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Farmer Led Irrigation



World Bank Promotion of FLD Source:(World Bank,2019)


Farmer led irrigation development (FLID) puts farmers into central positions in improving their use of water in  agriculture  through changes in ‘knowledge production, technology use, investment patterns and market linkages, and the governance of land and water’(Woodhouse,2017,216).  FLID borrows many principles from community management strategies, however, it can be attributed to individual and combined farming efforts.  A recent study by Nkoka (2014) looked at ‘profitable expansion potential’ for irrigation projects in Africa’, finding that smaller projects lead to higher profits than large scale projects and a greater rate of return on investments. Over 90% of Africa’s farms are small subsistence farms, and it seems  an oversight by many policy makers not to realise the potential of FLID. 


Three Examples of Farmer Led Irrigation:


Furrow irrigation in Mountainous areas

Furrow irrigation involves taking water from a stream in a mountainous area and creating an interlinked system to direct this  to several different water catchment areas through gravity(Woodhouse,2017). The rights to ownership of the land and water are often controlled by the instigators of the project. Farmers who wish to join the system are  subject to a charge for use of water and general maintenance. This, encourages users of the system not to abuse it in a way that increases the cost for all users. While climatic changes may ultimately increase or decrease the irrigated areas, migration patterns also contribute to adjusting the system, often causing challenges(Woodhouse,2017). Studies in Tanzania have found that furrow-led irrigation led to an increase of informal irrigated area by smallholder farms of 4% annually between 1995-2005, compared to an overall rate of irrigation expansion of 0.5% in the country during this period(Bont,2019).



Use of Shallow Groundwater sites

I have previously discussed both the value of groundwater and wetlands for agriculture in Africa, which are both utilised for forms of FLID. There is increasing literature on the potential for farmers to utilise  'wet valley bottoms' in areas which are often dry for large portions of the year(Woodhouse,2017,217). Through the use of boreholes or pumps, farmers can utilise new irrigation sites, allowing the expansion of irrigation. In Malawi, such sites were not utilised for crop production until 1940.  Now over 61,900ha are irrigated by the use of  shallow groundwater sites, in comparison with just over 71,000 ha using ‘full control irrigation’ (Wood,2013). 


Petrol Pump Irrigation

Access to new technology is one of the key drivers of farmer-led irrigation.  The availability of petrol pumps has been linked to a huge increase in agriculture in the last twenty years. Increasing demand from farmers and increased supply through ‘agro dealer networks’ in communities has been matched by the declining price of these pumps(Woodhouse,2017,216). Chinese petrol pumps infiltrated the markets in the nineties costing a fifth of the Bangledshi pumps commonly used before.  Petrol pumps dramatically reduce the labour and time involved in irrigation. Irrigating a 1000m2 area from a nearby water source with buckets takes on average nine man-hours per day (Woltering,2011). Thus, it is not surprising that Africa’s farmers have been so keen to switch to using petrol pumps to irrigate the land they farm. A study in Ghana found that those who irrigated using motor-driven pumps achieved 17.8% more profit per ha, and farmers who owned petrol pumps on average irrigated four times the area of those using buckets(Owusu,2016). 


Summing up


FLID has great promise as a means to increase the agricultural potential of Africa.  There is a growing opinion that agriculture reports are underestimating the role that farmers are playing in irrigation development, leading to underestimations of total irrigated area.   The UN FAO estimates that 118,00 ha of Mozambique is equipped for irrigation, but  this figure would  double if smallholder irrigation was taken into account(Beekman,2014).     FLID has its drawbacks. It often benefits richer sub-populations, reinforcing existing power imbalances within communities. It can be linked to land alienation, reduction of water flow and increased pollution downstream(Woodhouse,2017). As with all the irrigation schemes discussed so far, there is no one policy fits all for FLID.  The geography and socio-economic conditions of the scheme and its users influence how effective it is.

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