by Fortious Nhambura – SANF 16 no 9
Agriculture is an engine for socio-economic development in most countries in southern Africa.
However, the sector is experiencing some challenges to fully contribute to sustainable development. For example, extreme weather conditions such as drought, high temperatures and low rainfall, mainly caused by the strongest El Niño weather phenomenon ever in southern Africa, has resulted in crop failure and low harvest.
These changing weather conditions have made it difficult for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to rely on rainfall to conduct its agricultural activities because lower precipitation would mean lower yield.
The low rainfall received by SADC in recent years, therefore, calls for an urgent need to invest in regional water infrastructure such as irrigation to ensure that farmers are cushioned from the effects of the changing climate.
Development of irrigation infrastructure will allow the region to grow crops all year round and not only depend on climatic conditions.
Such a situation will enable the region to boost production and meet growing demand for food. Furthermore, it will improve the incomes of farmers as they will be able to grow high-value crops.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), irrigation has the capacity to increase yields of most crops by between 100 and 400 percent.
The potential impact of irrigation in Africa is huge as the continent is home to more than half of the world’s arable land and is endowed with vast water resources.
The SADC region alone has some of Africa’s largest rivers such as the Congo and Zambezi.
Furthermore, nine SADC member states have access to oceans. The coastal countries are Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa and United Republic of Tanzania.
It is important, therefore, for SADC countries to take advantage of their proximity to the oceans to draw the water for agricultural use. To achieve this, appropriate technologies must be designed to desalinate the water for use to enhance food security in the region.
While significant progress is being made by SADC to increase the use and uptake of irrigation infrastructure, there is need for the region to fully embrace irrigation in a bid to address the food security situation.
According to available figures from selected SADC countries, the use of irrigation in the region is still very low. In fact, it is estimated that less than 10 percent of arable land is Africa in under irrigation.
For example, in Zambia the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock projects that out of an irrigation potential of three million hectares in the country, only 156,000 hectares is under irrigation.
The situation is the same in South Africa, where only 1.3 million hectares is under irrigation, compared to more than 18 million hectares of arable land.
In the SADC region, Swaziland has the highest ratio of irrigated land. It is estimated that about 95 percent of the available 90,000 hectares of land is under irrigation.
To promote the use of irrigation, SADC in 2012 developed the Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan, which outlines plans for infrastructure development up to 2027.
The Water Sector Plan, for example, identifies 34 infrastructure projects to be implemented over that period, including increasing the irrigated area from the current 3.4 million hectares to 10 million hectares by 2021.
The SADC Irrigation Investment Plan, drawn from the infrastructure master plan, is estimated at US$2.4 billion.
Some of the major projects planned include the Shire Valley Irrigation Project in Malawi, the Ruhuhu Valley Irrigation Scheme in Tanzania and the Upper Okavango Food Security Project in Angola and Namibia.
It is expected that the development of irrigation capacity will enable the region to mitigate the effects of low rainfall and long dry periods that are now a common feature in southern Africa.
According to the SADC Early Warning and Vulnerability Assessment systems, more than 28 million people, which is about 10 percent of the population of the region, are already food insecure due to the lower harvest recorded last year as a result of poor rains.
In this regard, investment in irrigation is the way to go for SADC as it will wean the region from over-dependence on rainfall for agriculture. sardc.net
