Why profitable irrigation is key for African smallholders!

The world has to feed a growing population with the same area of land and less water. Irrigation is key to managing this problem. A 10-year project called Transforming Irrigation in Southern Africa focused on capacity constraints on schemes in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe and how to solve them. This led to a new project which uses small-scale irrigation schemes as learning sites for circular food systems. Here, the researchers involved in the projects share some findings.

What are the barriers to smallholder irrigation schemes?

First is a lack of coherence between national policies and local realities. The objectives of governments and funders don’t always align with the livelihood goals of irrigators. Governments strive for food security and large donors tend to finance and develop large irrigation projects.

Second, smallholder farmers are pressured to grow staple crops such as maize, rice and wheat. But these crops are relatively unprofitable, especially on small irrigation plots. Our research has found that high production costs and low-value crops have rendered entire schemes dysfunctional. Fixing resulting infrastructure decay, such as leaking canals, siltation or poor quality construction, does not address the underlying causes of poor performance. And the cycle of decline starts again.

Our research has found that high production costs and low-value crops have rendered entire schemes dysfunctional.

Third, the governance of farm plots and water use is poor. Cropping calendars have mandated low-value staple crops while water scheduling is sub-optimal. Also, plot use is inadequately regulated. Irrigator organisations are often too weak, lacking authority and capacity to perform basic regulatory functions and enforce fee payment.

Fourth, land tenure and roles in infrastructure management are unclear. The result is unfair and insecure access to water and land and conflict among irrigators.

Fifth, poor markets and market access contribute to low financial turnover. Investment in improving yields is wasted if transport is poor or there is an over-supply of produce, leaving farmers out of pocket. This drains farmers’ incentive and capacity to invest in production.

Sixth, to compensate for low investment in other inputs, farmers water as much as possible. This leaches nutrients below the root zone and reduces nutrient efficiencies. Poor fertility, low yields and salinisation combine with low profitability to make farming unviable. In some cases, the majority of plots become unused.

A person holding a tool for monitoring soil — *A soil moisture monitoring tool, the Chameleon reader, shows three lights for each of the sensors buried in the soil at three different depths. Andre van Rooyen*

What are the capacity constraints for farmers?

The constraints relate to finance, irrigation knowledge, markets and basic business training.

Limited finances: Low household income affects farmers’ ability to access credit, pay water fees and buy farm inputs and equipment. Equipment access influences whether land preparation is timely and, ultimately, affects yields.
Access to finance: Tenure insecurity means farmers have no collateral to access formal lending, so they rely on expensive informal lending. Farmers are risk averse and reluctant to borrow, for all the reasons discussed.
Irrigation knowledge: Many farmers are new to irrigation and need to experiment with their watering to get the balance of water and nutrients right to avoid nutrient leaching.
Access to markets: Too often farmers lack knowledge about prices. Transport and storage are inadequate and there is a mismatch in supply and demand. They are poorly connected to markets, and rarely work in cooperatives or use collective strategies to improve access. Markets are not always stable or reliable, and agricultural inputs may be of dubious quality.
Basic business and agronomic training: Farmers lack knowledge about identifying the most profitable crops, calculating gross margins, and appropriate fertiliser application. Also, using cover crops and crop rotation, and reducing field and postharvest losses.

Farmer with siphons: flood irrigation using siphons is labour intensive. Andre van Rooyen

What are your proposed solutions?

Our mid-term and recent research confirm that smallholder irrigation schemes can transform to produce more food. They can also support more jobs and be profitable. Schemes in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe have been transformed into climate smart agricultural systems. The community also has more capacity to adapt to unexpected events such as COVID-19.

A cycle of improvement started through complementary interventions like these:

agricultural innovation platforms. Innovation platforms can be used to bring together farmers, extension officers, scheme committees, district councils, government officers, input suppliers and others to identify and solve local barriers to profitability. These forums have enabled farmers, particularly youth and women, to connect with organisations that they would not otherwise be able to influence. It also fosters a shared responsibility for effective management.
soil monitoring tools to measure soil moisture and nutrients. Providing a small number of farmers with simple-to-use tools enabled them to experiment and learn when and how much to irrigate. Many changes spread across the schemes through social learning. Irrigation frequency and intensity reduced, households had more time to diversify their income generation, water use and conflicts reduced, crop yields improved, and income increased.

Various other interventions were identified. These included: establishing market linkages, monitoring input suppliers to improve quality, and establishing experimental plots to showcase new crops and best practices. Farm business training was another. Also, a participatory mapping process to resolve plot boundary conflicts and reallocate unused plots.

What needs to happen next?

Large-scale and input-intensive agricultural production systems are inappropriate for smallholder farming systems. New systems that focus on the needs of smallholders and local economic development are required. They should create ways for young people in rural areas to make a living.

Our circular food systems project uses communities around smallholder irrigation schemes as learning sites and we welcome others to work with us. This project aims to demonstrate how irrigation, dryland and livestock systems can be integrated to improve efficiency and reduce reliance on expensive inputs.

Crop processing, reuse of by-products and waste, value addition and identification of business synergies are creating local development opportunities. Examples include using crop residues to feed livestock, and processing grain into flour and setting up bakeries.

These developments will generate more economic benefit per unit of land, labour and water.

Smallholder agriculture could also benefit from various policy changes:

removing costly and restrictive licensing systems and discouraging rent seeking and nepotism
facilitating transfer of land to enable land consolidation and generational renewal
encouraging integration of dryland, irrigation and livestock systems
encouraging finance models that provide smallholders with capital for small business development and climate adaptation
aligning policy at multiple governance levels and improving accountability frameworks.

Suwilanji Sinyangwe of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network contributed to the research and article.

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