17 March 2008
editorial
Ndola — IT cannot be doubted that Zambia has potential to undertake effective irrigation-based agriculture in nearly every corner of the country.
The amount of surface as well as underground water resources available in most parts of the country is enormous.
Vast amounts of water is collected during each rain season and most of it ends up as runoff to the major river systems up to the oceans as a waste.
The Government has championed irrigation as a viable and alternative avenue for Zambia's agriculture for a while now.
Under the ministry of agriculture, the Government has made available resources aimed at boosting irrigation farming in the country.
While the Government's commitment to develop irrigation has been constant, Zambian farmers have at times exhibited a lukewarm response to the development of irrigation.
This has partly been explained by the history of agriculture in the country, especially small and medium scale agriculture, which has mostly been synonymous with natural rainfall.
Notwithstanding this historical fact, it is also crucial to seek alternative means of meeting challenges and tasks that may mutate with changing circumstances.
This should be the preferred way forward for the country's agriculture in all parts of the country.
It is not scientifically certain that the earth's climate, as we have known it for generations, will continue unaltered.
If anything, science is illuminating a rather gloomy outlook for mankind in as far as the climatic conditions are concerned.
This may mean for instance, that the seasons as we know them bringing rainfall at a set time, year in year out, may not function with all that certainty in the near future.
It would become imperative at that time for agriculture to have adopted a more effective and sure way of forging ahead.
Other than through the concept of watering the plants artificially, otherwise called irrigation, as opposed to relying on natural rainfall, the options are rather limited.
The 80 small-scale farmers who have benefited from the peri-urban irrigation fund under the national irrigation facility are an undoubted testimony to the workability of irrigation in Zambia.
More heartening is the fact that the beneficiaries from the original disbursement of K1.2 billion are not commercial farmers but small-scale ones.
This means that irrigation is workable even in the remotest parts of the country among small operators.
Plans are already worked out to ensure that the disbursal of the fund is spread gradually to all the districts in the country.
This would ensure that the programme has a universal outreach and does not only cater for peri urban-based farmers.
The challenge then is for every farmer to respond to the initiative by the Government and ensure that this far-looking undertaking is a success for the future of Zambia's agriculture.
All the efforts should be brought to bear so that the programme moves ahead at a faster pace to cover most parts of the country.
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