Solar powered drip irrigation enhances food security in Gwanda

Lazarus Sauti

Nothing good can come out of Gwanda it seems. 

The place is dangerously hot, lifeless and is characterised by low rainfall patterns. In fact, it resembles a desert.

Little can be grown, and malnutrition is the order of the day.

Many children in the area walk around with inflated bellies, a sign of kwashiorkor, a condition caused largely by a lack of protein and micronutrients in a person’s diet.

Matshokodo village which is in ward 8, Gwanda North, for instance, is surrounded by Mopane and different thorny trees – bushes that tell a sad water shortage story.

Even dogs in the village testify the hunger that engulfs Gwanda and its environs.

But thanks to a programme code named “Increasing food security for poor vulnerable households in Gwanda District of Zimbabwe”, implemented by Practical Action and supported by the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission (Joac), something good, too good is coming out of Gwanda.

The programme which saw the implementation of solar-powered drip irrigation in three villages so far in Gwanda North, rescues villagers who for far too long depended on food handouts from the government as well as civil society.

Masotsha Leslie Thsalibe, 60, chairman of the Matshokodo solar powered garden in ward 8 Sibula village, says the Joac-funded solar powered garden enables villagers to increase food security, at the same time fighting vices such as poverty.

“This place is hot and water is a challenge. Because of this, we used to plant a small portion, but thanks to Practical Action and Joac’s solar powered drip irrigation system, our lives are transformed,” he said, adding that the garden consists of 20 members, who irrigate both vegetables and maize on a hectare piece of land.

Of the 20 members, only six are men, while the rest are women

Thsalibe added: “Practical Action and Joac supported us with a six panel solar powered submersible pump submerged in Maleme river, a 10 000 litres holding tank, drip irrigation system and two taps. We are using the system to irrigate our crops: vegetables and maize.”

Regina Sibanda, 63, vegetable and tomato vendor, applauded Practical Action and Joac for providing villagers with solar powered gardens as well as imparting them with knowledge to increase crop production.

“We started to do gardening many years ago, but water and lack of enough knowledge to increase our production was a challenge. However, Practical Action, through its programme, served and empowered us with this solar powered garden as well as imparting necessary knowledge to increase crop production,” she said.

Sibanda added: “Here in Gwanda, like in most rural areas in the country, women and girls are responsible for hauling water by hand, often from very long distances.

“Nevertheless, the solar-powered irrigation system not only breaks seasonal rainfall dependence, but freed us from hauling water to grow vegetable crops, particularly during the dry season.”

Moddy Msebele, 69, concurs.

“The solar-powered irrigation scheme is our saviour as it provides us with a cost-effective way of delivering irrigation water, particularly during the long dry season. It also provides us with safe, clean drinking water,” she said.

Alfred Tshalibe, 70, village head, Matshokodo village applauded the projects saying it significantly enhanced household incomes and nutritional intake of villagers in his arid area.

“The solar powered garden is helping villagers to alleviate hunger and eradicate poverty in this area,” he said, adding, “Each household has two long vegetable beds and two long maize beds.”

The pump, notes Tshalibe, is buried in the sand and is tapping from the water table, making our dear lives safe and secure.

Melody Makumbe, projects manager, Sustainable Agriculture and Livelihoods programme at Practical Action says in Gwanda, as in many other parts of Zimbabwe, solar energy has an enormous, yet largely untapped, potential to increase food security in regions that experience a long dry season.

As a result, she adds, Practical Action, supported by Joac, is supporting villagers in Gwanda with solar powered gardens to overcome the endemic lack of water in the area.

“Through solar powered food gardens, we are not only promoting innovative and appropriate technology that is suitable for so many people in the wider Gwanda, but using that technology to fight hunger as well as alleviate poverty,” she added.

Makumbe also said Gwanda is a deficit area, and most products used in the area come from far-away places such as Mbare, Murehwa and Mutoko; therefore, they targeted community gardens to close that gap.

“Most farm produce consumed in Gwanda come from areas such as Mbare, Murehwa and Mutoko. This forced us to come up with dynamic solar powered gardens to improve food security, increase access to nutritious and sustainably-grown foods, and raise awareness about ecological practices,” she said.

Significantly, Makumbe believes that as in Gwanda, the solar powered garden can be replicated around the country to scale-up the use of solar energy so as to effectively empower rural communities lift themselves out of poverty and secure their future – WeekendPost.