Farmer-led Irrigation in Africa

One form of irrigation that greatly considers farmers' interests is farmer-led irrigation. Farmer-led irrigation is known as "a process where farmers assume a driving role in improving their water use for agriculture by bringing about changes in knowledge production, technology use, investment patterns and market linkages, and the governance of land and water" (Woodhouse et al. 2017).  Based on a study in Zimbabwe, farmer-led irrigation was found to be very flexible and can easily adjust to different social and technological advances. This is due to fewer restrictions being placed on designs and because individual farmers have more of a personal stake in the process. A wide variety of actors are involved, such as farmers and repairers, which allows action to be taken more quickly with more knowledge. Farmer-led irrigation is both more extensive and more differentiated than more formal irrigation schemes. A good study of farmer-led irrigation is seen in Zimbabwe. Compared to more formal irrigation types, farmer-led irrigation covered roughly 3.5 times more area and greatly contributed to the agricultural economy (Scoones et al. 2019).

Farmer-led irrigation not being counted may be one reason why the amount of land irrigated in Africa is underestimated. Around 2018 it was believed that 9.7% of land in Zimbabwe had informal irrigation, but according to Scoones et al., this is underestimated. This study shows that perhaps farmer-led irrigation, and other types of informal irrigation, may be more successful than formal irrigation schemes. It is important to consider farmer-led irrigation and other informal irrigation schemes as land continues to be irrigated in Africa. It is also important to consider the type of landscape being irrigated. Farmer-led irrigation may be more suitable for certain areas, such as in parts of Zimbabwe, while other countries or areas may react better to more formal or other irrigation schemes. Pursuing the most efficient methods will result in the most amount of irrigated land, resulting in improved livelihoods for residents (Scoones et al. 2019).

I end this post by leaving you with a video made by the World Bank about farmer-led irrigation. It does a good job of demonstrating the challenges of making farmer-led irrigation large scale and explains the many benefits of farmer-led irrigation.


Comments

  1. Richard taylorDecember 12, 2019 at 1:58 PM

    Thanks for this insight. Posts like these are very informative and insightful, providing well-selected insight into the challenge of improving food security across Africa.

    ReplyDelete

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