Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
(1992) name efficient management, relatively low-cost infrastructure, low
operating costs, good technical design, and availability of agronomically
suitable crops and cropping systems as conditions for success of Semry I and
II.
Interestingly, Office du Niger irrigation scheme which was once considered as
one of the failures of large irrigation schemes is now praised as a success.
When Mali's Office du Niger (ON) irrigation scheme embarked on a reform
in the 1980s, all stakeholders agreed on the need for reforms, but no one was
certain what the results might be. Now, two decades later, the impact as
reported by Aw and Diemer (2005) is extraordinary. Between 1982 and 2002,
rice yields have quadrupled, total production has increased sixfold, incomes
have increased dramatically while supporting a four-times larger population,
agriculture has diversified, cropping intensities have increased and food
security has improved. Maintenance of irrigation infrastructure is fully paid
by farmers, who have organized themselves to be fully involved in the
management of the scheme. A buoyant private sector has emerged, making a
sustainable living out of milling, trading and transporting rice; providing
farmers with credit; manufacturing farm equipment and selling farm inputs.
The ON has become an attractive investment opportunity for investors who
want to expand irrigation to enhance and accelerate the important
contribution irrigated agriculture is making to the national economy of Mali
(Aw and Diemer, 2005).
The Bura system in Kenya, built between 1977 and 1984, is a classic
example of a failed large-scale project. At the initial appraisal stage,
irrigation was planned for 6,000 hectares, at an estimated cost of US$98
million. However, additional appraisals identified soil problems, including
salinity, high sodium content and low subsoil permeability that resulted in a
reduction of the area to be irrigated to 3,900 hectares. At the same time,
costs escalated to US$128 million, which meant that the unit cost increased
to US$32,000 per ha (Lele and Subramanian 1990; Adams 1990; Moris and
Thom 1990). Currently about 1,000ha are irrigated and a third of the settler
farmers have returned to their rural areas (National Irrigation Board, Kenya,
2007).
Investigations conducted by Inocencio et al., (2007) on the development
trend of large irrigation schemes in sub-Saharan Africa revealed that since
the 1970s donor agencies have invested more into the rehabilitation of
existing large irrigation schemes than the development of new ones. With
Africa lagging behind other continents in irrigation development, there is the
need to maximise the productivities of existing large scale irrigation schemes
and consider the most apporpriate options for future irrigation development.
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