The new intake will cut the current Sh3.5 million cost that the authority is spending on fuel alone to pump water over 50 kilometres away to the farms.
The new infrastructure will expand the land under irrigation to 25,000 acres giving households an opportunity to expand their cropping activities.
Farmers at the Bura Irrigation Scheme in Tana River County will benefit from the new Sh7 billion project by the National Irrigation Authority aimed at cutting down the cost of water conveyance by use of gravity.
The new intake will cut the current Sh3.5 million cost that the authority is spending on fuel alone to pump water over 50 kilometres away to the farms.
The new infrastructure will expand the land under irrigation to 25,000 acres giving households an opportunity to expand their cropping activities.
“We currently spend Sh3.5 million a month on fuel pumping water to the farms, however, this is coming to an end soon once we complete the current intake that we are putting up, which will use gravity as opposed to fuel,” said NIA chief engineer Loise Kahiga.
She said the intake will give farmers an opportunity to increase crops on their farms because of the availability of water as it will cut down on breakages occasioned by breakdown of machines.
Peter Orua, the scheme manager says farmers have put over 1,500 acres under the cover of rice with another substantial acreage under maize seed crop with farmers mainly having been contracted by the Kenya Seed Company.
Rice is not a native to this region but it was introduced after trials indicated that the crop can perform better under the prevailing conditions.
According to Mr Orua, cotton was the main crop in the region in early years of the scheme. However this has so far changed with growers cultivating a wide range of crops currently.
The manager said farmers earned Sh60 million in 2016/2017, Sh15 million in 2017/18, Sh28 million in 2018/2019 and Sh39 million in 2019/20 seasons, through seed maize contracted farming by Kenya Seed.
Farmers earn an averagely of Sh200 million annually from horticultural crops such as watermelon, tomatoes and bulb onions.
They also get Sh150 million from rice, commercial maize, pulses and cotton production
The NIA provides water to farmers at the scheme and they pay a one-off amount for a season, providing the much needed resource in one of Kenya’s driest regions.
The availability of water has seen more farmers diversify from livestock to crop farming.
The irrigation scheme taps its water from River Tana about 50 km, by pumping using diesel-fuelled generators and pump sets with a discharge capacity of 2.7m3 /sec.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
