lead to a dramatic drop in its surface level by 20 meters.

The Lower Omo Valley is no no-man's land. It has been inhabited since time immemorial by eight indigenous peoples, including the Dassanech, Mursi and Nyangatom. If other landgrabs in Ethiopia are a model, the local populations will be kicked out from their lands without consent or compensation, and forced into resettlement camps. The government argues that the plantations will create jobs, but such jobs typically go to outsiders and not to indigenous people who have never been part of the formal economy.

The sugar plantations will occupy and affect unique ecosystems that have been protected as national parks and World Heritage Sites in Ethiopia and Kenya. In June 2011, the UN's World Heritage Committee urged the Ethiopian government to "immediately halt all construction" on the Gibe III Dam and to invite a monitoring mission to review the project's impacts on Lake Turkana.

Even where water is not scarce, large-scale irrigation projects have a bad track record in Africa, and have proven to be less effective at reducing poverty than support for the rainfed agriculture of poor farmers. A World Bank report in 2005 summarized the widespread economic, social, environmental and public health problems of large-scale irrigation projects and concluded that "investing in agricultural water management for rainfed farmers must be a priority."

As the Oakland Institute documents, the land and water grabs in the Lower Omo Valley appear imminent. Access roads have already been built, and the people who live in the target area are constantly being harassed and intimidated by the Ethiopian army. As the Institute's researcher told us after a recent visit to the area, security forces regularly visit the local villages and beat up or detain people who don't support the sugar plantations. Many villagers, the researcher told us, now run for cover whenever outsiders appear near their settlements for fear of repression.

The sugar plantations in the Omo Valley are not an isolated case. In a separate report, the Oakland Institute estimated that the Ethiopian government has turned over 14,000 square miles of agricultural lands to investors since 2008 -- usually without any benefits for the local people. The World Bank documented large-scale agricultural land deals to the amount of 175,000 square miles for 2009 alone.

Ethiopia is the world's second largest recipient of development aid. The United States, the World Bank, the European Union and the United Kingdom are among its major donors. Their assistance supports a wide variety of activities, from food aid to the government budget from which the Gibe III Dam is being funded. These donors should no longer turn a blind eye to a project that will cause environmental collapse, hunger and conflict, and violates Ethiopia's international obligations.

Huffington Post

Ghanaian irrigation project gets Korean grant

Ghana's Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Korean Rural Community Corporation on August 24 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a $2.173 million dollar grant to help expand the Akomadan Project in the Ashanti Region.

The grant will enable the ministry to expand the irrigable land area in the Akomadan Irrigation Project by 100 hectares, and also provide technical assistance in improving productivity in vegetables.

The potential irrigable area of the Akomadan Irrigation project is 1,000 hectares, but the current area under usage is 65 hectares. This is expected to increase to 165 hectares with the coming on board of this project.

The project is also expected to make farm lands available to more farmers to produce commercial vegetables for both the local and export markets and increase volumes, especially for tomato to meet the raw material needs of tomato processing factories within the catchment area.

Government of Ghana

Fresh attempt at irrigated agriculture in Mauritania

by Med Abderrahmane

In a bid to reduce food insecurity, the Mauritanian government is turning to several new approaches to agriculture, including expanded irrigation schemes, popularising new crops and harnessing the energy of recent graduates.

The new strategies follow a period that focused on training for smallholder farmers, the introduction of mechanisation for large-scale production, as well as guaranteeing good prices to farmers as means of ensuring a steady supply of farm produce.

Ahead of the 2011-2012 growing season in this West African country, 125 unemployed graduates were put through basic training in farming techniques. They have taken charge of 1,500 hectares of land on the M'Pourié plain, on the banks of the Senegal River not far from the southern Mauritanian city of Rosso.

Rabia Mint Zeidane, an economics graduate, is managing a field of ten hectares not far from Rosso. She's been working here since May. Under the hot sun, far from family and friends, she spends the whole day clearing irrigation canals alongside her two labourers to ensure adequate water for her rice beds.

