Love and hate in the rice fields of Mwea

Rice farming in Kirinyaga is set for major changes as the government and donors pour in billions of shillings to improve production and farmers’ income.

The Mwea Irrigataion Scheme is Kenya’s biggest with 28,000 acres under rice.

This is set to increase to 40,000 acres, thanks to a Sh12 billion loan from the Japanese government and Sh5 billion from the Treasury invested under the Economic Stimulus Programme.

The Japanese money will be used to build a dam on River Thiba in Gichugu to provide more water for farmers.

Among the reforms planned are revisions in the colonial era irrigation law, described by farmers as oppressive and exploitative.

There has been a love-hate relationship between farmers and the managers of the scheme since 1954 when it was started by the forced labour of Mau Mau detainees under British supervision. The National Irrigation Board (NIB) took over after independence.

It is therefore not surprising that a scheme which started as a detention camp is full of stories of brutality, exploitation and revolt.

But now there is another story — one of hope.

The Japanese loan, says NIB General Manager Daniel Barasa, has a training component which will equip farmers with skills on producing more rice using less water.

“We know the history of this scheme has been problematic,’’ Mr Barasa, who has headed the board for three years, says, “but with the investment we are putting in, we can assure farmers of good days ahead. They will have enough water and skills to double production and thus improve their livelihoods.’’

On average an acre of land in Mwea produces 1,600 kilos of rice. With their four-acre parcels, farmers harvest 6,400 kilos per crop.

One kilo sells at a minimum of Sh50, meaning farmers earn Sh320,000 per crop minus cost of production, which is about Sh20,000 an acre.

The earnings will double when farmers plant two crops with more water being made available.

But Mwea has not always been a story of hope. Situated on the hot, parched plains of the semi-arid Mwea region, the scheme was started by the blood, sweat, tears and sometimes lives of Mau Mau detainees who were forced to dig the first water canals.

After their release, some of the survivors were settled on the scheme, growing rice under the supervision of the British.

Today, farmers are given four acres each for cultivation. They are then given a quarter-an- acre elsewhere on high ground to build homes.

Land for public utilities like schools, hospitals and cemeteries is also provided. An additional 1,000 acres is set aside for horticulture.

All the land is held in trust by Kirinyaga County Council and the NIB. Farmers are given licences to till the land which can be passed to their children.

However, they are not allowed to sell, lease or transfer the land.

The Irrigation Act, passed in colonial times envisioned that only parents would till the land.

Once their children became adults, it was assumed they would leave the scheme to earn their livelihoods elsewhere, and that the parents would choose only one to continue farming.

However, this has not happened resulting in a population explosion.

From around 3,000 people when the scheme started, there are now more than 200,000, which means reduced incomes when as many as three generations depend on the same four acres.

Pressure on public utilities like schools and hospitals has also increased.

Consequently, farmers have been pushing for changes in the law to give them titles to their plots.

With these, they could lease their land or use it to get bank credit to improve their crop.

“Without titles,’’ said Mwea MP Peter Gitau, “farmers still feel oppressed… they work like virtual serfs. I was born here, but I’m still a squatter,” he said.

But the biggest problem has been mismanagement by successive leaderships of the irrigation board.

In the 1990s, the situation was so bad, not just in Mwea but also in other schemes such as Ahero, West Kano, Bura and Hola which collapsed.

But with a new government intent on funding the sector and a more focussed leadership at NIB, things are looking up.

Changes in the law on irrigation will see farmers being given conditional titles.

“These documents will allow them to lease the land or use it to get bank credit. However, they will not be allowed to build on it, bury the dead on it or keep animals,’’ said Mr Gitonga Mugambi, the board’s chief irrigation officer in charge of research and planning.

There is a huge potential in rice farming and the changes are aimed at enabling Mwea farmers to fully exploit it.

Rice consumption in Kenya stands at 330,000 tonnes a year.

Out of this the country produces only about 110,000 tonnes, which means the balance is imported. Yet with proper investment the country can become an exporter of rice.

With production of 60,000 tonnes a year, Mwea accounts for more than half of the national output. The rest comes from schemes in Nyanza, western and Coast regions.

Rice is Kenya’s third staple food after maize and wheat. But its consumption rate has been growing rapidly at 12 per cent a year compared to maize which grows at four per cent.

At this rate, Mr Mugambi says, rice would soon not only overtake wheat but be the food of choice for the majority of Kenyans.

But Kenya must take better care of its farmers to ensure they produce enough not only for local consumption but export.

This has hardly been happening at Mwea, given the history of the scheme.

Placed under the NIB after independence, it rapidly became a gravy train for civil servants stationed there.

Working in cahoots with the Provincial Administration, they pocketed massive revenues accruing from the sweat of the farmers.

In the meantime, the latter were enduring pathetic living and working conditions.

“Other Kenyans got independence but not us… even Egypt was better for the Israelites than this,” said local farmer Joseph Gachanga at the height of the crisis in the 1990s.

His bleak view was echoed by cooperative official Benson Karimi, who stated: “If one spoke against the oppression, one was seen as political, and their situation was made very bad. They would confiscate your land and chase you away…”

By the late 1990s, the situation had come to a head, and there were demonstrations and the police responded in full force, firing live bullets at farmers, wounding many.

During that period, many peasant rice farmers simply threw in the towel, unable to make a decent living.

Among them was Douglas Kagema, a father of four from Thiba village in Mwea.

“When things became too difficult I gave up and went to work as a driver, first for Kenya Breweries and then for an agrovet company,” he said during a recent interview

Former area MP Alfred Nderitu was forced to flee the scheme, disguised as a woman, when a demonstration he was leading turned violent.

The revolt brought changes, though, and by 1998 the farmers’ own cooperative society had taken over the running of the scheme.

Managing it, however, proved more difficult than they had envisaged, and the society was forced to seek the assistance of the same NIB it had hounded out.

Its main role is to supply farmers with water at a price through water users’ associations (WUAs).

The farmers also hire tractors to plough their patches. Those who cannot afford tractors use oxen even though animals are not allowed in the scheme because of the damage they do to water canals.

Lack of adequate water has been a major obstacle to increasing production and the construction of the dam will be a welcome relief to farmers.

Plans for the dam are already at design stage and Sh1.2 billion has been set aside to compensate villagers who will be moved from a 500-square kilometre piece of land.

The dam is expected to produce enough water to put the maximum 40,000 acres available at Mwea under irrigation.

Even more crucial is that it will enable farmers to produce two crops a year instead of one.

Mwea is thus in a unique position to play a big role in ensuring national food security and at the same time earning farmers more money.

“If we get the level of funding we are getting now for the next five years, Kenya will move from being a net importer to net exporter of rice,’’ said Mr Mugambi.

Mwea farmers are hoping that the benefits of this massive infusion of funds will trickle down to them.

Additional reporting by Tim Wanyonyi