Ntoroko farmers get sh407m irrigation scheme, hope for high production
The Government, through the water ministry, constructed Kiranga small scale irrigation scheme which is on 12 acres to enable farmers plant high value crops.
Savior Ampurire Bliss, a sociologist with the Ministry of Water and Environment checking the sprinklers after commissioning of the scheme. Photos by Adolf Ayoreka
NewVision Reporter
@NewVision
Crop farmers in Kiranga parish, Rwebisengo sub-county in Ntoroko district are hoping to have a boost in their production and productivity.
The boosting in hope comes after the Government commissioned a shillings 407 million Kiranga small-scale irrigation scheme that is expected to enable farmers to grow crops all year round.
The Government, through the water ministry, constructed Kiranga small scale irrigation scheme which is on 12 acres to enable farmers plant high value crops, such as watermelon, onions, tomatoes and eggplants throughout all sessions.
Christopher Kasaija, a host farmer and chairperson for farmers under Kiranga small scale irrigation scheme told New Vision that their association has majored in watermelons and that in one harvest, they are able to get around shillings eight million.
“Then when we add money from tomatoes and onions, we cannot fail to raise about shillings 10 to 12 million in one harvest. We hope that if the project remains in a good state with stable water supply, in a few years to come we hope to reap big from this project,” Kasaija said.
About the availability of the market, Kasaija said “we so far have a truck that enables us to transport our products to Bundibugyo, Fort Portal and sometimes Nakasero Market in Kampala when the production is high”.
District leadership, farmers and Ministry of Water and Environment officials in a group photo after commissioning of the scheme.
Kasaija, however, noted that the project faced serious challenges of floods from River Semuliki, which sometimes burst its banks and caused some parts of their crops to be submerged and bad roads connecting to our project.
“But we are grateful to the district leadership that they managed to work on our road, about the floods, we hired an excavator to dig trenches around our project and the recent floods didn’t affect us,” confirmed Kasaija.
Water ministry senior engineer Edward Babona said the ministry carried out a needs assessment and found out that the farmers in Kiranga parish like other farmers used to face the challenge of prolonged droughts and that this would affect their crop production and productivity.
“After implementation of this project, we realise that over 15 households are benefitting through commercial agriculture and that they can plant crops all year round hence improving the livelihoods among these households,” Babona said.
Ntoroko Resident District Commissioner Maj (rtd). Edward Jones Mugabirwe while commissioning the project on October 11, 2024, asked farmers to start thinking about practising crop farming alongside cattle keeping.
Mugabirwe told farmers that it’s high time to start thinking of diversifying their source incomes and stop getting stuck in only subsistence cattle keeping.
“Those cows you have are no longer a source of income and your families can no longer survive unless you switch to crop farming through utilization of this project that is going to quickly improve your livelihoods,” he said.
He committed that the district leadership will ensure that the scheme does not become a white elephant but rather used to achieve the Government’s goals of financial inclusion, commercial agriculture, increased crop production and productivity to be able to realize food security.
The construction of Kiranga small scale irrigation scheme started in 2019 but due to challenges ranging from the COVID-19 lockdown, and floods that used to disrupt the construction, it caused several project redesigns until when it was completed this year.
Kiranga small scale irrigation scheme abstracts its water from river semuliki, pumped to the water reservoirs by use of solar energy before water flows by gravity to the gardens through the sprinklers.