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Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko

Samuel Kadungure in Nyanga
VICE President Phelekezela Mphoko says Zimbabwe needs to reform its irrigation policy to ensure irrigation schemes fulfill their mandate to mitigate negative impacts of drought and to achieve food security.He said it was only through drought mitigation that the country would be able to produce reliable crop yields.

VP Mphoko, speaking on Wednesday during a tour of Nyakomba Irrigation Scheme in Nyanga North, said ensuring food security was an important tool in tackling poverty.

“The situation here is far much better. The farmers are better off, though they have operational challenges,” he said. “We need to take irrigation development seriously, especially at policy level.

“We need to make sure that what I’ve seen at Nyakomba Irrigation Scheme is replicated to other schemes. We need an aggressive policy to ignite life into our irrigation schemes.

“When people are working, they need to be assisted so that they can realise their potential. Nyakomba Irrigation Scheme can be a bastion of drought mitigation if it gets the required assistance. We need to approach our partiners so that they can assist the scheme to fufill its potential. We can’ot rely on rain-fed agriculture anymore. Imagine what happens when the rains don’t come. Disaster!”

Nyakomba Irrigation Scheme was established between 1997 and 2000 with funding from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the arm of the Japanese Aid Programme on a 700-hectare piece of land.

The scheme’s construction resulted in the completion of part of the irrgiation scheme on 431ha and the other part could not be completed due to financial challenges as the government shifted attention to rehabilitating the scheme after it was damaged by cylone induced floods in 2006.

A team of engineers from JICA was in the country recently to carry out a feasibility study for the scheme’s phase two expansion.

Under the scheme’s Phase 2 Expansion Project, which has already been approved by the government, JICA will redesign and implement 138ha and rehabilitate pump stations with the full implemantation expected to start in 2016.

The Nyakomba Irrigation Scheme has already benefited many families in the community through food production and poverty alleviation.

Tabasco chilli growing is the most pronounced crop, with 743 farmers cultivating the crop that is expected to yield about 300 tonnes.

The farmers also grow another chilli variety called African Bird’s Eye, including maize, tomatoes, wheat and green beans.