The irony of rice fields drying up at an irrigation scheme

When farming close to a large water source, farmers expect that the biggest worry of water scarcity should be a thing of the past.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for a number of farmers at the Bura Irrigation Scheme in Tana River County, where their rice fields are drying up.

Massive losses

Acres of rice fields at Village Six are drying up due to inadequate water for irrigation, hence plunging farmers into massive losses.

The situation has lasted more than three weeks, forcing the farmers to use donkeys and carts to ferry water to irrigate their farms to save them from absolute loss.

Francis Kiarie - a farmer, notes that more than eight acres of his farm have been affected, hence a loss of more than Sh400,000.

"I took a loan to do this and I had high hopes when I started. I was looking into making more than Sh1.5 million, but as it appears, this is impossible," he said.

Tedious and costly

Mr Kiarie notes that every day, he has been forced to ferry water using a cart, a tedious and costly exercise.

In a single day, the farmer says he spends more than Sh2,000, as he pays the cart mover Sh100 for each of the 20 trips he makes for the water.

"There is water in the scheme, we see it flow from the gates every day but we don't see it in our farms. It is heartbreaking because I never see rice plants drying in the irrigation scheme," he laments.

Patrick Ambagwa, another farmer affected by the dry spell predicts losing more than 12 acres of rice plantation if the water problem is not resolved soon.

"I have a lot of pests to manage in the field. If I can't get my rice irrigated, then I have lost all battles in farming," he said.

Water scarcity

He says that water scarcity in the irrigation scheme has been a perennial problem and threatens the growth of the scheme.

His sentiments are echoed by Pauline Ngugi - another farmer, who says the water problem is likely to kill rice farming in Bura.

"It does not look like a normal thing, it looks like a plot against some section of farmers and when this happens, an entire village hurts because a source of income is affected," she said.

Ms Ngugi further notes that the dykes that used to help the farmers have since been destroyed and are now the breeding grounds for thorny weeds.

Also, she claims that the gate valves are not controlled proportionately, hence the rationing procedure, which is unfair to some farms.

"If you go to the valves and see how they are opened to some, you will see where the bias begins, two or three farms will be irrigated while the rest of the farms remain dry for another week," she said.

Blame the government 

The farmers blame the government for their water crisis, noting that the current system of irrigation was not designed for rice farming hence the challenges.

"There seems to be a deliberate effort to drag the gravity canal project," said John Macharia- a farmer.

Mr Macharia notes that the project was meant to uplift farming in the Bura Irrigation Scheme, but has since consumed billions with no benefit coming from it.

The use of diesel pumps has been a major limitation in the sustainability and further expansion of the scheme due to the high maintenance cost.

Bura Irrigation Scheme Manager James Kirimi said that the problem at Village Six of the irrigation scheme was a result of faulty valves that interfered with the flow of water.

"The farmers did not report the problem to us in good time. It was fixable and we have already resolved it, the flow has resumed," he claimed.

He denounced claims that the problem lasted three weeks, noting that the rationing routine is split at intervals of three days in every farm segment.

Huge burden

However, he notes that the completion of the gravity canal will relieve the irrigation scheme from a huge burden, as it shall be able to accommodate rice farming among other crops that need a lot of water to propagate.

"Once the project is finished next year, the water problems we have will cease, we shall then focus on more production and expansion," he said.