Need for Tanzania farmers to use irrigation

By Nyasigo Kornel

The typical example of irrigation scheme in Engaruka Arusha can be established in severa parts of Tanzania as an alternative to rain dependency in crop cultivation in Tanzania.

The history of traditional irrigation activities in Tanzania goes back to many years, before colonization.

There are various examples that could be drawn from local farmers, especially those in Engaruka village in Arusha region on how irrigation can be used in farming.

According to a research carried out by Norwegian Rural Development program, about 4 percent, or 150,000 hackers of the Engaruka village is cultivated by peasants, using this type of irrigation.

The area is said to have 217,000 acres, but the farming scheme is only utilized in a 25,000 acres, which are State owned farms, producing rice and sugar.

In addition to the large state irrigation schemes, there are government -controlled smallholder schemes, and a few private farms in the northern part of the country, which produce irrigated flowers and vegetables for export.

According to a research done recently by the Institute of Resource Management (IRA) of the University of Dar es Salaam, the basic objectives of Tanzania’s agricultural policy are self-sufficiency and food security from the household level up to the national level.

For years, irrigation development was seen as an important strategy for achieving these policy objectives.

Unfortunately, for a long time most irrigation planners tended to think in terms of very expensive, capital-intensive schemes, and paid minimal attention to the possibilities of traditional irrigation schemes.

This line of thinking began to change in 1990 when the Ministry of Agriculture, under the assistance of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reviewed the government’s experience with irrigation.

The two international bodies came up with the conclusion that the emphasis should be on rehabilitation and improvement of existing smallholder schemes, and that, the future expansion should be based on staged improvement and expansion of existing local technology, which allows farmers to adapt at their own pace.

Following the 1990 review, in 1994 the Ministry of Agriculture published the National Irrigation Development Plan (NIDP), which listed some irrigation priorities.

These included the rehabilitation or upgrading of existing traditional irrigation schemes in all regions where this type of irrigation is significant.

They also talked of upgrading traditional water harvesting technology in such regions where more intensive irrigation is not feasible Investments in new smallholder schemes in those regions where conditions are appropriate were also considered especially in areas where traditional schemes did not exist.

In a study done at Msanzi Village by Mascarenhas and Veit in 1994 to study how villagers construct and maintain their own irrigation schemes, the researchers suggested the following.

\'In a country where government-designed, modern and large-scale irrigation schemes have proven to be too expensive to construct, maintain, and manage (and whose benefits are often dubious), the experiences of the Msanzi community offers a particularly valuable learning opportunity.\'

The Msanzi case illustrates how a determined community succeeds to construct and maintain its own irrigation system, and overcomes several internal crises and interference from outside experts who attempted to effect unwanted drastic changes to the design preferred by the villagers.

When the IRA visited Msanzi for the first time in 1990, the report says, they found a clash of views between the villagers and technical experts attached to a Norwegian-funded rural development programme (RUDEP).

RUDEP had just started a fruit tree nursery in Msanzi, and they were asked to assist in rehabilitating a collapsed traditional irrigation canal, which they did by renovating the two-kilometre-Sukwa canal lining it with stones and cement.

RUDEP also offered to assist the villagers to construct a new canal but the villagers were at the same time organizing themselves to extend their irrigated land with a more ambitious scheme.

The RUDEP experts, led by an Indian-trained Tanzanian irrigation engineer rejected the villagers? plan, and, from the findings of a complicated feasibility study, insisted on their proposed canal, which was to irrigate only 12 additional hectares.

If the villagers agreed to the expert’s ideas, RUDEP was prepared to build the intake dams and culverts, provide irrigation system management and supply transport for stones and sand as well as cement and other building materials.

The villagers would provide the labour to dig and line the main canals and all the furrows.

The villagers, on the other hand, thought more land could be brought under irrigation, but the experts refused to agree to their suggestion on how the system should be designed.

They decided to build it themselves, aiming to tap water of Msanzi river in order to irrigate additional land on the plains.

When IRA researchers visited Msanzi in 1998, four years after RUDEP had closed down, the researchers found irrigation activities continuing in Msanzi, with the old traditional canal and the villagers? second canal in operation.

The RUDEP canal had to be abandoned after some villagers who benefited from the old system opposed it because they were going to lose some of their irrigated plots.

The modern systems design did not allow for lateral outlets, which would ensure that their plots were irrigated as well.

In their feasibility study the engineers had forgotten about tenure implications of the new system.

The construction of the Msanzi scheme shows how natural calamities like floods and drought can stimulate local innovation, experimentation, culture-based knowledge and leadership to enable the villagers to design and construct a water management system that improved their agricultural activities.

Nyasigo Kornel is a Communication Officer of Health and Poverty Resource Centre and he is an experienced journalist