• Eliud Kireger, KALRO director general, says Lower Tana will benefit due to fluctuation of water levels and meandering of the river.
• Further because flooding water is usually not utilised optimally for beneficial purposes during the wet season.
Image: ALPHONCE GARI
Kenya is among four African countries set to benefit from a Sh1 billion climate-smart project.
The Climate Smart Water Management and Sustainable Development for Food and Agriculture in East Africa (WATDEV) project will be implemented in Kenya, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan.
It targets more than two million farmers from the four countries.
In Kenya, it targets Bura and Hola irrigation schemes in the Lower Eastern, along the lower Tana River.
KALRO director general Eliud Kireger said the project seeks to ensure efficient water production and management.
“The project goal is to develop an in-depth understanding of small and large-scale water resource use and management while boosting people’s resilience to climate change through innovative research, modeling and capacity building,” he said.
The director general said Lower Tana was chosen because of various challenges including fluctuation of water levels and meandering of the river which causes untold damage to cultivated fields close to the bank.
Further, Kireger said, there is water scarcity during dry spells in the area and when it rains, flood water is usually not utilised optimally for beneficial purposes.
“The land is also seriously encroached by invasive species particularly prosopis juliflora (locally known as mathenge) while water quality has deteriorated as a result of salinity,” he said.
Kireger spoke during a two-day WATDEV project multi-actors regional meeting in Nairobi.
The meeting was co-hosted by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), the Kenya Agricultural Research and Livestock Organization (KALRO) in collaboration with the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies –Institute of Bari (CIHEAM-BARI), an Italian-based intergovernmental organisation.
Kireger said the project also addresses the challenges of limited availability of water resources and climate conditions, which severely compromise agricultural production and food security.
“The project also seeks to address limited institutional and individual capacity in the management of water and natural resources,” he said.
ASARECA executive director Enock Warinda said WATDEV will collect, analyse, and implement available best practices and innovations in study areas and simulate their impact scenarios with the use of models and knowledge accumulated in regional water studies.
He said the project is aimed at increasing the sustainability of agricultural water management and resilience of agroecosystems to climate change in the East African region and Egypt.
Warinda said this will be achieved if national ministries and research institutions improve their knowledge and management of water in agriculture.