The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Irrigation

 Irrigation: Solutions from within?

A story that caught my attention a while ago, was the story of “The boy who harnessed the wind”. It is about a teenage boy growing up in Malawi during the famine in 2001/2 caused by a flood, followed by a drought. The boy – William Kamkwamba – and his family experience a total loss of their crops and hence, a loss of their livelihood and income. William is curious and inventive, finally finding a solution to irrigate the land by using the power of the wind. This true story made me decide to dedicate my second post to the irrigation difficulties on the African continent.

The National Geographic Society defines irrigation as the watering of crops “by bringing in water from pipes, canals, sprinklers, or other man-made means, rather than relying on rainfall alone”. This kind of irrigation would be able to boost the agricultural activities in Africa by at least 50 %, nevertheless, the food production is currently almost completely rainfed.

Areas equipped for irrigation in percentage of land area (Source)

This map visualises the areas equipped for irrigation in percentage of land area. Compared to European, South and East Asian countries, there are only a very few areas equipped for irrigation in African countries. The irrigated area as a share of total cultivated area is estimated at only 6 % for Africa, compared with 37 % for Asia and 14 %t for Latin America (International Food Policy Research Institute, 2010).

Since a large part of the population on the African continent relies on farming and food production, many people demand a stronger focus on agricultural development. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute 85% of the poor live in rural areas and therefore rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. It is a widespread assumption that improving food production through irrigation could also be the end of hunger and poverty. But various factors, such as geographic, hydrologic, agronomic, and economic circumstances of a certain place have to be considered in irrigation. Otherwise, the irrigation of agricultural land will be neither viable nor sustainable.

There are many different types of irrigation techniques, traditional and modernized. While traditional ways of irrigation mainly occur on small scale farms, the large-scale estate farms use modernized techniques.

Tanzania can be taken as an example of three different categories of irrigation farming: 

1. The traditional small holder irrigation, owned by individual and /or groups of farmers, which cover scattered and relatively small areas of land. They draw their water from rivers, springs and larger river flood plains. 79% of the total irrigated land in Tanzania is covered by this category. Problems with traditional irrigation are often the lack of drainage (and therefore the accumulation of salt), soil erosion, seepage and flood damage. But it is not always problematic. Traditional irrigation generates a large income in the slack period for rain-fed cultivation in Nigeria (REPOA, 2001).

2. The modern small-scale holder or village irrigation schemes. These are mostly planned and constructed by the local government which also covers most of the costs for the essential constructions. But even though a lot of money was invested into this irrigation scheme, it was unsuccessful most of the times. This is due to the often-inequitable distribution of water and lack of maintenance of built canals in many cases, which results in conflicts between the farmers.

 3. The large-scale irrigated private/public farms. Crops are mainly grown for export and/or local consumption here. The irrigation systems are very efficient, but need a lot of capital investment and well-trained workers. These farms are often owned by private or parastatal companies.

To return to the beginning of this post: to irrigate the land, we do not only need modern and costly inventions, but also ideas and strategies from within. The majority of small-scale farmers can’t afford a complex irrigation system and do not know how to maintain them without training. Instead, we should focus on the potential for traditional irrigation practices in increasing agricultural production. William Kamkwamba is now the founder of his own organisation, called “Moving Windmills”. Their goal is to build community and empower problem solvers. They work in partnership with local leaders and resilient farmers to secure a viable future for Malawi’s families. Their projects vary from building water pumps powered by sustainable energy to educating the youth to create a solid foundation for Malawi’s agricultural future, which will face floods and droughts in the same season again, caused by climate changes.