Commercial Farmers Union President, Charles Taffs, told The Zimbabwean that the country’s irrigation sector was operating at 30 percent of its capacity.
“The water level is good but 70 percent of irrigation equipment is not operational. Operating at 30 percent of total capacity is not acceptable and we cannot produce at that level. The winter wheat crop is obviously going to suffer,” Taffs said.
He added that the only way to redress the situation was to look at property rights.
“We cannot produce and we cannot mitigate even the summer crop from drought without adequate irrigation. The way forward is to solve the issue of property rights,” Taffs said.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president, Wonder Chabikwa, said irrigation infrastructure was not in a good condition.
“Irrigation is suffering from years of lack of funding and is in dire need of a revamp. It has deteriorated due to wear and tear. Irrigation equipment needs periodical maintenance. Because of lack of funding even the equipment which is still usable is not being fully utilised,” Chabikwa said.
He also said winter wheat would suffer the most this year.
“We have no funding for wheat and with the changing climatic conditions, agriculture cannot rely on rainfall alone,” he said.
Chabikwa said farmers had been lobbying the government on the issue of agricultural funding for a long time.
“Banks are not well funded. Where the finance is available, farmers cannot provide the collateral and the interest rates are very high. As farmers we have lobbied the government to lower interest rates,” he said.
‘Winter wheat will
suffer the most’
The government has acknowledged that the utilisation of water for irrigation by the agriculture sector is still below capacity and needs to be urgently revitalised.
According to the National Water Policy launched earlier this year by the Ministry of Water Resources Development and Management, given the importance of irrigation to revenue inflows, irrigation rehabilitation is pertinent.
The total developed irrigated area in 2000 was estimated at 200,000 hectares accounting for 80 percent of national water demand. Currently 135,000 hectares of the developed 200,000 is functional but not all of it is being utilised.
Post published in: Agriculture