Bulawayo Kraal Irrigation Scheme water supply system rehabilitated
Story By Tichaona Kurewa
BINGA District in Matabeleland North Province is inching closer to food security after the successful rehabilitation of the Bulawayo Kraal Irrigation Scheme water supply system.
Binga District is one of the dry regions in Zimbabwe, negatively affecting livelihoods in that area.
In light of this, irrigation agriculture is key to ensuring the district is food secure.
A tour of the Bulawayo Kraal Irrigation Scheme by a government delegation this Thursday witnessed several operations underway including land clearing, rehabilitation of the water supply system and planting, an indication that the government is burning the midnight candle to operationalise the scheme.
Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Dr Anxious Masuka said, “They are repairing the last two leaks today, my expectation therefore is that now that the transformers have been put and started testing the line, these last handles will be overcome today or tomorrow. This is the first stage to see the full functionality of the 400 hectares.
“I expect that come winter when we put a winter crop the 400 hectares of the first phase will be fully operational.
“This is why we activated the planting process earlier because this is an elnino year, now we have a guarantee that we will be able to irrigate two hundred hackers with confidence, it is the two hundred hectares that we are now putting to 50 hectares of sunflower and 150 hectares of sorghum.”
The government indicated that to enhance water management, the Zimbabwe National Water Authority is taking over the running of water affairs at the irrigation scheme.
“Just like all other irrigation schemes the irrigation side of things will now be handed over to ZINWA so that they will be able to manage that at a technical level,” he said.
The Agricultural and Development Authority (ARDA) and Chief Binga concur on the importance of the scheme.
Binga chief, Mr Grey Muleya said, “ We are grateful to the government for the support they have given to this community. We have been given some plots to farm this season and some inputs. We were also given the knowledge to farm. So we thank the government for this opportunity.”
“We are pleased with progress here and come winter will be putting 400 hectares under wheat with an expected yield of six tonnes per hectare. This should translate to 1600 tonnes from the 400 hectares,” ARDA CEO, Tinotenda Mhiko said.
The crop at Bulawayo Kraal Irrigation Scheme will be managed under the ARDA V30 Accelerated Model launched at Bubi-Lupane Irrigation Scheme in 2021.
