Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
6.3.2
Plot size and fertilizer use
Within the study area, the measured farm sizes for small reservoirs range
from 0.005-0.58 ha, 0.005-0.09 ha for permanent shallow wells, 0.125-1.0 ha
for large reservoirs, 0.2-1.0 ha for riverine water, 0.006-0.08 ha for the
temporal shallow wells and 0.05-0.7 ha for riverine alluvial dugouts.
The application of chemical fertilizers and agro-chemicals is common to all
irrigation technologies in the sub-basin. The survey in the three watersheds
showed that 100% of farmers use NPK, 32% use Urea and 59% use Sulphate
of Ammonia for their crops. In both countries less than 10% of farmers use
manure to support their chemical fertilizer because most farmers gather
animal droppings during the dry season for their rainy season farming.
Fertilizer application is an expensive component of irrigation farming. The
cost of fertilizer was fairly stable during the 2007/2008 irrigation season; the
cost of NPK (15-15-15) was US$0.50/kg, US$1.12/kg for Urea and
US$0.64/kg for Sulphate of Ammonia.
After the fruiting of the tomatoes the farmers spray the tomatoes with other
yield inducing chemicals such as
harvestmore
,
superforce
,
19-19-19
and
growfull
. The quantities applied per farm area however differed from farmer
to farmer due to differences in individual financial capacity and the
perception of adequacy. For this reason the nutrient intake by the crops
differs from farmer to farmer which translates to yield differences.
The farmers control diseases and pests with agrochemicals, which are applied
at different quantities by the farmers and this is also based on differences in
farm sizes financial capacity and experience.
6.3.3 Amount of water applied by irrigation
technologies
Watering of crops is the main activity of irrigation farming throughout the
season. Water applied differs for each technology and depends on the water
application method and water availability. The watering schedules for small
and large reservoirs are determined by the WUA and the management of the
large irrigation scheme respectively. There are no measures to ensure or
regulate the quantity of water per plot, rather farmers decide on the quantity
of water they apply on their farms without regulation or technical advice.
The WUAs plan their own water scheduling for the irrigation season based
on the water level in the reservoir at various stages of the season. As a result
the water schedule differs among the small reservoirs and can change during
the irrigation season.
Farmers using shallow wells and abstracting water with rope and bucket
water their crops twice a day (morning and evening), every day or thrice a
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