Smallholder irrigation changing livelihoods for Kirinyaga Farmers 

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Agriculture

Farmers from Gichugu and Kirinyaga East Sub counties are turning to smallholder irrigation following the huge impact that the programme has had including improved harvest and livelihoods over the years.

Stated Department of Irrigation Principal Secretary (PS) Ephantus Kimotho said the practice has gained momentum in several Mt Kenya Counties including Embu, Tharaka Nithi and Meru, adding that the government has pumped millions of shillings to the programme.

He said in Kirinyaga County alone, the government has spent Sh254 million, tapping water from Thiba and Nyamindi Rivers and channeling it to over 2, 000 households and farms. The project, a joint venture between the Kenyan government and that of German and other local banks, has seen irrigation water channeled into the farms and households allowing farmer groups to adopt farming of various high earning crops.

The PS was speaking during a tour of the ongoing Kandiu and Kandeki projects in Kirinyaga County, which he said are expected to improve the livelihoods of residents of Kerugoya, Kutus, Kagio and Sagana. He was accompanied by the visiting German Parliamentary state secretary Baerbel Kofler and the German Ambassador to Kenya Sebastian Groth amongst other officials in both national and county governments.

“The objective of the program at the outcome level was an increase in agricultural production. The overarching development objective (impact level) of the program was to improve the living conditions of rural households in the Mt Kenya program region,” said Kimotho.

The PS said the programme consists of four phases, three of which have been concluded and are set to increase the area under irrigation by 561 acres. Anne Mwangi, local farmer and the chairlady of Kandiu farmer’s co-operative society is among the 400 farmers and 17 institutions who have benefited.

She says the programme has transformed the lives of many households in the area, adding that before the project was actualized, they used to walk several miles to fetch water from streams. “In 2011 when the programme began in our area, the German government gave us a Sh27 million grant, while the members secured a loan of Sh 27 million from a local bank. With the Sh54 Million, the programme then commenced,” Anne says.

The chairlady who farms vegetables, bananas and French beans in her one-and-a-half-acre piece of land says they managed to repay the loan in 2018 and are now reaping profits. She has also managed to buy a vehicle, educate and feed her children, constructed a house and owns other property from selling proceeds from her farm; adding that her net monthly earning is about Sh70,000.

This has been a game changer in improving the livelihoods of residents thanks to the support from the Kenyan and German governments, she added. The visiting Parliamentary State Secretary in German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Baerbel Kofler was upbeat that the funds they contributed were well used and that women were no longer suffering when trying to access water.

Kofler who visited the farms said her country enjoyed a cordial relationship with Kenya for 60 years now and that the partnership was now bearing fruits.