Address challenges of rain-fed agriculture with practical solutions

Last year, I ventured into commercial farming and invested a considerable amount of money which unfortunately I lost due to a prolonged drought. The year 2016 was tough for farmers countrywide as the rains did not fall when they should have and certainly not in the amounts expected. In Soroti where I was, we had very little rain while in Busoga where a friend was growing the exact same crops as I was, they had too much rain resulting in flooding and water logging. Climate change is both a global and national problem and our policy makers must accept that our agro-based economy can no longer rely on purely rain-fed agriculture. That would be playing Russian roulette with the elements. The odds of success are just not in our favour.

Come along President Museveni advising and demonstrating to farmers how to irrigate their gardens using a bicycle and jerrycan to fetch water. The President was widely criticised with his solution ridiculed as simplistic and impractical. I initially agreed with this assessment. In my case it would be a herculean task to try and irrigate my humble four acres of crops using the bicycle and jerrycan solution proposed by Mr Museveni. I would need in excess of 2,000 litres of water per weekly round of irrigation or about of 100 jerrycans. The logistics of accessing this amount of water from the community borehole a mile away would be especially challenging. On social media, the critics went on riot. One particular thread that did the rounds showed Mr Museveni on his bicycle juxtaposed against pictures of tractors and modern irrigation systems supposedly in other neighbouring countries. The message being you cannot modernise agriculture with rudimentary techniques.

However, the reality is we are largely a nation of peasant farmers who have small holdings ranging from between four to 10 acres only. Modern technology such as motorised sprinkler irrigation systems and tractors for all farmers is a desirable but distant dream for the average farmer. We have to work with what is within our reach. What we need is appropriate technology that is practical, easily accessible and sustainable. Mr Museveni premised his suggested solution on this principal of appropriate technology and I believe he is on the right track. It may not work out exactly as he demonstrated but the principle of moving from 100 per cent rain-fed agriculture remains. For me and many rural farmers unless we can solve our perennial water problem with irrigation technology, however basic, we may continue to have a bitter repeat of the total losses of 2016.

It is significant that the President has highlighted access to adequate water for production as a key agricultural challenge. This high level attention will hopefully be translated into activation of a robust and well-formulated country wide irrigation policy. With some variation the much criticised bicycle and jerrycan solution can be modified to be a better fit for the average rural farmer. Locally, I believe we have enough experts to advise accordingly on how even the poorest farmers can have adequate water for production.

Rain water harvesting for instance needs greater emphasis whether off a corrugated iron sheet roof or from ground run off into a dug-out reservoir. For a poor farmer the next step could be to use a mechanical treadle pump to irrigate crops with water from the reservoir. Treadle pumps can do most of the work of a motorised pump but cost much less to purchase and have almost no maintenance costs. On average these pumps can be purchased for under Shs400,000. Three or four farmers can pool money together to own one and that money can be recovered even within a single productive season. These are simple technologies that could be put within the reach of the average rural farmer and that could make a big difference in the fight against poverty.
I applaud President Museveni for his practical approach and hope that his ideas can be adopted to improve the lot of our majority rural peasant farmers.
Mr Ossiya is a farmer from Soroti.