CHIPINGE – The World Food Programme (WFP) in Zimbabwe has adopted a new strategy in the arid Chipinge South area where villagers have been mobilised to revive the Masocha/Chisango Irrigation Scheme to ensure food security.
Report by Phillip Chidavaenzi Senior Reporter
Tomson Phiri of the WFP Reports & Public Information Unit said the organisation had partnered other organisations, including the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), to establish the project meant to ensure villagers would not always rely on food handouts.
“People here have always depended on rain-fed agriculture which is not sustainable in this area, but we foresee a situation where an average of 1 810 people likely to be food-secure due to this project,” he said.
There are 260 households involved in the irrigation project which draws water from Musirizwi River, with each family having an average of five people.
Phiri said while his organisation brought in the “technical acumen” and engineers in the project, raw materials were taken from the local community, whose members played a critical role in establishing the project.
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A beneficiary of the project, John Mlambo, said the project had uplifted people in the community as they were now food-secure throughout the year.
“Some of us started growing vegetables last year and because of the irrigation, the vegetables have been flourishing as we are no longer just dependent on the rains which are not reliable in this area,” he said.
Another beneficiary, Enock Muyambo, said the project was important to them because even if donor fatigue was to hit the organisations that had supported them, the project would continue to run as it was managed by the villagers.
Masocha village head Ngoniye Mtisi said “the food situation in the village has dramatically changed” following the revival of the irrigation scheme. “We didn’t have water for irrigation and for that reason, many people had no gardens,” he said. “We consider this dam as a great gift to us.”
Apart from the IOM, he said, they also worked closely with the Agritex Department and a German organisation called German Agro, which was their technical partner.