Western Kenya Schemes spends Sh22 million annually to pump water from Lake Victoria to rice farmers at West Kano Irrigation Scheme in Kisumu.
WKS senior manager Joel Tanui said on Monday this is very expensive since it depends on electricity to pump water. It's cheaper to follow the laws of nature and let it flow downhill into the scheme.
Tanui said the National Irrigation Board spends Sh14 million and Sh8 million to pump water into and out of the 2,230 acres under rice, respectively.
The manager attributed part of the high cost of pumping water to blockage of intake valves by water hyacinth choking Lake Victoria.
"The hyacinth affects the quality of water as it decomposes," Tanui said.
The weed also blocks water from getting into the irrigation scheme, which makes maintaining and operating pump stations very expensive, he said.
Tanui said the scheme has 1,800 rice and horticultural farmers. It produces 5,000 tonnes of rice per season.
He proposed the construction of a gravity-fed irrigation system to reduce production costs.
Last year, despite high costs and dilapidated facilities, WKS produced 22,550 tonnes against the country’s annual rice production average of 120,000 tonnes in the 2017-18 main season.
The production translates to Sh789.3 million. WKS is comprised of the Ahero, Southwest Kano, West Kano and Nokiso irrigation schemes.
Tanui said Ahero, which has 2,168 acres, produced 5,000 tonnes; West Kano (2,230 acres) produced 5,050 tonnes; South West Kano (3,000 acres) and Nokiso (2,500 acres) produced 7,000 and 5,500 tonnes, respectively.
The schemes are still grappled with high costs, high electricity bills, dilapidated acilities, ageing structures which cause low efficiency, problems with credit access and repayment delays.
Ahero and West Kano farmers also experience perennial floods which cause massive losses.
Tanui, however, encouraged farmers to diversify farming to achieve food security.
He called for more funding for gravity-fed irrigation programmes.
The country consumes about 450,000 tonnes of rice annually but has been producing about 120,000 tonnes, leaving importers to bridge the gap.
The WKS is a significant contributor to the 120,000 tonnes.
Tanui said plans are underway to boost rice production in Ahero, West Kano and South West Kano irrigation schemes.
The board also looks to build Lower Kuja scheme in Migori county, which has the potential to produce 80,000 tonnes of rice every year.
