…SAT injects US$650k for community solar irrigation project
By Beatific Gumbwanda
MALIPATI- After being hit by a series of droughts, Malipati Community Development Trust (MCDT) has written a letter of request to the Sustainable Agriculture Technology (SAT) to develop an irrigated Agrihub production and processing center linked to environmental restoration activities and donated their pieces of land towards a US$650 000 irrigation project in Malipati.
SAT is a Zimbabwean Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with history in the implementation of innovative livelihoods, agriculture, value chain, community-led conservation initiatives.
MCDT entered into the Public Private Community partnership with SAT and Chiredzi Rural District Council seeking to address chronic poverty, food insecurity, and frequent crop failures in the area which is in natural Region 5 characterized by a dry climate prone to prolonged recurrent multi-seasonal droughts.
MCDT member Laiza Jachi told TellZim News in an interview that the project was a brainchild of the community with SAT providing technical and financial support for the implementation of the project after realizing the shift of rainfall patterns brought by climate change.
“We sat down as a community and discussed the prevailing rainfall patterns and realized that we last had normal rainfall long back when our parents used to farm here and they are the ones who had better harvests than those of today.
“Nowadays we hardly get meaningful yields due to climate change as we are receiving very low rainfall. We all agreed and offered our land to the development partner to help towards the construction of the Agrihub here in Malipati and nobody was forced,” said Jachi.
Although the project was allocated 300ha of pre-existing fields by the community, the project is going to pilot through a small portion of land (34ha) for the first phase of the project encompassing a 34ha pivot with 45 Kw abstraction pump, pumping out of the Mwenezi river with 45Kw solar array, a 3kilometer 315mm mainline and 960 m x 250mm gravity feed pipe to/from a night storage dam, community resource training center, workshop and staff accommodation.
The first phase of the project was projected at the cost of US$650 000 with the second and third phases projected to include an additional 2×34 ha pivots, plus 400 ha of Agroforestry production and restoration pilots, agricultural aggregation as well as a processing center for value addition to local agricultural produce including sesame, paprika, chilies, sugar beans, maize and cattle products.
Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Agrihub in Malipati recently, Chiredzi District Development Coordinator, Lovemore Chisema applauded the community for complimenting government’s effort by coming up with sustainable ideas aimed at embracing the effects of climate change while working towards the attainment of Vision 2030 of having an upper middle-income economy.
“Climate change’s intensity will continue growing as we progress and this is the best way to mitigate it. We have lots of hectares of land here but nothing is being realized. If you continue like this, you are going to be the first to realize the truthfulness of Vision 2030. Vision 2030 postulates that every citizen should be earning US$3000 per year and it does not mean that this can be only achieved through formal employment, but through agriculture too.
“Climate change is real and that is why the Second Republic’s main focus is on irrigational agriculture which you are piloting here. We need a greenbelt in this area. It is difficult for communities to come up with such ideas as you did and we are here to support you as government and SAT, you are a part of us,” said Chisema.
Speaking during the same event, Chiredzi Rural District Council Chairperson, Aspect Mashingaidze expressed gratitude to the community for being innovative towards the fight against the effects of climate change.
“I am informed that this project is the community’s idea. This means that climate change has made people come up with innovative ideas towards the fight against hunger, and poverty and this has made it easy for leaders to embrace it as an important developmental initiative.
“We no longer have any need to go to the Midlands or Matabeleland to see how others are doing it as we have a similar situation here in Chiredzi, of a community benefiting from their land,” said Mashingaidze.
Five local villages made their existing fields available for the project as they agreed to contribute to the initiative and formed Malipati Farmers Association with 74 other villages expected to benefit.
The irrigation project will be drawing its water from the perennial Mwenezi River which had been flowing into Mozambique with its untapped water and Manyuchi Dam on standby if need be.
Most water in the Lowveld from Save, Chiredzi and Runde rivers is flowing into Mozambique untapped.
