Irrigation brings hope to Darfur

The farmers of Bulbul depend on rain-fed agriculture and livestock production. During a good rainy season, they produce sesame, sorghum, millet, maize and groundnuts. There is not much vegetable production except for hot peppers and onions.

There are no perennial rivers, but seasonal ones around Bulul area, where World Vision undertakes agriculture and natural resource management activities aimed at boosting agricultural productivity and diversifying their income sources. 

The absence of a perennial river has made most of the farmers feel that irrigation is impractical in the semiarid area of Bulbul. However, World Vision and other humanitarian organisations introduced irrigation farms in the host communities of Darfur. 

A mother of nine, Hawa Abubakar, explains, “The rain is no longer dependable. In the past, we used to have enough rains to grow food but I don’t know what happened to us these days it is not raining regularly. Either there will be no rains at all or it comes late for a few days. It has become customary to miss seasonal rains every two to three years. This has put us at risk of hunger recurrently.” 

During a good rainy season, most farmers produce enough crops to support their families all round the year. However, due to inconsistent and irregular rains, crops mostly fail. During the dry season, many host community farmers engage in charcoal making, which is devastating to the environment, to generate income for food. 

“We had no alternative income sources. If we could not harvest due to rain failure, we cut trees to make charcoal and sell it to buy food in exchange,” she discloses.

The introduction of irrigation farming using hand dug wells is changing the trend among the host community members. Today, charcoal making as a coping mechanism is no longer taken as a prime solution to meet the immediate food need among irrigation users. 

Comparing the difference between rain-fed land and irrigated land, Hawa Abubakar says, “We used to grow crops in the big rainy season, always waiting for the rains. But now even in this dry season, we are able to grow vegetables and other crops using irrigation here. We all of us have rain-fed land, but nothing is growing there, because there is no rain. But with this irrigated land, we generate money to buy food aside from what we take home for household consumption. The irrigation is promising.”

40-year-old Hawa Ibrahim, chairperson of the women's group irrigation farm, is so happy with the women's irrigation group formed with the support of World Vision. There are 27 women and three men in her group. 

When asked as to why only three men, she said they wanted the men to operate water pumps and fence the farm land regularly.

“We’ve started growing cucumbers. Shortly, we will earn at least 5,000 SDG [US $1,850] only from one harvest. Once the cucumber started producing, we can continuously harvest for about six months and sell it at a reasonable price,” Hawa says confidently.

The women's group also has a cattle trough from which they also generate substantial income. They charge 10 SDG (close to US $4) for 70 livestock. This helps them cover the operation cost for their irrigation farm. The women's irrigation group saves up to 50 per cent of their income and divides the other 50 per cent among group members to supplement their income.

With World Vision support, there are 16 women's irrigation groups and five men's irrigation groups; each women group comprising 30 members and each men's group comprising 10 members. The irrigation users grow various cash crops which were not common in the area before. They produce tomato, cucumber, pepper, onion and other vegetables. This has increased the availability of vegetables in the market in addition to diversifying the income of the irrigation users. 

They also produce commercial animal feed. Livestock population is high in Bulbul and the production of animal feed promotes income substantially. A part of the animal feed also goes to feed their own livestock.

“We had no experience on how to produce animal feed and vegetable using irrigation in the past. It was with the support of an organization that we are able to produce tomato, onion, cucumber, animal feed, pepper, maize, and water melon,” says Abdela Mohamad who is a member of another men's irrigation group.

He explains, “We are 10 in the group. We get around 550 SDG [US $200] per person in one harvest."

The irrigation technology is adopted by other farmers by looking at how much the irrigation users are benefiting. It is being replicated elsewhere in the host communities.

According to 2011 report of World Vision North Sudan, support was given to 2,130 farmers through demonstration of vegetables and fruits grown at a World Vision run nurseries and their plots. In these trainings, 630 participants were women, drawn from 16 groups formed by World Vision. The groups were provided with vegetable seeds and irrigation systems. 

By Gebre Egziabher Hadera