She declares herself determined to succeed in a domain traditionally reserved for men. Mint Zeidane said that like her counterparts, she has benefited from an agriculture training programme, access to a plot of land, a grant equivalent to roughly 1,430 dollars as well as two dairy cows.

Aside from the programme involving unemployed graduates, the authorities have also introduced wheat farming in a programme covering six of the country's 13 regions.

The government has ambitious plans to extend the country's irrigated acreage. Last year, not more than 20,000 hectares were irrigated, but for the season now under way, it is expected to exceed 30,000 ha, including 3,700 hectares devoted to growing rice. Wheat, vegetables and fruit will also be grown, depending on the varying characteristics of the soil.

In the capital, Nouakchott, and around Rosso and other areas, there were intensive preparations beginning in March, to make credit available, raise awareness, assess and improve access to water, and to put in place measures against potential pests.

But in the fields which are already at the stage of tillage and planting, all is not going as well as the producers had hoped.

Mohamed El Ghaly Ould Maayouf, who has a large field, says that the cost of production for even a single hectare of rice is very high - around 1,300 dollars, after accounting for the exorbitant costs of labour, fuel and transport. He says he's equally worried by the risks posed by uncertain rainfall and pests. He is particularly bitter over the spread of typha, an invasive reed which chokes irrigation canals.

Maayouf says that with stronger protection against birds and rats, as well as effective control of invasive vegetation, his yield could reach four tonnes per hectare of rice. But this, he says, would be just enough to cover his expenses, adding that only a yield above four tonnes per hectare will generate a profit on his efforts.

Daouda N'Diaye, who cultivates a field at Boghé, complains about the limited number of tractors available for tillage. Alioune Awbek, a farmer in Trarza, calls for the reactivation of a fund to support producers who suffer setbacks due to disasters during the growing season.

Salem Merrakchi, an agricultural engineer who is supervising wheat production, says the farmers who have followed the technical advice on offer can expect good results. He says he expects production of more than 3,840 tonnes of wheat from 1,882 hectares, though he stresses that some regions have proved unsuitable for the new crop.

"Difficulties linked to poor knowledge of wheat cultivation, animals wandering into fields, late preparation of plots and the absence of selective herbicides in Mauritania have held them back," Merrakchi says.

Bettar Ould El Bou, director general of Crédit Agricole - an agriculture finance institution with its roots in rural savings and loan cooperatives - said that over ten years, his institution had disbursed more than 43 million dollars in loans. But not only has less than 30 percent of this money been repaid, a good part of this money has not been invested in agriculture. He said the institution has put in place reforms to better monitor the real use of its funds.

Niang Samba Demba, president of an umbrella group of cooperatives in the Gorgol region in the south of the country, said that previous efforts to introduce irrigation in the 1980s were not fully thought through. He says many farmers abandoned irrigation farming in the subsequent decade because of losses to pests, inadequate techniques for threshing wheat, and climatic uncertainties. Many farmers were left owing money, leaving them ineligible for new loans.

Demba added: "This time, we have no excuse for failure. The means are available and there is support for the programmes at the highest level. It's a question of survival and of independence in cereal production." He said farmers now have access to water, tractors and combine harvesters, improved seeds, quality fertilisers and technical training.

IPS

Ghana crop research institute receives irrigation grant

The Crops Research Council in Ghana has been awarded US $289,000.00 to install an irrigation system for its activities by the The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

This will make it possible for the government-established research institution to conduct crop research all year round. 

AGRA is sponsoring a three-year project in cowpea, groundnut, cassava, maize and rice improvements at the CRI.

According to Dr. Hans Adu-Dapaah, the Director of the CRI, the establishment of the irrigation facility “would enable us to produce seed at the right time… and it will cut down the number of years it takes to come up with a crop variety.”

Construction of a 1.8 million dollar biotechnology laboratory at the Institute is also scheduled for completion in November this year.

more...