The Future of Smallholder Farming in Eastern Africa - Uganda ...

• Leave as much natural vegetation in and around the fields as possible. (Note this
recommendation is particularly challenging, due to the threat of cereal eating birds destroying
the crops.)
• Natural wetlands to be left between the rice fields to cater for endangered fauns and preserve
vegetation important to the community for building materials and crafts.
• Limit use of chemical controls to avoid pollution and poisoning of wildlife.
• Confine rice cultivation to wetland fringes (e.g. harvesting water for release in to the rice
fields leaving the main water system intact for fish habitat.)
• Promote runoff water harvesting techniques and simple treadle pumps for watering of upland
varieties to reduce swamp pressure.
• Promote research and dissemination on upland rice varieties as an alternative.
3.5.2 Summary of Issues and Recommendations
Because of the current low level of irrigation, Africa is in the enviable position of being able to
learn from the rest of the world’s mistakes in forging its irrigation policies. Some of these
important lessons include:
• Large scale subsidized irrigation schemes are management intensive and often uneconomical.
They have usually created the wrong incentive structures for water control and management
resulting in lowered water tables, salinization of extensive areas, and poor track records for
maintenance and sustainability.
• Individual initiative will continue to push the margins of irrigated agriculture to respond to
the urgent food needs of a growing population. Wetland protection policies must be
structured in such a manner as to encourage best practices, rather than simply stopping
production. The current ban on cultivation within 100 meters of a major water body is
unrealistic and makes small-scale irrigation too expensive to serve the needs of the small
producers who are potentially the most ecologically friendly water users.
• It is urgent that we introduce the right incentives to limit over-use of water to prevent lowered
water tables, and expanding salization.
• There is tremendous potential for adaptation of low-cost small-scale technologies perfected in
Asia (treadle pumps and drip irrigation systems), which are more environmentally friendly
and economically suited for the transition from subsistence to small-scale commercial
production.
• Commercially oriented distribution systems for low cost technologies need to initially be
facilitated and supported to grow to an economically viable scale of operation, but once
established, they can then achieve financial sustainability.
• Pressures for expanded irrigated acreage need to be channeled in the right direction by a
combination of “push” and “pull” incentives. Pushing farmers out of fragile and unsuited
environments through appropriately formulated community controls on wetland drainage and
cultivation, and pulling them into more sustainable fringe cultivation with the availability of
appropriate low cost technologies for water delivery, soil fertility management and improved
upland varieties.