District Council Executive Director, Dr Fatuma Mganga said this when speaking to officials from the National Irrigation Commission (NIRC) who visited the district recently.
She said that irrigation remains important when it comes to farmers’ income and government revenues, noting that before the operationalisation of the irrigation projects—Mtazamo and Bahi-Sokoni irrigation schemes, farmers failed in every bid of planting due to low rains.
“To us, we see irrigation as a game-changer to Bahi residents,” she says, adding: “It is the main source of income for the district council as in every season we get 60,000/- in every acre and 63m/-, which is being collected as levy from different crops.”
Bahi District has 15,000ha of land which are fit for irrigation though only 4,981ha of farms have developed for rice and horticulture farming. She encouraged investors in irrigation to chip in and invest in irrigation on the undeveloped area.
Dr Mganga called on residents to embrace the project and engage more on their farms so as to eradicate poverty which is still high in some of the households.
“We don’t want to see people idling in market places when they can be busy on their farms. This project is for all and we hope more households will engage in irrigation,” she said.
Apart from growing rice, farmers are engaging in horticulture farming, which has proved to be an effective tool in transforming people’s lives.
According to Dr Mganga, the District Council is set to build a rice processing plant in order to add value of the crop and have its own brand—Bahi rice brand.
She also unveiled that the district council has been allocating 40 percent of its budget to improve irrigation infrastructure to increase rice and horticulture production in the district.
NIRC senior official, Remigius Rushomesha said that since 2015, the commission has trained more than 3,000 farmers in 100 councils through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under capacity development for the promotion of irrigation schemes under the district agricultural development plans Phase II (TANCAID-II).
He said that farmers in Mtazamo and Bahi-Sokoni irrigation schemes through TANCAID have been also empowered with skills on how to initiate, run and maintain irrigation projects.
