Smallholder Farmers Irrigation In Africa

Smallholder farmers irrigation in Africa is carried out in small plots of land. Small farm irrigation systems deliver water to commercial and subsistence crops. With climate change, weather patterns are unpredictable and more and more African farmers now irrigate to mitigate against this. Grekkon Limited is as an African irrigation firm is at the forefront of providing and training African smallholder farmers on modern irrigation echnology.  In this article, we answer commonly asked questions about smallholder farmers irrigation in Africa

1.What is smallholder farmers’ irrigation?

Smallholder farmers irrigation is the watering of crops on farms measuring a few acres. This is for both commercial and subsistence needs

2. What method do farmers use to irrigate their crops?

The main method of irrigation for smallholder farmers in Africa is furrow irrigation. It is time consuming, labour intensive, and water inefficient. Only farmers in locations where there are permamnent water sources such as lakes, resevoirs, and rivers

3. What is furrow irrigation?

It is manual watering of the crop through small parallel channels along the field length in the direction of the predominant slope. Water flows from the top end of the channel under gravity.

Grekkon Limited has introduced and is continuously training smallholder farmers on other types of irrigation systems for agriculture.

4. What are the 4 types of irrigation trained by Grekkon Limited to smallholder farmers in Africa?

1. Drip irrigation; an irrigation system where water drips to the soil next to the crop’s roots at a low rate. The system has small tubes fitted with emitters or drippers from which water flows. Farmers who want to conserve water adopt this irrigation method. It is the most expensive to install, most water efficient, and the easiest to run

 

2. Overhead irrigation; this one waters from above so that droplets fall on the crop from the top. Sprinklers or the center pivot system are examples

 

3. Rain hose irrigation; pioneered first in Kenya by Grekkon Limited, this system waters from the base t push out water vertically and laterally under high pressure

 

4. Subsurface irrigation; special drip lines below the surface close to the crop to water directly to the root system

5. What type of irrigation is best?

Drip irrigation is the best system because it conserves water, and is easy to use