Small-scale irrigation potential in Sub-Saharan Africa

In my previous blog post, I encouraged the expansion of small-scale irrigation schemes as I felt this was a sustainable alternative for Africa’s irrigation future rather than large-scale schemes. Whilst searching for the different types of schemes available, I came across this video, produced by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations,  promoting the use of motor pumps, which led me to explore this technology further.

The video claims that investments in motor pumps in Sub-Saharan Africa could benefit 187 million people. So what are motor pumps and are they a promising solution to the water crisis relating to agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa?

A still from the above video shows how motorised pumps would enable the transport of water instead of farmers having to carry buckets of water from the access point to the pump multiple times. 

Motor pumps are small pumps that are powered by diesel or electric engines. They are an alternative means for transporting water from an access point to a farm and allow the movement of increased volumes of water compared to traditional water-lifting methods. This means that irrigation can become more efficient, in terms of the time taken to irrigate a piece of land and also the area that can be irrigated (AG Water Solutions 2012).

The FAO claims that by 2025 there will be 1.2 thousand million people living in Sub-Saharan Africa who will require over 300 million tons of grain and that traditional irrigation methods will not be enough to meet the demand. But is there actually as much potential for motor pumps to be used in Sub-Saharan Africa as the video claims?

Let’s first take a look at the groundwater distribution in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Figure 1: Groundwater distribution in Africa (Source)

Sub-Saharan Africa actually has areas with high abundance of groundwater. For example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has over 50,000 mm of groundwater storage. This is not to say that the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa is rich in groundwater sources, but there is certainly potential for groundwater to be used for irrigation. Figure 1 also shows that the DRC has relatively high recharge rates. But according to the NGO The Water Project, the government of the Congo does not have the funds to develop and maintain water pumping systems to obtain groundwater. Only about 69% of the population in Congo’s urban areas are able to access water from the state water utility but what about the rural areas, where most farmers operate? Again, according to The Water Project, many people in the rural areas get their water from streams and ponds. So here we see that groundwater abstraction has not taken place due to a lack of funds and investment for piped water supplies, especially in rural areas, making motor pumps an impossible method of small-scale irrigation if there are no piped access points in the first place. So a lack of access points due to insufficient funds is a major reason why small-scale irrigation schemes have not reached their potential.

Let’s now look at a country where there are relatively more piped water access points. According to the World Health Organisation, Burkina Faso is one country in the Sub-Saharan region that has had one of the highest rates of growth of access to improved water supplies between 1990 and 2008, with 76% of the population having access to an improved water supply. In this country, agriculture and stock farming contribute to 33% of the country’s GDP (Pavelic et al. 2012). Groundwater abstraction in the country has mainly been done through boreholes and wells, and the number of boreholes in Burkina Faso increased by 50% in just 8 years. Although data on groundwater specifically is limited, Pavelic et al. (2012) claim that in 2009, only 6.4% of  total renewable water was used for irrigation and livestock watering. AG Water solutions say that potential irrigable land still remains high at 233,500 ha. Stakeholders were asked why small-scale irrigation like the use of motor pumps still remains very low (AG Water solutions) and the findings are as follows:

·      The local market for small-scale irrigation technologies has been very small with limited choice, making it difficult for farmers to choose a technology that suits their farming practices the best. Small markets also mean that spare parts become difficult to obtain making maintenance of the pumps nearly impossible.

·      Farmers do not know how to actually use the devices due to a lack of technical training. Like the video suggests, information is needed to use the technology well.

·      The only way that motor pumps have actually been implemented is through large-scale project investments (rather than individual) and where the product is being marketed.

The video also suggests that there is:

·      A lack of access to flexible credit, preventing farmers from purchasing them in the first place –USD$250 for a motor pump is relatively high for a small-scale farmer (The Guardian 2013).

·      A lack of pump rental markets. A pump rental market is where entrepreneurs can rent out pumps, and/or provide their own irrigation service which could be an alternative for poorer farmers unable to purchase a pump for themselves.

I personally like the idea of pump rental markets. Not only would this reduce the need to teach each and every farmer wanting to use a motorised pump how to actually use it, but it would also eliminate the need for the individual purchasing of pumps which could be tedious to maintain on an individual basis post-purchase. Implementation of microfinance schemes and their access can be a long and slow process, especially given the unwillingness of lenders to provide agricultural loans (The Guardian 2013). Furthermore, I see pump rental markets as having a large multiplier effect – not only in terms of efficiency as entrepreneurs learn how best to use the pump with experience, but in terms of employment, as markets like these can create a diverse range of employment such as in maintenance, giving people additional opportunities. So although the relationship between groundwater and small-scale irrigation such as motor pumps may seem simple, there are many external factors that need to be considered, and investment externally by NGOs and government bodies should go towards expanding pump rental markets.