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Blessing Karubwa, Features Reporter

FOR the better part of her life, Mrs Ireen Ndlovu (48) of Nswazi Village, Umzingwane District in Matabeleland South Province has been waking up around 3AM regularly to catch a bus to Zudarburg Market in Esigodini.

She has been supporting her family of five through selling vegetables and tomatoes bought from the market in Esigodini.

Umzingwane district is dry and those that are into crop farming are doing so courtesy of supplementary water as natural rain is usually not enough to support crop farming. And with climate change altering the water cycle and other weather phenomena, the problem of getting fresh farm produce in communities become more apparent.

And to bridge the gaps and provide a cushion against shocks and stresses of weather vagaries, the Government and its partners have been working to ensure there are enough irrigation schemes to support food security in communities in line with the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).

This saw the resuscitation of Mzinyathini Irrigation Scheme in Umzingwane District and life has been made easier to Mrs Ndlovu and other villagers.

“The revamping of the Mzinyathini Irrigation Scheme has made life comfortable to most people around this area.

“We used to wake up at 3AM to go and buy tomatoes and vegetables in Esigodini for resale to gold panners around the district.

Sometimes we would board a bus to sell in Filabusi as a way of avoiding competition in Umzingwane.

“I used to have cracked feet from the cold wintry mornings and dust road I would walk as I sell in various places where omakorokoza are found before catching a bus back to my village,” she said.

Amid the hustle, Mrs Ndlovu basks in the satisfaction of having managed to educate her children as three have already finished Ordinary Level from her sweat as her traditional healer husband is not bringing much.

“The irrigation scheme was there but it was not active. No one used to care much about it. The renovation of the scheme meant a lot in the lives of many villagers as they became active in crop agriculture, producing enough for consumption and a surplus for sale,” she glowingly said.

Being one of the beneficiaries of the scheme, Mrs Ndlovu, said her life has greatly improved.

“The scheme has made life easier as we now grow vegetables for our own nutritional consumption and for selling to the local gold panners. Food security in general has improved,” she said.

She however, expressed concern that the scheme that is fed from Umzingwane Dam was facing an uncertain future as the dam that is also supplying Bulawayo was grappling with low volumes.

Another beneficiary from the scheme, Mr Moses Dube, said the water situation was a cause for concern.

Despite the challenges, he hailed Government efforts of ensuring that communities were food secure through irrigation schemes.

“We are asking for an additional fence to protect our crops because the fence that we are using has lost its strength. Farmers are now facing challenges as animals are getting access into the scheme and destroying our vegetables and crops, a move which has started demoralizing farmers.

“We appreciate the efforts of the Second Republic, they have helped us and a good majority of the district’s population is now depending on the crops being grown in the scheme,” said Mr Dube.

He said farmers from the scheme were mainly growing cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, and spinach among others.

He said the irrigation scheme had helped them to support their families as they were getting food and money from selling their crops.

The scheme is among many that have been rehabilitated in Matabeleland South province in partial fulfilment of NDS1 whose import is to have an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

Mzinyathini Irrigation’s chairperson, Mr Mthulisi Ncube said the irrigation scheme needed more financial support from the Government.

He said the scheme was ready to work and had the potential to sustain livelihoods.

“We are appealing for capital to resuscitate the infrastructure; the canals, pipes, and the perimeter fence. We also want inputs either through traditional or other known avenues that help farmers; should it be the Government, financial institutions, or non-governmental organisations.

“The other thing is that we need youthful people who have more knowledge and energy to take over and grow vegetables and crops at the scheme,” he said.

The chairperson appealed for help from financial institutions and other development partners.

“We always hear in the papers that there are financial institutions that are advancing loans to farmers. We are ready to engage in such constructive partnerships with such financial institutions who might come and want to give loans to farmers, loans whose conditions are not choking and suicidal but that help us be productive. We appeal to the Government to connect us to such facilities,” said Mr Ncube.

He said they once had poultry, fish ponds, and several projects in the scheme but due to old infrastructure, some of the projects collapsed.

As for fish ponds, he said, water was the major challenge because the district has grown too big and the Umzingwane Dam could not supply the district as well as the expanding Bulawayo.

Agricultural Extension Officer Mrs Venesenzia Mahera said the farmers have been pinning their hopes on Umzingwane Dam which now has a poor capacity and cannot allow them to keep on doing their irrigation activities as before.

“Most of the farmers are old and can no longer fetch water for watering the crops, a situation which demands that there be an urgent need to drill boreholes around the scheme. As I speak, the performance of farmers is decreasing and among the reasons is shortage of water,” said Mrs Mahera.

The District’s Acting Agricultural Extension Officer Mrs Velile Ndlovu, said the district had three irrigation schemes that were benefiting the communities.

Mrs Ndlovu says the Mzinyathini scheme is benefiting a number of villagers from the district.

“People from different parts of Umzingwane used to buy their vegetables at Zudarburg in Esigodini township but due to the revival of Mzinyathini Irrigation Scheme, villagers no longer travel to Esigodini for fresh farm produce as they can easily grow that on their own at the scheme,” she said.

Mzinyathini Irrigation Scheme has 81 beneficiaries with each farmer allocated 0,4 hectares.

Mrs Ndlovu said several youths have also joined the scheme and are already farming, a move which has helped reduce crime rate in the district.

There is however, low appetite in youths in the gold-rich district when it comes to farming as most of them usually go for gold panning whose returns are much quicker and more.

Mrs Ndlovu called on youths to embark on farming saying those that were doing it were not regretting it. She said apart from Mzinyathini Irrigation Scheme there were other smaller irrigation schemes that were helping villagers.

“Umzingwane district villagers are already benefiting from different irrigation schemes. The district has six irrigation schemes but only three are benefiting the villagers. We have Umzinyathini, Portbury, Zimbili, Khomane, Kundudzi, and Duncan irrigation schemes. Among them, only Mzinyathini, Kundudzi and Portbury are currently functioning while some are not functioning due to lack of enough resources like fence while some have been vandalized by people,” said Mrs Ndlovu.

All the schemes are more than 10 hectares.

She appealed for assistance so that boreholes can be drilled to keep farmers working and sustaining their lives. – @ TichaKarubwa.