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Irrigation kits, wheelbarrows and machetes

New irrigation methods revive farming in a Comorian village

August 13^th, 2014

For a long time, being a farmer in the village of Bandasamlini, Comoros, meant fighting a daily, uphill battle to reach and to work on local fields. More recently, climate-induced drought and water scarcity had farmers struggling to keep their livelihoods.

Hamdani, 57, expresses his happiness and deep gratitude for the support he received to irrigate his field: “I have been a farmer since 1969. I had to leave school in the third grade. Farming is my whole life. I really hope that all Comorian farmers will have the same chance as I to be helped in their work.”

Irrigation kits, wheelbarrows and machetes

Hamdani remarks that lack of water affects farm productivity as well as the quality and yield of crops. “These last years, we have had to go really far to search for water and bring it back to our fields.” It is hard to be a farmer under such conditions, he stresses. “We experience little relief, neither in terms of effort nor with respect to outcomes; this is the reason why young people don’t want to work the soil.”

Along with others farmers from his community, Hamdani received a drip irrigation kit provided through the project Adapting Water Resource Management in Comoros to Increase Capacity to Cope with Climate Change. Supported by UNDP and the Government of Comoros, with funding from the Global Environment Facility’s Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), this new water irrigation technology gives farmers in Comoros a chance to reclaim their profession and to start over.

New perspectives

Communities in the project are benefiting from the installation of nine retention tanks next to their fields, which collect and hold 105 cubic feet of rain water each.

Fifty drip irrigation kits were installed to connect the tanks with the farmers’ fields, and the farmers were trained to set up, operate and maintain the irrigation equipment properly. Almost half of the kits were distributed to women. With these kits, the farmers should soon see higher crop yields, and an overall improvement of their food security and livelihoods.

young blood

Ahamada, one of the community’s youngest farmers, says the irrigation kit opened up new opportunities to him. “I already see the difference. I don’t have to search for water far away anymore, and the new technology is less labor intensive.”

The project is providing assistance to farmers beyond the irrigation kits: farm equipment, such as crowbars, wheelbarrows, machetes, and seeds have been distributed to improve productivity. With better access to water, and the implementation of climate-resilient technologies, Ahamada, Hamdani and the other Bandasamlini community farmers have regained hope for a better future.

For more information see the Project Profile.

Footnotes

Story by Caitlin Connelly, Henry Rene Diouf, David Angelson and Andrea Egan / Photos: Zafer Kızılkaya, James Stapley, and Umberto Labate.

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FootNotes

Story by Caitlin Connelly, Henry Rene Diouf, David Angelson and Andrea Egan / Photos: Zafer Kızılkaya, James Stapley, and Umberto Labate.

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Irrigation kits, wheelbarrows and machetes

New irrigation methods revive farming in a Comorian village

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