Posted on November, 13, 2018 at 10:27 am
IF Tanzania wants to make great strides in crop yields and food security, it must highly invest in irrigation farming to uplift farmers’ livelihoods and the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
National Irrigation Commission (NIC) Acting Director General Dr Eliakim Chitutu told the Guardian in an interview this week that in pursuit of this need, the government made ambitious commitments to expand the area irrigated.
It set up a ministerial executive agency to deliver on this potential to free the country from erratic rainfall, especially in the context of climate change.
The commission was set up under the Ministry for Agriculture, set up to improve crop production via the formal supervision and extension of irrigation activities.
He said that Tanzania has irrigation potential area of 29.4 million hectares whereby 2.3 million hectares is of high potential, 4.8 million hectares is of medium potential and 22.3 million hectares is of low potential.
Up to date, out of this potential area 461,326 hectares equivalent to 1.6 percent of the area was under irrigation and contributing 24 percent of the national food requirement, in data dating back to April 2014.
Government effort to improve agricultural practices that have in most cases been characterized by inconsistent crop production tied to erratic and unreliable rainfall, he said.
The commission works on the need to improve irrigation infrastructure to ensure efficient water utilization to overcome the negative impact of climate change, he elaborated.
Irrigation was crucial in minimising frequent food shortages attributable to dependence on rainfall, and increasing yields, he said.
“We need a sustainable and dynamic irrigation sector that is a driving force in transforming agriculture into a stable, highly productive, modernized, commercial, competitive and diversified sector generating higher incomes. It ought to increase food security and stimulate
economic growth,” he further stated.
To implement this strategy effectively, the country requires a range of infrastructure that will provide for cultivation of a wide range of crops and efficient water use, including application of sprinklers and drip irrigation.
Dr Chitutu said the work would take a total of ten trillion shillings to renovate 1,112 dormant irrigation schemes all over the country up to the year 2035.
Out of a total of 2,940 schemes in the country, about 960 had been developed, with the target being to ensure that the remaining schemes were renovated.
A projected budgetary need of Sh592bn annually was being asked for to cover the remaining 524,948 hectares so that they contribute more to the nation’s food security.
“We have already identified potential areas for irrigation development, covering around 29.4 million hectares,” he said, noting that there was high potential of surface as well as underground water resources.
“All strategies and priorities are indentified in the National Five Year Development Plan (FYDP) and the new Revised Irrigation Master Plan,” he pointed out.
Up to June this year, around 475,052 hectares had been developed so far, contributing up to 24 percent of food security requirements in the country.
In the first phase (2018-2025), the commission projects to spend $2052.9 million to renovate and improve 469 schemes covering 248,120 hectares while in the second phase (2026-2035) a total of $2437.4 million will be needed to renovate and improve 643 schemes covering 312,110 hectors.
“Our policy identifies priorities that need a strategic plan including investment in irrigation infrastructure and its management by using technology that minimises the use of water such as drip and sprinkler irrigation,” he explained.
He admitted that there was poor participation from the private sector in the irrigation sector, suggesting that Public Private Partnership (PPP) be taken up to develop or establish new schemes.
He identified the principal stakeholders in this scheme as local government authorities taking the largest stake in implementation on the ground, the ministry, the commission, the private sector and financial institutions.
“Unfortunately, for some reasons the private sector has been skeptical in investing in large scale commercial farming due to high initial capital investment requirements for irrigation infrastructure,” he said, noting that they also have doubts on the security of land ownership rights and reliable water use permits.
He reiterated that there was continuing dialogue with the private sector on matters related to irrigation development in the country, including creating an enabling environment for effective private sector participation in those efforts.
According to the 2003 Maputo Agreement of African Union member states, governments need to allocate 10 per cent to total budget sums to agriculture.
In view of this need, the National Irrigation Policy (NIP) provides a solid platform for Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Irrigation Development in Tanzania.
The private sector and development partners can work with or support the NIC in irrigation development in the country, he director general emphasized.
/He pointed out that last year Dr Steve Wiggins, a research fellow at /the Overseas Development Institute of the United Kingdom who has been studying and working on agricultural and rural development in Africa and Latin America authored a study on how Tanzania could expand irrigation to one million hectares by highly investigating in irrigation farming.
Dr Wiggins said since 2006, Tanzania set up plans to expand irrigation to one million hectares by 2020, a target reaffirmed by the Ministry for Water and Irrigation.
Over 461,000 hectares of Tanzania’s cultivated land is irrigated, out of the estimated 29.4 million hectares of irrigation potential, he said.
Public investment in much of Africa had focused instead on improving seeds and encouraging farmers <http://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/agriculture/farming/> to use more fertilizers.
“Reasons for this are not hard to find: many irrigation schemes developed in the 1960s and 1970s ran over budget, and over time encountered all manner of technical and social problems, and produced meagre returns.
“Investing in irrigation could help Tanzania feed its growing population, and boost economic growth by increasing agricultural exports.”
Thus far, irrigation is a promising way of raising agricultural productivity. It can increase farm yields mightily, allowing two crops to be cultivated each year instead of one, and ensuring more consistent yields, the report noted.
Investing in irrigation could help Tanzania feed its growing population and boost economic growth by increasing agricultural exports not only to other African countries, but also to the tempting Asian markets that lie just across the Indian Ocean.
Irrigation requires considerable initial investment, where private finance offers an alternative to governments <https://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/governance/> going into debt, hence the appeal of public-private partnerships (PPPs), the report underlined.Moreover, this suggests that private investment in partnership with the public sector can work.
It shows that success in irrigation farming depends on combined efforts of many different individuals and institutions such as ministries of water and agriculture.
Others are water boards, large-scale agricultural firms, farmers and their organizations, commercial banks, donors and non-governmental organizations.
Because these schemes depend not only on getting the engineering <https://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/enterprise/engineering/>, farming, economics and marketing to work, but also on effective coordination across the different stakeholders, they often run into glitches of one kind or another.
“Those with crucial stakes in scheme success — most notably farmers — have to be prepared to alter their plans and find workable solutions,” the report added.
Source: IPP Media