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Low-Cost Water Pumps To Boost Food Security By Lewis Machipisa HARARE, Jan (IPS) - In a region where engine-driven irrigation pumps are unaffordable for small-scale farmers, food security in Africa could be boosted by an increased use of locally produced low-cost water pumps, a UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report said.. Currently, most irrigation equipment in sub-Saharan Africa is imported. In most cases the equipment is beyond the reach of poor farmers and often inappropriate for use by small-scale farmers. According to the report, titled 'Treadle pumps for irrigation in Africa', only four per cent of arable land is under irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa. This compares to 24 per cent in Northern Africa, 37 per cent in Asia and 15 per cent in Latin America. The lack of proper irrigation schemes is contributing to the region's food insecurity. FAO estimates the number of chronically undernourished and hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa at 185.9 million or 34 per cent of the population. In southern Sudan, more than three million people are facing serious food shortages due to ongoing civil conflict and an emerging drought, a recent joint report issued by FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP) noted. Nearly two million people have died in Sudan's civil war and related famines since May 1983. In Ethiopia, some 6.2 million peasants, hit by drought, need food aid. Ethiopia has appealed for 470,000 metric tonnes of food aid and 21.4 million dollars to feed starving population this year. According to the 2000 "State of food insecurity in the world", 826 million people around the world do not get enough to eat -- 792 million people in developing countries and another 34 million in industrialised countries and countries in transition. Despite pledges made at the 1996 World Food Summit to reduce by half the number of hungry people in the world by 2015, the situation is not improving. Part of the reason could be that many African farmers are still using bucket-lifting technologies, which are slow, cumbersome and labour intensive to irrigate very small plots of land, FAO said. Water lifting rates are only between 0.5 and one cubic metre per hour. Treadle pumps, noted for their user-friendliness, can be used in a comfortable way, the farmer stands on the treadles, pressing the pistons up and down, lifting up to five cubic metres per hour. ''Small-scale irrigation is seen as one of the success stories in many countries in Africa, at a time when large-scale developments have failed to come up to expectations,'' the report noted. ''It is usually developed privately by farmers in response to family and local market requirements, without the need for government interventions. This has been at the heart of its success,'' the report added. Case studies from Kenya, Niger, Zambia and Zimbabwe show that by using treadle pumps farmers could increase irrigated land, reduce work time compared to bucket irrigation, improve crop quality, grow new crops and increase the number of cropping cycles. In Zambia, FAO's Special Programme for Food Security, now operational in more than 60 countries, has contributed considerably to the use of small pumps. Around 200 treadle pumps have been installed on demonstration sites. This has contributed to a wider adoption of pumps in Zambia. The economic benefits of small pumps have been significant for farmers. In Zambia, incomes have risen more than six-fold from 125 dollars achieved with bucket irrigation on 0.25 hectare of land to between 850 and 1,700 dollars using treadle pumps. In some cases cropping intensity could be extended to three crops per year. In Zimbabwe, treadle pumps are mostly used for irrigation of small vegetable gardens. As a result, family nutrition has improved in most areas. Another advantage of treadle pumps is that they do not contribute to the depletion of valuable ground water resources, according to the FAO report. In general, these pumps can only reach shallow ground water resources within six metres. ''The costs of buying, running and maintaining engine-driven irrigation pumps are too high for many small farmers in developing countries,'' said Tom Brabben of the International Programme for Technology and Research in Irrigation and Drainage, sponsored by FAO and the World Bank. ''Treadle
pumps are cheaper and easier to handle, they can contribute to higher
food production and create employment and income if pumps are produced
locally,'' he said. ''For poor farmers this is a viable first step
towards irrigated agriculture.'' ''If we want to achieve 'more crop
per drop' in Africa, small water pumps that fit into the social
and economic environment, will have to play a bigger role,'' Brabben
said.(END/IPS) |
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