4.5.1Sources of water for crop production
Figure 4.7 presents farmers’ responses to question about the source of water for crop production. Smallholder irrigators were provided about 68% of water mostly from dams and 51.2% of homestead food gardeners which the data conveys that it is the most availing source of water for both farmers. Rainfall is the second water source for farming which 14.8% of smallholder irrigators and 32.6% of homestead food gardeners depend on.
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Figure 4.8 Sources where respondents obtain water for irrigation
4.5.2 Types of irrigation used by smallholder farmers
The most commonly used irrigation system in Ncora is the furrowing system with 65.1% of homestead food gardeners and 50.9% of smallholder irrigators. Furrow irrigation is the dominant method of irrigation in South Africa, accounting for 90% to 95% of all irrigated crops (Purcell, 2006). Furrow irrigation, where water is transferred from a head ditch to crop furrows via siphons, is one of the most simple and ancient forms of irrigation delivery (Hansen et al., 1980). It can achieve reasonable crop WUE; but is very variable and is limited. Furrow irrigation involves a balance between field slope and length, water infiltration rates, and the rate of irrigation application for uniformity of applied water in the profile and reduction of drainage beyond the root zone (Hansen et al., 1980). Due to the nature of the system (inundation of furrows), water logging is common. Furthermore, a greater amount of water will be supplied to the upper end of the field, thus increasing deep drainage beyond the root zone in this region or depriving plants at the lower end of the field from a fully recharged root zone. A high rate of application and a long run time can result in excessive runoff, whilst low rates of application results in slow water advance, cause poor water distribution and deep drainage losses.
Sprinkler type of irrigation system was mainly used by smallholder irrigators though water flows by gravity. The other types of irrigation systems for example flooding, and pivot requires larger volumes of water hence limiting its use by homestead food gardeners and irrigators. Overall, furrowing (53.8%) was the most used followed by sprinkler (28.8) and drip irrigation (14.2). The full range of irrigation systems is found
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rain taps dam river
smallholder irrigation homestead food gardeners overall sample
71
on various schemes across South Africa, namely flood, sprinkler, centre pivot, and micro and drip irrigation, with sprinkler irrigation being the most common (DWAF, 2006).
Drip irrigation is one of the most efficient forms of irrigation technology currently available. It is a technology by which water can be conserved and yields increased for farmers, especially those who are cultivating in semi-arid conditions of the world or in areas where competition over water resources is escalating (Bamoun, 2011). According to FAO (1984), drip irrigation offers many advantages over conventional flood irrigation including water savings, reducing labor required for irrigation, reducing soil erosion and increasing crop productivity. Despite these advantages, drip irrigation is being applied less than one percent of global irrigated acreage and adoption of the technology by smallholders in developing countries has been negligible. Reasons for the lack of uptake among small farmers includes the fact that drip irrigation technologies are expensive, complicated to operate and maintain, and not configured to fit small plots (Conaty, 2012).
Figure 4.9 Types of irrigation system used by smallholder farmers
4.5.4 Types of crops irrigated
Most existing smallholder irrigation schemes worldwide were developed for the purpose of crop production yet integrating animal and crop production offers potential advantages (FAO, 2003).
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 smallholder irrigators homestead food gardeners overall sample
72 Table 4.7 Types of crops irrigated
Crops grown on irrigation scheme
potatoes cabbage spinach maize butternut carrots type of farmer irrigators 124 69 21 139 18 22 gardeners 32 4 4 43 0 1 Total 182 73 25 156 18 23
4.5.5 Factors impeding farmers’ access to irrigation schemes
Figure 4.10 shows the factors impeding farmer’s access to irrigation scheme. The respondents stated that the major challenge is lack of funds 78.1% of smallholder irrigators meaning that the majority of them are interested in irrigation schemes but they don’t have funds whereas only 34.9% of homestead food gardeners complained about that as they said that (44.2%) have no knowledge about the schemes. 7% of homestead food gardeners were not interested at all.
Figure 4. 10 Factors impeding farmers’ access to irrigation schemes
4.5.6 Challenges faced by smallholder irrigators at the irrigation schemes Figure 4.11 presents the results given by the respondents about the challenges they face at the irrigation scheme. The majority of the respondents (46.5% homestead food gardeners and 58.6% smallholder irrigators) stated that it is hard to operate the machines especially the sprinklers and they cannot fix pipes when broken. This substantiate the suggestion given by DWAF (2006), which noted that the successful
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73
sharing of water resources requires that the group of farmers be well organised and equipped (trained) to control, operate and maintain their infrastructure and manage their finances.
Figure4. 21 Challenges faced by smallholder irrigators at the irrigation schemes
4.5.7 Smallholder irrigators’ suggested solutions
Although the government still provides extension services to smallholder irrigators at the Ncora irrigation scheme, farmers seem to be unsatisfied with the services, with 77.1% (smallholder irrigators) and 95.3% (homestead food gardeners) calling for more support from the government especially in respect to provision of inputs, and more extension officers skilled in technical aspects of irrigation systems. Some 13% of the farmers called for the community intervention as many of the homestead gardeners were not interested in participating. Only 1.8% smallholder irrigators and 4.7% homestead food gardeners called for the role of NGOs to be enhanced to support farmers in different aspects of their farming business. This have been substantiated by Love et at, (2006) who note that focusing on capacity building for transfer of existing technologies and much closer collaboration between state and NGO sectors must be ensured. In addition they suggested that community authorities should intervene to solve some of these challenges especially the problem of land access and transfer of water use rights for improved operation of the system. The 7.1% of smallholder irrigators said they don’t even care as long as they
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are still using it and are happy with the service rendered by the extension officers.. This information is presented in Figure 4.12.
Figure 4.12 Smallholder irrigators’ suggested solutions