Story by Providence Maraneli
The Mosenthals irrigation scheme in Insiza, Matabeleland South province has become a beacon of hope to the people, a district which has been struggling to cope with the adverse effects of climate change.
In the heart of the parched and sun-baked terrain of the semi-arid district of Insiza, Matabeleland South province, is a beacon of hope in the Amazon area.
This is Mosenthals irrigation scheme, which has become a symbol of resilience to climate change to the people who are thriving in the ravaging Elnino-induced drought that swept across Southern Africa this past season.
Their resilience and ingenuity to survive during hard times is seen through Gogo Mesuli Sibanda, who braves the scorching heat to manually thresh her winter wheat.
She and 62 other farmers are in the process of harvesting their wheat, which agriculture experts say performed well.
“The irrigation scheme has been so good to us, we are here full-time and while others who rely rain rain-fed agriculture are buying mealie-meal we are still using the grain we got here last season. Now we are threshing our wheat which again will give us money and some bit of grain,” she said.
“This scheme has 63 members and we are expecting not less than 60 tonnes of wheat. We had a small hectarage because of our pump, but we are expanding our scheme so that we increase our productivity,” noted Mosenthals Irrigation Scheme chairperson, Mr Jealous Ndlovu.
With water from Lake Cunningham, the Mosenthals irrigation scheme has become a viable business entity.
“I would say as a business advisor the scheme has become a viable business venture in the sense that they have not incurred any losses, they do horticulture, beans, green mealies and now we have wheat that actually performed well for a communal irrigation scheme because we are expecting not less than 5 tonnes per hectare,” noted Agritex Officer Mr Doubt Sibanda
Ward 16 councillor Cde Luke Dube, “We have realised that irrigation development is the way to go, these people do not give me headaches as a councillor they tell me not to include them in the list of those who receive food under relief because they have enough, so once we have more people into irrigation then we can beat hunger.”
The 25-hectare scheme has 63 members.
