•Water, Sanitation and Irrigation Principal Secretary Joseph Irungu has said the targeted areas include West Kano Schemes, Ahero Irrigation schemes, Lower Kuja and Nzoia.
•The expansion is geared towards attaining food sufficiency as envisaged in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda.
Image: MAURICE ALAL
The government will expand irrigation projects in Nyanza by another 37,700 acres.
Water, Sanitation and Irrigation Principal Secretary Joseph Irungu said the targeted areas include West Kano schemes, Ahero Irrigation schemes, Lower Kuja and Nzoia.
In Kisumu, the government through the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) will spend Sh270 million for expansion in West Kano.
The expansion, Irungu said, is geared towards attaining food sufficiency as envisaged in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda.
Irungu said the government has so far put 500,000 acres under irrigation (27 per cent) against the capacity of 1.9 million acres of land countrywide.
He expressed confidence that the government will achieve 700, 000 acres of land under irrigation by 2022, and 1.4 million acres across the country by 2030.
This comes as the multi-million shillings expansion programme at the Ahero irrigation scheme has been completed.
Irungu said the expansion will benefit 2,500 farmers. The expansion will put an additional 2,500 acres of land under irrigation.
At Kobong’o, a Sh150 million irrigation project will ocver 1,000 acres. More than 500 farmers are expected to benefit through growing of high value horticultural crops.
The additional 1,000 acres will be cultivated starting February. “The expansion initiated by the NIA is part of a bigger plan to attain the food security agenda, by scaling up irrigation across the country,” Irungu said.
The scheme was operationalised in 1969 and has grown over the years to an area of about 13,000 acres benefiting close to 7,000 farmers.
Other areas under the Western Kenya Irrigation schemes (WKIS) include West and South-West Kano schemes whose acreage total to about 7,000 acres benefiting more than 5,000 farmers.
The two areas have been immensely affected by floods as a result of the back flow of water from Lake Victoria.
Ahero Irrigation Scheme falls under the larger WKIS, operationalised in 1969.
In 2019, the NIA embarked on an expansion plan of the Ahero scheme to areas such as Mbega and Kobong’o schemes.
In Mbega, farmers have fully taken up rice production to more than 1,200 acres so far, while in Kobong’o, farmers are involved in horticultural products such as green grams.
Areas such as Mbega and Kobong’o schemes within the larger Kano plains will be irrigated.
“Farmers in the area who have been hard hit by perennial floods are now optimistic that their livelihoods will change for the better. They are happy and have embraced the ongoing expansion,” WKIS manager Joel Tanui said.
The scheme over the years has seen an increase in the need for irrigated agriculture hence the government’s commitment of resources to expand crop production in the area.
In Kobong’o scheme, farmers have embraced horticultural farming with farmers moving away from the norm of rice farming and diversified into horticulture and sugarcane farming.
“I am optimistic of good yields by end of the season from my four acres of land,” a farmer Philemon Amai said.
The irrigation is done by water pumping from the nearby River Nyando. With the expansion, the expected rice produce stands at 11,000 metric tonnes, estimated to be worth more than Sh500 million.
Irungu said Sh25 billion Koru-Soin dam project which is yet to start address flooding menance in Nyando and Muhoroni upon completion. It will also provide adequate water for irrigation farming.
The project’s components include the Rockfill dam of 54 meters height, a storage capacity of 93.7MM cubic, water treatment works of 71.279 meters cubic per day.
The other benefits include increased area under irrigation schemes in and around Ahero and West Kano Irrigation schemes from 1,800 hectares to 5,370 and also power generation of approximately 2.5 megawatts.
With the dam project, the government will construct Sh 2 billion gravity system from Koru-Soin with targeted area of 22,000 hectors of land to be put under irrigation.
The gravity system will help eliminate the costly pumping system and control flood problem. It will benefit more than 100,000 households, estimate cost Sh2 billion.
Rice farming is a key contributor to the country’s food basket. WKS is comprised of several schemes (public and community initiated); majorly in the Lake Victoria basin.
From 1969, two public schemes have been predominant in the region namely Ahero and West Kano Irrigation Schemes.
The initial acreage under irrigation stood at 9,898 acres, but as the need for irrigation increases, NIA has endeavoured to commit resources and expand the area under irrigation in the region by additional 2,500 acres over the past year.
The total area now stands at 13,098 acres.