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BY JOSEPH OKUL
LIRA: Thursday, February 6, 2025
As an experienced farmer for over two decades, Judith Ayo, a resident of Alepo village, Ayamo parish, Bar sub county expressed high hopes that her recent adoption of solar powered irrigation will gradually lead to increasing her annual incomes.
Ayo grows cabbage and onion in the month of December 2024, a period characterized by a strong dry spell annually in the entire Northern Uganda.
According to Ayo, it is her first time in decades to farm in December since she had no reliable source of water.
But after the acquisition of the solar irrigation system which guarantees a more sustainable and a wider water source coverage, she extended her cabbage, watermelon, tomato and onion farm by at least one and half acres.
She emphasized that she employs over 15 local casual laborers but these are currently dormant due to apparent dry spell.
The casuals work alongside her eight school going children in the farm due to the increased labour necessity considering the enlarged farm size to aid in the transplanting, watering and weeding the fruit and vegetable crops, that she would later harvest and sell in order to acquire ample income for school fees and other domestic projects.
Conclusively, Ayo stated that she previously relied on maize farming during the rainy seasons of March to June and August to November as a source of income for school fees and eventually used these income to finance the UGX.4 million cash co-funding needed to acquire the solar irrigation equipment.
Celestino Okwir a farmer from Ogur Sub County, who had the solar powered irrigation system installed under the same project, revealed that he was the only individual farmer in the entire parish, who cultivated onions during the December dry spell.
From a technical perspective Okwir however reckoned, during the solar irrigation system installation process, the water tank was erected so low that it posed a challenge of low pressure which hampers the watering process.
According to Okwir, cultivating onions during the December period of 2024 was his first time as a farmer. He stated the project has enabled him to create employment opportunities for farmers in the neighbouring villages who are not currently actively engaged in their individual farms due to the dry spell.
Usually in Lira District and Northern Uganda, the second season rainfall drastically reduces towards the end of November, welcoming the dry spell of December to mid-March annually.
Recently while speaking to this publication, Okwir revealed he would be able to triple his annual earnings from onion cultivation especially, after the harvest of the December to March, 2025 cohort, since the period would be characterized by low production among farmers and resultantly high prices which usually stretch to about UGX 7,000 per kilogram.
He further stated that in the past years, farmers used to rely on wetlands cultivation during the dry spell, however, lately due to climate change, the dry spell has severely intensified rendering most wetlands worthless.
The current government micro scale irrigation program has therefore come timely to alleviate the burden on rural farmers and their family members during dry season farming.
Other private partners like Sun Culture have been instrumental in selling small scale irrigation equipment in Lira district.
Although the desire to own these irrigation systems is massive among most farmers, the financial implications has been an outstanding barrier to most
Background
In the financial year 2022/2023, Lira District local government in collaboration with the ministry of agriculture formed a small scale irrigation project scheme to support farmers within the district that for decades have been grappling with poor productivity during unprecedented dry spells, leading to annual food shortages and poverty.
Under the project, the district through the ministry of agriculture was tasked to identify potential beneficiaries among the farmers who met the required pre-set conditions to attain the solar powered irrigation system in their individual farms
Among the conditions labelled included a potential water source, an acre of land, a farmer should specialize in agronomy and a 25% percent monetary contribution towards the installation of the small scale irrigation scheme from individual farmers.
This 25% contribution is equivalent to at least UGX 4 million of the required UGX 16 million needed to acquire the entire project, with the government shouldering the remaining 75%.
According to Lira District agriculture officer, Eunice Alum, over 400 farmers were registered and among the 70 farmers who were profiled only 19 from different sub counties of Amac, Ogur, Bar, Agweng, Wiodyek, Itek and Aromo and some parts of Lira City benefited in the first phase of the project in august 2024, having met all the conditions.
“Even though very many farmers were interested in having the solar irrigation system installed in their farms to enhance their ability to farm all year round, most could not afford to pay the 25% income required due to poverty. Limited land and a reliable water source were other deterring factors,” Added Alum.
In an appraisal statement, the Lira District Production Department Officer in charge of Irrigation, David Otim Otoo, revealed that in 2022/2023 financial year, the district jointly alongside the ministry of agriculture with financial backing from the world bank, established two demonstration farms in Aromo, in the farm of Tonny Blair Acala and in Itek sub County at a farmer’s group farm known as Can En Lonyo.
These two farm sites were fully equipped with the micro irrigation scheme system to enable all farmers in Lira district to view the operational ability of the system in question according to Otim Otoo.
According to him, after the establishment of the project in farms of 19 different farmers in the financial year 2023/2024, the district has gone ahead to profile at least 24 new farmers yet to benefit from the micro scale irrigation project in the current financial year of 2024/2025 bringing the number of beneficiaries to 45.
Besides the current government micro scale irrigation program, other private partners like Sun Culture have been instrumental in selling small scale irrigation equipment in Lira district.
However, much as the desire to own these irrigation systems is massive among most farmers, the financial implications has been an outstanding barrier to most, stated Otim Otoo.
Otim Otoo emphasized that their target by 2040 is to make sure at least 5 million farmers in Lango sub-region own small scale irrigation system due to the current climatic change that has consequently led to seasonal rain unpredictability compared to the previous years, in order to successfully combat the negative impact of the adverse climatic change.
“I strongly advise farmers to stop relying on the natural rainfall cycle and embrace small scale irrigation projects in their homesteads, because without that the adverse effects of climate change will be too much,” stated Otim Otoo.
The government of Uganda through the Ministry of Agriculture’s commitment to irrigation is evident in its various initiatives and policy frameworks. By promoting the adoption of irrigation technologies and providing necessary support to farmers, the Ministry aims to transform Uganda’s agricultural sector and ensure a prosperous future for its people.
