Irrigation helping Lamu County tame hunger

The county government has established several small-scale irrigation schemes to boost food security across the impoverished islands.

Governor Issa Timamy said in an interview with The Standard yesterday that his administration has spent Sh14 million since 2015 on the small-scale irrigation schemes, designed as a ‘ladder out of poverty’ for rural communities and small-holder farmers.

The devolved unit’s ambitious rural irrigation scheme seeks to link villages through nearest possible sources of water.

SUPPORT AGRICULTURE

Schemes that are transforming livelihoods are at Mkunumbi, Basuba, Witu, Moa, Chalaluma and Maleli areas.

The county boss says in order to make agricultural production more sustainable in the region, the county government is empowering farmers who venture into irrigation.

“As a county, we want to support irrigated agriculture for enhanced food security through tapping into the waters of River Tana that meanders into Lamu,” the governor said .

Mr Timamy said they have also started distributing high quality seeds and fertilisers to farmers to improve yields.

The county government supports irrigation projects covering more than 57 acres using water sources from Lake Moa and Lake Amu.

The move is aimed at unlocking the existing potential in the county to improve food security, income of farmers and general livelihoods of the residents.

During a recent visit in Moa by The Standard, a mainly fishing village within the expansive Tana Delta region, scores of peasant women groups have taken the lead and are using irrigation to farm.

For these women, fishing has become unreliable and the catch volumes have dwindled over the years forcing them to rethink how they can contribute to their families.

Keeping livestock was out of the question in the drought-prone part of the coastal county.

The 10 acres Moa irrigation scheme is utilising water from the Lake Moa within the Tana Delta to fight perennial food shortages in the coastal county.

WOMEN GROUP

It is on this basis that the women group under the umbrella of the Moa conservation group approached the county government for assistance.

The county administration provided the women with all farm inputs, including quality seeds, farm implements, pipes to siphon water from Lake Moa to irrigate crops and farm fencing.

“We used to rear livestock and fishing but now are fully engaged in agricultural activities involving crop rotation,” said Mariam Roba, Moa Women Group secretary.