Rehabilitation Project
This project is a part of our shared program with Africa Sand Dam Foundation. Our team is pleased to directly share the below report (edited for clarity, as needed).
Drip Irrigation for Kee SHG
This is the first time ASDF has been able to fund an irrigation component of their work. Because ASDF works with Self Help Groups (SHG) for a period of 5 years, they are fortunate to witness in real time, the growth and development of a SHG. A SHG begins with a Sand Dam and a shallow well. Once a group and a dam have matured the natural process is to begin cultivating and terracing land for farm use.
Kee is a self help group that The Water Project is very familiar with. Together with our donors, we have funded the construction of three sand dams an shallow wells over the past couple years. Click the links below to see those projects:
Once farmers’ crops begin to grow, the following progression is for SHG members is to collectively purchase a generator so that can easily pump water from the sand dam to the area where their crops are located. Although this works well, it uses large amounts of water and fuel.
At this point the maturation of the group proves that they are ready to handle the management of a drip irrigation system. Kee SHG has been approved for a drip irrigation system. The group has been continually successful in growing and selling crops. Kee has 5 sand dams and has been working with ASDF for 3 years. They have a profitable demonstration garden and have been successfully selling crops for the past 2.5 years. They also use their demonstration garden to show new SHGs what a successful terraced farm looks like. For this reason, Kee SHG requested and was chosen to begin working with irrigation systems.
The key objective of the drip projects is to promote food security by sustainable use of water from the sand dams. The groups have already been planting vegetables using a furrow method that uses high amounts of water and fuel for the pumping generators, eating into their profits and reducing the acreage of land that the groups can invest in for farming.
This group comes from densely populated area, which has an average of 2500 households. Because of the different household sizes, needs, and other uses for water, it is paramount for the group to invest in updated methods such as drip irrigation for farming to best utilize the water with other competing uses.
The drip projects will be implemented on one-acre piece of land that the groups have donated to use for food growing and sites for learning. The pieces of land shall also be used as demonstration plots for learning, which will be replicated back at the household level in order to boost food production.
PROJECT UPDATE
The group has already prepared their farms and set up the land that will be used to plant crops. The drip kit and tank have both been procured. Currently, the construction of the stands upon where the tank will be mounted is in progress. The group has also been advised on the right way to plant the crops, so the entire project is estimated to be complete by the week of November 16.
PROJECT RESULTS: DRIP IRRIGATION
The drip installation process started in the month of September with the procurement and delivery of the kits to the community. The kits delivered were for a one-acre Kee SHG plot of land on October 7. Land preparation for Kee SHG began on October 15 and ended on the 17th. Land preparation involved the application of manure to fertilise the farm, the laying of the barrow beds upon which the drip line would be laid on. The next step was the preparation of the stands that would be used to support the water tanks with an average capacity of 5000 litres. The tanks had to be raised about one metre-high on a concrete stand and water pumped into the tank. This would allow the water from the tank to flow by gravity through the drip lines directed to the crops. The tanks were fully installed from November 15-17.
The drip kits for both projects were finally installed on the 23rd of November.
