When deeds speak, words are nothing

Improving food security:
One drip at a time
It is a daunting challenge to produce
enough food for the growing Nile Basin
population, and climate change makes
farming even tougher.
Sarah Natoolo
Kampala, Uganda
According to the World Bank, agriculture is the
backbone of Uganda’s economy, employing
70 percent of the population and contributing
half of Uganda’s export earnings and a quarter
of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The sector so far relies heavily on rain-fed
agriculture. But changing weather patterns amid
climate change means that areas where rainfall
used to be average now face unpredictable
precipitation throughout the year, making it
harder for farmers to meet food demand.
The challenge across the region is to provide
an environment that enables farmers to draw
on the water where needed and use it in the most
effective and sustainable way possible. Where
water supplies are already under pressure, improving
the productivity of water use in agriculture
would free up water for other uses.
Irrigation, applying controlled amounts of
water to plants, is an effective method to ensure
food production all year round whilst minimising
the pressure on water sources, provided that
efficient irrigation technologies, like drip and
sprinkler irrigation, are used.
Hellen Machika, a small-scale farmer in
Kasongo, a Kampala city suburb, is among
the Ugandan farmers who have benefited from
switching to irrigation in the face of climate
change. “I’m able to grow crops, whether it’s
dry season or not,” she says, adding that it helps
her “to maximise the prices of crops when they
are out of season”.
Machika started farming high commercial
vegetables in 2013 using drip irrigation. “With
drip irrigation, water utilisation is very efficient.
“Help farmers
acquire irrigation
systems by
subsidising it.”
I only give water where my plant is, right at the
root of the plant. You find that even weeds don’t
grow where there’s no water and fertilisers,”
she says, adding that she has never regretted
the move away from rain-fed agriculture.
However, many farmers don’t use the available
irrigation technologies due to their high
investment costs. “An irrigation system is very
expensive,” says Machika. “The government
can help farmers acquire irrigation systems
by subsidising it,” she suggests, for example,
by “taking away taxes”, therefore “making it
affordable to every farmer”.
The Government of Uganda has highlighted
irrigation in all national development plans as
one of the strategies that will propel the country
to middle-income status.
“The irrigation potential for Uganda alone
is about three million hectares. But currently,
when you look at what our irrigation is, we
are reaching 200,000 hectares,” says Sowedi
Sewagudde, the Assistant Commissioner,
International and Transboundary Water Affairs
in the Ministry of Water and Environment
in Uganda.
Besides, says Sewagudde, “Uganda needs
to utilise the vast natural resources to boost the
country’s food production”.
A Ministry of Water and Environment
engineer, Godfrey Hashakimana, confirms
that the aim is to promote irrigation on a large
scale by using the Nile.
“In terms of Uganda utilising the Nile to
ensure that we will increase food production,
as a ministry, we are looking at having bulk
water transfers to farmers. The Nile is a very
good asset and, of course, as a country, we need
to protect it,” says Hashakimana.
Sewagudde, meanwhile, believes Uganda
can “easily irrigate and grow food which they
can export to other basin countries”.
The potential benefits of modern irrigation
technologies are immense, offering a method
of boosting the food yield per unit of water
used, a critical factor in agricultural adaptation.
“A productive and climate-smart agriculture
sector requires an effective enabling environment.
Providing that environment is the role
of the government,” says Holger Kray, Practice
Manager, Agriculture and Food Security at
The World Bank.
However, Uganda’s strategy to increase
the use of modern irrigation technologies should
first and foremost follow a farmer-centred
approach that provides financial support as
suggested by Machika and a knowledge transfer
on how to use the technology and maximise
its benefits.
With access to more finance, more efficient
farming and climate-smart practices, Uganda
will reach its potential in agricultural returns,
making farming more productive and profitable
for Ugandan farmers.
Top:
A drip irrigation line.
Photo: Flickr / Joby Elliott
Above:
Hellen Machika on her farm
in Kasongo.
Photo: The Niles / Sarah
Natoolo
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