Feeding Rwanda: how small-scale irrigation can help farmers to change the game

Unlike large-acreage government irrigation schemes, small-scale irrigation is typically farmer led.

Farmers decide what technologies to use to extract water, be it manual lifting or solar water pumps. They also choose the mode of irrigation, whether by buckets or drip kits.

Farmers purchase, run, and maintain the operation themselves on their own farms or as part of small groups of farmers.

Small-scale irrigation can help smallholder farmers to increase agricultural productivity and incomes. It can be scaled quickly and without large public investments. For these reasons, it can contribute more rapidly to the achievement of national agricultural and development goals, compared to large irrigation schemes.

Currently, the total area equipped for irrigation in Rwanda is estimated at 11467 ha. With an estimated cropped area of 7000 ha, the overall cropping intensity is 61%. Main crop planted in most irrigation schemes is rice.

The reliance on rainfed agriculture prevents farmers from cultivating high-value nutritious crops that often need large amounts of water that are applied more frequently.

Some vegetable crops consist mostly of water, for example, tomatoes or cucumbers, and their yield and quality, deteriorate rapidly under water stress.

SMALL SCALE IRRIGATION TECHNOLOGY (SSIT)
Driven by MINAGRI and her strategic private irrigation service providers the farmer based approach aims to promote widespread use of demand driven, affordable locally assembled SSIT. The small scale irrigation technology includes ready to use 1ha, 5ha, and 10ha complete sprinkler kits with portable diesel/petrol pump-units and pipes as well as the treadle pump and dam sheet technology.

MINAGRI facilitates subsidy through financial institutions to the SSIT provider. Crops to be grown are for example melons, eggplants, papaya, chilli and onions in addition to capsicums and tomatoes.

Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB) implements and Coordinates SSIT countrywide where a subsidy of 50% is given to farmers and funds are earmarked to selected Districts while MINAGRI and RAB mobilize farmers to adopt climate resilient methods which include irrigation equpment.

The government’s annual target for land under small scale irrigation (SSI) is 2,000 hectares. Currently 4,000 hectares are under small scale irrigation and by 2018 the number is expected to have reached 10,000 hectares.

PM