Irrigation schemes would allow year round farming, FAO

Irrigation schemes would substantially increase agricultural production in drought stricken Zimbabwe, but projects that were meant to have started years ago remain dormant due to a lack of funds.

About six million people face hunger in Zimbabwe mainly due to drought and the government's fast-track land resettlement programme that has disrupted commercial farming, according to a report by the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).

Zimbabwe is the worst affected country in a region where about 14 million people are in need of food aid to stave off hunger.

An official in the Department of Irrigation told IRIN on Tuesday that a newspaper article which outlined the government's plan to establish 36 irrigation schemes, could not be confirmed as some of the projects listed in the article had so far been hamstrung by budgetary constraints.

The Herald reported that the irrigation schemes would allow for farming on 7,956 hectares of dry land in communal and resettlement areas. The state-controlled newspaper said that the schemes would cost Zim $3.8 billion (US $69 million).

"The new irrigation schemes are going to utilise water from already existing dams and this new project is to ensure that the communal farmers who have for long not been utilising their quota do so under these new irrigation schemes," Director of Water in the Ministry of Rural Resources and Water Development, Vavarirai Choga, was quoted as saying.

However, the Department of Irrigation official, who asked not to be named, said: "We're not sure what the official government position is. We've had people sitting in offices because they don't have money to put programmes in place, we are waiting for instructions from our superiors that money is available so that we can begin programmes.

"We don't know which programmes have money or not. So from an operational point of view there's been no instruction to say where the money's coming from [for the irrigation schemes]. Most of those projects listed in The Herald, some of them have even been around for more than five or six years, the feasibility reports are done etcetera. But due to budgetary constraints we have been unable to implement those projects."

Lee Tirivamwe, national irrigation engineer for FAO in Zimbabwe, told IRIN the agency had not been approached for assistance with regard to establishing the irrigation schemes reported in The Herald.

Tirivamwe said there were many benefits to irrigation agriculture. "You get increased yields and afford employment opportunities to the rural people. Once they go into irrigation they can farm practically throughout the year [not just during certain seasons]," he said.

Although there was no confirmation from government that the schemes would go ahead, Tirivamwe said there existed sufficient bodies of water for the reported number of schemes.

"I'm sure there is enough water, there are a few dams not being fully utilised. For example, Diri dam, in the northeast of the country, and also Osborne dam, in the eastern parts of the country," he said. But Tirivamwe cautioned against taking at face value figures that had appeared in the press, as these could be "unrealistic".

For rural farmers to benefit immediately from such irrigation schemes, they would have to be government funded. "Otherwise it would take years for a farmer to recoup the costs," Tirivamwe said.