News / National
Zim's irrigation hectarage falls
26 Mar 2013 at 06:38hrs | Views
Photo by: Annie Bungeroth - Oxfam
THE country's irrigation farming is still in the doldrums amid revelations that only 135 000 hectares of land is under irrigation down from 250 000 ha in 2000, an official has said.
In an interview in Bulawayo on the sidelines of the Irrigation Policy consultative workshop, director for the Department of Irrigation Development, Dr Conrade Zawe, said land under irrigation was still down but revealed that the Government was making strides to revamp the irrigation infrastructure in the country to ensure food security.
"As a nation let me say we are happy that we are slowly revitalising our irrigation area. At one time around 2000 we had 250 000 hectares of land under irrigation and hectarage fell down drastically over the years but through the rehabilitation processes that the Government has introduced, about 135 000 hectares is being irrigated," said Dr Zawe.
He said there was need to sort the high utility bills that farmers face in order to revive the sector.
"If we can sort out the Zesa and Zinwa billing and the financing of the operations we would be able to be quickly on the track," he said.
Dr Zawe said it was critical for farmers to invest in irrigation equipment to counter the effects of climate change.
The director said the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development had adopted drip irrigation that saves waters.
He said they had identified five places around the country where they were going to teach farmers about the importance of drip irrigation system.
"We have adopted drip irrigation as one of the technologies that ensure farmers efficiently use the amount of water that we have at the moment. As a ministry we are demonstrating the drip irrigation technology in five different districts namely in Zvimba, Binga, Nyamandlovu, Mutare and Kadoma," he said and added that the Ministry of Finance had already provided funds for the project.
Dr Zawe said irrigation farming was important as rainfall at the moment is not reliable.
"For example this year, the season started very late sometime in December and we almost thought we are going to have a very nice season but in mid March we started having very long dry spells and now we are not sure what is going to happen. If we have irrigation we will be able to get more yields from our agriculture," said Dr Zawe.
Reports say crops have already started wilting in some parts of the country owing to moisture-stress.
It has been reported that climate change has affected farming seasons and led to consecutive droughts.
In an interview in Bulawayo on the sidelines of the Irrigation Policy consultative workshop, director for the Department of Irrigation Development, Dr Conrade Zawe, said land under irrigation was still down but revealed that the Government was making strides to revamp the irrigation infrastructure in the country to ensure food security.
"As a nation let me say we are happy that we are slowly revitalising our irrigation area. At one time around 2000 we had 250 000 hectares of land under irrigation and hectarage fell down drastically over the years but through the rehabilitation processes that the Government has introduced, about 135 000 hectares is being irrigated," said Dr Zawe.
He said there was need to sort the high utility bills that farmers face in order to revive the sector.
"If we can sort out the Zesa and Zinwa billing and the financing of the operations we would be able to be quickly on the track," he said.
Dr Zawe said it was critical for farmers to invest in irrigation equipment to counter the effects of climate change.
He said they had identified five places around the country where they were going to teach farmers about the importance of drip irrigation system.
"We have adopted drip irrigation as one of the technologies that ensure farmers efficiently use the amount of water that we have at the moment. As a ministry we are demonstrating the drip irrigation technology in five different districts namely in Zvimba, Binga, Nyamandlovu, Mutare and Kadoma," he said and added that the Ministry of Finance had already provided funds for the project.
Dr Zawe said irrigation farming was important as rainfall at the moment is not reliable.
"For example this year, the season started very late sometime in December and we almost thought we are going to have a very nice season but in mid March we started having very long dry spells and now we are not sure what is going to happen. If we have irrigation we will be able to get more yields from our agriculture," said Dr Zawe.
Reports say crops have already started wilting in some parts of the country owing to moisture-stress.
It has been reported that climate change has affected farming seasons and led to consecutive droughts.
Source - TH
