Arid food insecure regions can benefit from intensified irrigation programmes

One of the causes of poverty in Turkana County is food insecurity. This is manifest in the fact that people here rely on livestock, which is managed using traditional free range production systems that have suffered in recent years due to climate change. One solution to this problem is irrigated agriculture.

Water resources need to be efficiently used in order to meet the requirements of basic human survival, especially now with the spiralling population. The objective of interventions like irrigation is to increase agricultural production. Therefore, scientific management of water under irrigation provides the best insurance against weather-induced flactuations in food production.

Efficient and easy irrigation is achieved when there is a properly designed water distribution system.

This involves structures that convey, divert, and control water on the farm. For a good irrigation layout, good structures are essential to save labour, water, and land. The system can have either surface channels or underground pipes.

Kenya has 4,000 hectares under irrigation, a paltry figure compared to the potential of 54,000 hectares. Part of the problem can be attributed to the Nation Irrigation Board Act of 1966, which gazetted only six irrigation schemes, namely Mwea, Bunyala, West Kano, Ahero, Bura, and Perkerra, to be managed under the National Irrigation Board (NIB).

The rest of the country is served by micro schemes that are not mandated to carry out irrigation and do not benefit from NIB’s expertise. The law has remained unchanged for the past 45 years and this has limited the mandate of the board.

Yet irrigation can play a significant role in alleviating food scarcity in places like Turkana.

The case of Turkana is unique because the government has not made any concerted effort to address the food security issue in a sustainable way.

Efforts on the ground to solve the problem of food shortage since the 1960s in Katilu, Amolem, and Turkwel have been undertaken through the cooperation of international non-governmental organisations like the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, and the World Bank.

Since these interventions come in the form of projects limited by five to 10 year cycles, they have not been very successful.

The exception is a project funded by World Vision Kenya at Morulem, Lokori, along the Kerio River, whose success was due to the involvement of the local community right from the conceptualisation, implementation, and eventual phase-out stages.

The potential for irrigation in Turkana County is high. Rivers Turkwel and Kerio hold the key to unlocking this potential, as well as the streams scattered all over the region. Another source that has not been exploited is underground water.

The area may not require advanced irrigation technologies, like the drips and fertigation used in the Middle East and North Africa; simple canals and basins will do.

Irrigated agriculture would be successful along the upper and middle reaches of the Turkwel River because of the controlled flow that is aided by the hydro-electric power station at Turkwel Gorge.

Water flows throughout the year at Loyapat, Nakwamoru, Katilu, Lokapel, Turkwel, and Lodwar, as well as the Kerio River, which can be used to irrigate Morulem, Lotubai, and Lokwii and grow water stress-resistant crops such as sorghum, millet, cowpeas, chickpeas, and cotton.

Israel, 60 per cent of which is made up of the Negev Desert, produces surplus food that is exported to Europe during winter. Irrigation from underground water is used. Egypt is food secure from irrigated agriculture along the strip that is the River Nile, whose source is in East Africa.

The per capita income of Egypt, an Africa dryland is $5,400, and Israel’s is $31,000. Compare this to Kenya’s $250.

With intensified irrigation in the arid and semi-arid lands, which constitute 80 per cent of our country, food security in vulnerable regions like Turkana can be assured.