In Rural Mozambique, Bank-Funded Irrigation Systems Bring Back Life and Hope to Small Farmers
Thanks to improvements in irrigation systems in the rural district of Vanduzi, in the Manica Province, local smallholder farmers are now growing maize and vegetable crops in irrigated land. Prior to the project’s investments, water collection was insufficient and could barely cover the needs of farmers, which drove some to abandon agriculture altogether and migrate to cities.
“Irrigation gives you control over water, and not the other way around. Water shouldn’t control you,” emphasized Isac Queface, the chairman of the local farmers’ association in what is known as Camp 4. “Today, people in our community consider the farming of baby corn and piri-piri as their new future, given their highly marketable characteristics,” he added. “We now live from our production. I managed to build my brick house with four rooms. It’s only missing the roof, which will be built in the next couple of months,” he concluded while displaying a sample of baby corn production from his farm.
Thanks to PROIRRI interventions, the irrigated area in the Vanduzi fields has been expanded. Newly built canals use gravity to encourage a flow of water along the fields, covering 20 times the area initially irrigated. In the district of Vanduzi alone, the project built 11 of such irrigation schemes covering a total area of more than 1,500 hectares, which are used mainly for the production of vegetables and cereals.
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