IRRIGATION HAS TURNED OUR LIVES AROUND

Farmers siphoning water from the Kimira/Oluch canal into their farms in Oluch. The farmers benefit from the Kimira/Oluch irrigation under the (Kimira/Oluch Small Holder Farm Improvement Project) in Homabay County. PHOTO | TOM OTIENO | NATION MEDIA GROUP  

By EVERLINE OKEWO  

A pen in his right hand and a notebook in his left, Joel Opapa takes stock of his vegetable harvest at the Kimira-Oluch Irrigation Scheme in Homa Bay County.

Opapa is among dozens of farmers who farm at the government scheme that is changing lives in the semi-arid region. “I have two farm blocks in the state-owned scheme where I grow sukuma wiki and tissue culture banana under irrigation,” he tells Seeds of Gold. Opapa, 28, has 120 banana and 2,500 sukuma wiki plants.

Every Thursday, he earns between Sh18,200 and Sh20,000 from the sale of the vegetables only.

GRAPPLED WITH POOR HARVESTS

Before joining the irrigation scheme, Opapa grappled with poor harvests, a situation he attributed to unreliable rains.

“Most of us initially depended on rain to get good harvests. Unfortunately, the rains were unreliable because this is a semi-arid area. There is a time I harvested a bag from my one acre.” Farmers who are growing maize under irrigation now get up to 30 bags from an acre.

Away from Opapa, we find Isaiah Obonyo irrigating his watermelons on two acres.

“Welcome to block eight,” says Obonyo as he channels water to his farm through a pipe from a canal. Obonyo has planted the F1 melon variety, which he says takes only 80 days to mature.

The canals were built by the Kimira-Oluch Small Holder Farm Improvement Project (Kosfip), which was initiated by the government in 2007.
The project is run by the Lake Basin Development Authority. The farmers get their water from Oluch and Kimira rivers.

The rivers are situated about 20km from each other between Kendu Bay and Homa Bay towns, with about 1,474 hectares (ha) of land for irrigation.

Out of 1474ha, 808ha have been irrigated. The irrigated land is sub-divided into 97 blocks where farmers grow different variety of crops ranging from watermelons, maize, cabbages, bananas, capsicum, sorghum, millet, arrowroots, French beans and cassava.

FUNDED BY AfDB

Each block has a direct water point from the water canal, which is managed by the Irrigation Water Users Association.
Kosfip senior agronomist Amos Amenya says the scheme was funded to the tune of Sh4 billion by the African Development Bank and government.
Amenya adds poverty level in Homa Bay and Rachuonyo was 74 per cent at the time when the scheme was started.

There was urgent need to improve the livelihoods of residents. “The amount of food that was being produced in this area every year could only last for two months, thereafter, people would have to rely on imports from other regions,” recalls Amenya.

To establish the scheme, the government relocated 97 families to pave way for the construction of irrigation canals.

“We built them houses and let them farm on the irrigated lands.”

Rose Angiro, a farmer at the scheme, says she now grows capsicum, a crop she never knew before since she was used to farm maize and beans.

“I started last year with half-an-acre of capsicum and made over Sh100,000 after supplying the items to schools, markets and hotels in Homa Bay and Oyugis,” says the farmer, adding that they have learned new management and farming practices like irrigation.

On-going construction of mini-canals is due for completion in March next year after which the whole project will be handed to farmers. Some 1,334 households have benefited from the project directly.
CREDIT: NMG/SEEDSOFGOLD