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| The new weather station at Rupike irrigation Scheme |
Kimberly Kusauka
The
Meteorological Services Department (MSD) recently donated and installed weather station equipment at Rupike Irrigation Scheme in Masvingo South, Ward 23
which was commissioned by Member of Parliament (MP) Claudios Maronge.
The
automatic weather station has been welcomed by members of the community who
said it will help them to make better use of the agricultural land available to
them.
Rupike
Irrigation Scheme Agritex supervisor Tinashe Chirambadare confirmed the
development and thanked MSD for the assistance which he said will help in
efforts to improve agricultural productivity in the area.
“Since
we are an irrigation scheme, this new equipment will help us to better schedule
our irrigation system. It is not yet computerized but we get feedback from MSD
Harare, which I think should be de-centralised so that we get the weather
update at our offices,” said Chirambadare.
Installation
was done by MSD between March 24 and 26.
Rupike
Irrigation Scheme is about 90km south of Masvingo city near Renco Mine.The scheme sits on 100ha of land and it comprises 200 plot holders.
The
scheme began operations in 1992 and was established by Anglo Ashanti in the
late 1980s after the construction of Tugwane Dam, from which water for irrigation
is drawn.
Adequate operation
and maintenance of irrigation infrastructure, sustains irrigation scheme
facilities, reduces repair costs, help the system last longer and keeps
irrigation efficiency at designed levels.
