To boost crop production and create more jobs, FAO has rehabilitated and handed over an irrigation scheme to the Beitbridge District, a farming community in Matabeleland, South Province of Zimbabwe.

The Ranch Irrigation Scheme, totalling 41 hectares, was refurbished under the Smallholder Irrigation Programme (SIP), a four year programme implemented by FAO in partnership with the Government of Zimbabwe and funded by the European Union (EU).

SIP seeks to improve income, food and nutrition security of communal farmers involved in small scale irrigation in Matabeleland South, Masvingo and Manicaland, which are some of the driest regions in the country.

The Director of Irrigation in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Conrad Zawe, who represented government during the handover ceremony, underlined the importance of agriculture to the country’s economy adding, “Irrigation will ensure that there is enough supply of raw materials to industry”.

“This huge irrigation scheme is a source of employment for the youth, instead of having them crossing the border to neighbouring South Africa, you will have these youth work on this irrigation farms and earn a living,” said Zawe.

The smallholder Irrigation Programme aims at increasing production sustainably, productivity and profitability of targeted schemes, said David Mfote, FAO Assistant Representative in charge of Programmes.

“The programme is part of the FAO and Government of Zimbabwe national irrigation rehabilitation framework, designed to directly benefit smallholder irrigators and their communities. The programme’s vision was to improve farmer welfare through the rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure, capacity building of farmers, agribusiness development and pilot micro-catchments conservation initiatives,” said Mfote.

Pauline Ngara is a farmer and beneficiary of SIP, said the new approach of linking farmers to various markets after the rehabilitation of the irrigation scheme is getting more income to farmers as they were growing for a ready market.

“As you can see, all 83 farmers are growing sugar bean seeds under contract farming. We entered into a contract with one of the largest seed companies in the country (SeedCo) and they buy the sugar bean seed. This is a departure from the time when we were stuck with produce and ended up selling to some unscrupulous middlemen who cheated us,” said Ngara.

She noted, “That this was the second time that they had grown sugar bean seed under contract and this had proven lucrative as they were seeing changes in their livelihoods”.

Sugar bean seed fetches around US$1.50 per kilogram compared to the commodity which sales at US$1 for the same measure.

All operations from planting, weeding, pest and disease control were synchronised, a practise that contributed to the uniform crop stand. River Range irrigation scheme has therefore proved that it is possible to transform smallholder irrigation schemes from subsistence to commercial level.

Under SIP, the EU availed 6 million Euro for the rehabilitation of 20 irrigation schemes in Manicaland and Matabeleland South provinces for promoting viable and sustainable irrigation development. This benefitted 2000 households as direct beneficiaries cultivating more than 1000 hectares of smallholder irrigation land. 

River Range irrigation scheme has 83 farmers (53 of them females) owning half of a hectare each.