MOST rural economic development projects collapse not because there is no commitment among project implementers but failure to market.

This is true for Masiyephambili Irrigation Scheme in Zamanyoni Village, Matobo District, Matabeleland South which collapsed 16 years ago as its members could not access markets.

The project had run from the early 1990s and collapsed in 2005 when the community was involved in horticulture, maize and wheat crop production.

The scheme is set to be resuscitated as part of Government’s efforts to promote rural industrialisation and ensuring that there is food security.

The irrigation uses a sand abstraction system to draw groundwater from the nearby Tshatshane River and experts are confident that the abundant water can sustain any large-scale irrigation project.

Government has since initiated plans to transform the four-hectare irrigation scheme into a 20-hectare project.

The irrigation scheme is part of Government’s climate proof-based agriculture programme which will also ensure that there is food security in drought prone areas such as Zamanyoni, Bhalagwe and the surrounding communities in Matobo.

Most communities in Matabeleland region cannot depend on rain-fed farming for effective ventures as the region is prone to low rainfall.

Erratic rainfalls have worsened the situation due to climate change.

Matabeleland South Irrigation Department provincial engineer, Shepherd Mpotegwa said Government has set in motion plans to transform rural irrigation in Zamanyoni by reviving the old irrigation project.

He said the project which is still in its infancy is expected to be completed by the end of next year.

Eng Mpotegwa said Government is consulting all relevant stakeholders to ensure that the project does not collapse as it did last time.

“The local authority, Agritex and other relevant departments did not have any knowledge about that irrigation scheme. So, as Government we are engaging all relevant stakeholders. I remember when I went to the ground, Agritex could not locate the scheme, the local councillor was also not aware of it. So, we believe when it was done there was not enough consultation from the stakeholders,” he said.

“Because of the available water resources, we might develop it up to 20ha with the first objective being food security.

As opposed to communities queueing for donations, we would rather have them productively contributing to their livelihoods. In Matabeleland South, there is a lot of mealie-meal importation from South Africa, so we want to break this cycle once the irrigation has been set up and running.”

He said plans are on course to ensure that beneficiaries of the project are skilled to effectively run the project.

“This implies teaching the community how it has to operate the system and also market their produce. Once it’s completed, we would have Government departments like the Agriculture Marketing Authority, Agritex come on board and help farmers so that they can access available markets in Bulawayo and Maphisa,” he said.

He said the previous system which was being used by the community was expensive hence it is not surprising that they could not run it effectively.

“Starting next year, we are going to do water investigations. We want to ascertain the extent in which the sand aquifers are going to irrigate but right now the projected area is around 7km.

The plan is to complete the development of the area by the end of next year. The target is to implement climate resilient projects. We are going to employ climate proof technology, which means that we are not going to connect it to the national grid. We are going to develop our own energy supplies and the main focus will be these solar energy sources,” he said.

A Chronicle news crew visited Zamanyoni on Thursday where community members expressed optimism that the irrigation scheme will change their fortunes.

The community said when the scheme was still running, they were able to effectively feed their families.

One of the villagers, Mrs Julia Songo said they used to grow horticulture, maize and wheat among others.

She said being connected to markets is what would sustain the project.

“We have to be committed to keep this irrigation running because this is what led to its collapse in the past. The reason why it collapsed in the past is that we did not have a market for our crops. If I did not sell what I produced to my neighbour then there was no one to sell to. This affected the project and we can say that’s the key reason why we failed to sustain it. In the future, we want to increase production and even deliver our produce to the Grain Marketing Board,” said Mrs Songo.

Another villager Mr Zondani Nkomo said reviving the irrigation project would even provide opportunities for young people and maybe contribute to a change of mindset where youths would want to work within their communities.

Mr Nkomo, now in his early 40s said during his early youth he moved to Botswana hoping to get easy opportunities but while in the neighbouring country he discovered that life was not rosy.

“This irrigation would assist us as we grew up seeing some of our elders eking a living through crop cultivation. We are optimistic that by reviving this irrigation, we are also going to get job opportunities and this will contribute to securing livelihoods. I returned to the country after briefly working at an irrigation scheme in Botswana, so this irrigation can transform our lives as I saw in Botswana,” said Mr Nkomo.