Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
MOFA has estimated that this technology could potentially irrigate an
additional 10,000ha in the Upper East Region (Birner et al., 2005). The
limitation of this technology is that the option exists only along the
perennial White Volta River, which crosses four of the eight Districts in the
Upper East. As a result of upscaling, land rents along this river are becoming
expensive.
Infrastructure and Irrigation Technology (Water abstraction,
transportation and application)
There is no physical water infrastructural development under this technology.
Farmers rather invest heavily in water abstraction and water transportation
equipment. The majority of the farmers use diesel pumps to abstract water
from the river (see
Figure 5.5a
) while others use petrol pumps. Most use
aluminium or pvc pipes (100- 150mm in diameter) to convey water to their
fields, with a few using water hoses
(Figure 5.5b
). Water application is by
means of furrow irrigation (identical to the small reservoir irrigation
technology, see section 5.3.1).
Bio-physical features
Riverine irrigation systems are mainly used to cultivate tomatoes followed by
onions and in some cases pepper. The farm sizes range from 0.4ha to 6ha
especially with tomato farms. Most irrigators employ labour. There are
permanent labourers who live on the farm throughout the irrigation season.
Riverine Irrigation systems are not fenced due to the sizes of the farms and
labourers keep livestock from the fields.
Irrigation farmers located downstream of irrigation schemes are sometimes
negatively impacted when the streams dry up before the irrigation
authorities release water from the reservoir. When situations like this arise
the riverine water irrigators compete for the remaining water in the stream
and in the worst case resort to riverine alluvial dugouts to water their crops
until they receive water from the upstream releases. This phenomenon
mostly dictates the size of the plot that the farmer can cultivate in the
season.
The irrigation farmers in riverine irrigation schemes are mainly men; women
are employed as labourers for the transplanting and harvesting of tomatoes.
Management
Farmers located downstream of large reservoir irrigation schemes are not
organised and thus manage their farms individually. However in some places
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