Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
implemented at both Vea and Tono, but on almost all occasions the Vea
scheme has underperformed.
However, the lessons of Vea guided ICOUR management not to repeat the
same mistakes at Tono. In practice at Tono, the village committees sign a
tenancy agreement with the management over some land holdings for 5
years. Each village committee farmer is allocated a 0.2-0.6ha plot, but
contract farmers can have up to 5ha of a plot. Based on their performance at
the end of the period the tenancy agreement is reviewed. The extension unit
of ICOUR assists the village committees to do the allocation to farmers
seasonally. The lateral leaders collect the water levies of farmers along their
laterals and pay to ICOUR. After this the extension service conducts a crop
survey to confirm farmer names and holdings as submitted by lateral heads.
4.4 D
ATA
A
NALYSIS
4.4.1 Productivity of the schemes
Adopting the productivity definition by Molden et al. (2003), irrigation
productivity relates to the net socioeconomic and environmental benefits
achieved through the use of water for irrigation. One of the reasons necessary
for assessing the irrigation productivity is the need to meet rising food
demands from a growing, wealthier and increasingly urbanized population in
the context of water scarcity. The productivity of both schemes is assessed
under two categories being crop productivity and water productivity. Data
used for the productivity analysis are recorded figures obtained from the
management organisation.
Crop Productivity
The crop productivity of both schemes is analysed based on the cultivated
areas against developed areas, crop yield against the potential yield over the
years and the trend of production achieved so far. Both schemes have two
main seasons of production with the main irrigation occurring in the dry
season and supplementary irrigation in the wet season (only in Tono).
Crops so far cultivated in the Vea irrigation scheme in the dry season are
rice, tomato, soybean, cowpea, onion and pepper; and in the wet season rice,
groundnut, soybean, maize cowpea and sorghum/millet. In the Tono scheme
crops grown in the dry season include rice, tomatoes, onions, pepper,
soybean, cowpea, paprika and groundnut; and in the wet season rice,
soybean, cowpea, groundnut, maize, sorghum, millet and cotton (Table 4.4).
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