DEVELOPMENT OF IRRIGATION FARMING IN MUSAKASHI

By HAPPY MULOLANI Irrigation farming is one of the priorities of the Government of Zambia. According to the Seventh National Development Plan, 2017-2021, Government has reiterated its commitment to ensure water resources are properly harnessed, developed and managed in order to enhance socio-economic development. Despite Zambia being endowed with abundant water resources, its uptake remains very low. This is confirmed by Southern African Development Community (SADC), which notes irrigated land presently stands at 7 percent of available irrigable land, as opposed to 70 percent in developed nations. In Zambia, the irrigable potential is 400,000 ha of which only about 100,000 ha is being irrigated. Thus, government endeavours to empower rural livelihoods through irrigable and improved food security and increased income. As such, Government of Zambia partnered with the International Development Association (IDA) under the World Bank to finance bulk water irrigation infrastructure development under the Irrigation Development Support Project (IDSP). IDSP is an irrigation infrastructure Development project under the Ministry of Agriculture valued at a cost of US$115million. The Government of Zambia contributed US$23million towards the implementation of the programme which began in 2011. This initiative is in line with the National Irrigation policy. The initial objective of IDSP is to increase yields per hectare and value of diverse products marketed by smallholders benefitting from investments in irrigation in selected project sites. However, Ministry of Agriculture Technical Services Branch Deputy Director Stanslous Chisakuta, explains after evaluation of the attainment of the programme’s objective to achievable benchmarks, the objective was revised as: “to provide improved access to irrigation services in selected sites in the recipient’s territory”. Mr. Chisakuta says the project is presently being implemented in three categories- group one sub-project sites of Lusitu in Chirundu in Lusaka province, Mwomboshi in Chisamba in Central province and Musakashi in Mufulira on the Copperbelt province. The project’s aim is meant to compensate people that have been re-located to identified areas and resettled. Against this backdrop, government identified Musakashi area, a rural outpost which lies 15 kilometres west of Mufulira district. It is bordered by Chambishi, Kalulushi, and Chingola respectively on the Copperbelt province. With 462 farmers, a number of significant features meant to operationalise Musakashi resettlement scheme are feasible. Musakashi District Liaison Officer Abraham Mulenga reveals 1, 200 hectares of land is being developed for irrigation purposes. The project has resettled individuals and also compensated some individuals who had title deeds under set criteria. Mr. Mulenga explains that the scheme will operate on the basis of a 3-tier system. Firstly, Tier 1 is meant for small-scale farmers who have been displaced and resettled in designated resettlement areas. Secondly, Tier 2 is a category for emergent farmers, cooperatives and farm companies. These entities can cultivate land ranging from five hectares to 15 hectares. And they can access this land by applying through the Musakashi Community Land Trust (CLT). Lastly, Tier 3 is meant for a commercial investor or any individuals with the capacity to utilize 700 hectares net irrigable which will be prepared by the project. The investor is expected to run the investment on a public private partnership for 25 years. The identified land under Tier 3 will be prepared by the project. Following the outlined 3 Tiers, Government and IDSP with support from the World Bank devised modalities of apportioning land to individuals through the Community Land Trust. Each resettled individual in the scheme has been allocated 2.5 hectares whereas individuals displaced with title deeds have been compensated and resettled. The project has constructed 113 houses at a value cost of K11, 318.105. These constructed housing units have enabled people in the area to have access to decent accommodation, of which some individuals never had prior to IDSP’s intervention. The scheme has three significant features which include pump house, fore bay and reservoir which is under construction and is expected to be complete by October this year. According to Mr. Mulenga, construction works of this multi million project valued at a cost of US$8.2 million also includes access roads. “Once construction works of the facility are launched, Musakashi farmers will be empowered as they will have access to irrigate various crops meant to improve their livelihoods,” says Mr. Mulenga. Musakashi Community Land Trust Secretary Elvis Mwansa describes how some individuals in the area resisted the resettlement programme during the inception meetings with IDSP project staff and Ministry of Agriculture staff. “At first when IDSP and government officers came to explain their intentions of resettling and compensating people in the area in order to create an irrigation scheme, some people were skeptical. Some even left Musakashi to other areas,” says Mr. Mwansa. However, Community Land Trust member Getrude Namenda says most people started believing what the project had promised when they saw houses being constructed and people resettled as well as those who had title deeds compensated. At this point, some people who had even left the area, decided to come back in order to benefit from the programme. Mrs. Namenda is of the view the success of the resettling programme is based on transparency of administering land through the Community Land Trust in Musakashi. “There was no discrimination in the way people were resettled and compensated in Musakashi. That is way most people welcomed the whole idea especially after all the construction works became feasible,” says Mrs. Namenda. As she observes people are now united after successfully completing the resettlement programme. What has also encouraged most farmers in the area is the manner in which allocation of land has been effected with less hurdles. As IDSP Safeguard Specialist Moono Kanjelesa reveals all the identified land for the scheme was state land. This land was all brought together after undergoing through the process of identification. The identification of eligible individuals affected was done through the Community Land Trust (CLT). “CLTs mandate has played a critical role in ensuring land is rightfully apportioned to affected beneficiaries,” says Mrs. Kanjelesa. She points out that project staff and Ministry of Agriculture staff are ex-officials whose role is merely to provide guidance. This approach enables CLTs to rightly fully identify people that need to be compensated and resettled within the scheme because communities know themselves and are likely to be more transparent in terms of who rightly benefits from acquiring land under the resettlement scheme. This approach applies to all other resettlement schemes – Lusitu and Mwomboshi in Chirundu and Chisamba respectively. One of the unique features of this land in the scheme is that farmers have security through title deeds to their individual apportioned land. Their individual title deeds fall under the parent title deed. “Title deeds are a form of security which guarantees a sense of ownership of land,” says Mrs. Kanjelesa. With all these strides, farmers remain optimistic to participate in the different agriculture activities which are aimed at improving their household food security and increased income. It is envisaged IDSP’s strides aimed at empowering farmers through irrigation farming will bear fruit once the scheme is fully functional and that farmers will utilise their allocated land productively to improve their livelihoods.