Author: The Founder

As mentioned in a previous blog post, in the 2019/2020 season, the United Nations reported that half of Zimbabwe’s population was facing acute food shortages. The World Food Programme appealed for US$200 million to buy 200 000 tonnes of grain to feed 4.1 million Zimbabweans, about half of the people who needed food.

In that season, there was a drought. Yet when the rains are good, Zimbabwe can feed itself. So, the answer is obviously irrigation.

The trend throughout former Federation countries (Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi) is that when the rains are good, the country has a food surplus, but when the rains are poor, the country needs food imports and food aid.

Less than 7% of cultivated farmland in Sub-Saharan Africa is under irrigation. This is why most Southern African countries rely on food imports and food aid. The key is irrigation.

South Africa’s irrigable farmland is under full irrigation, 100%. Yes, as the population of South Africa grows, this full irrigation will at some point not be sufficient to feed South Africans. This means South Africa will have to import food. If we develop irrigation throughout Africa to make Africa self-sufficient in food production, South Africa could source its food from its neighbours such as Zimbabwe and Mozambique. At this stage, only 150 000 hectares of farmland are under irrigation in Zimbabwe, which is less than 10% of Zimbabwe’s irrigation potential.

As the African Continental Free Trade Area develops, African countries will reach a stage where they can trade food among themselves without having to rely on food imports from other continents. For Africa to get to that stage where it can feed itself, we need to fully develop irrigation in Africa. Irrigation is the key.

The photos you see below were taken in the first half of 2020 and they show crops of the staple crop in Zimbabwe, maize (also known as corn), in a field.

The gaps you see in the field were left by crops that didn’t make it from the heat and lack of rains.

This crop was the second crop that was planted in early 2020 after the rains had a false start in late 2019.

The rainy season starts from November and ends around March/April. Usually, by April the maize will already be dry and ready to harvest.

As you can see in the photos, there was nothing to harvest.

Over 90% of farming in Zimbabwe and Africa is rain-fed.

Because of lack of irrigation, when rains have a false start, a lot of farmers in Africa will plant again during the season hoping that the rains will now be coming seriously. In 2020, the rains had a false start and the farmers planted again when the rains had another false start, and the rains never came back, seriously.

When the rains are good, from about December to February, this same field that you see in the photo will be green all over with maize plants during the rainy season, and then in April and May, the field will now have dry maize plants.

Rain-fed agriculture only only supports agriculture during the wet/rainy season. When farmers harvest in April/May, the maize that they harvest must last them a year until the next harvest. If the rains do not come the next rainy season, the farmers and general population will be faced with hunger and starvation.

In the 2019/2020 season, the same season that the maize crop above was on the ground, the United Nations reported that 8 million Zimbabweans were facing acute food shortages and the World Food Programme was appealing to the world for US$200 million to buy 200 000 tonnes of grain to feed 4.1 million Zimbabweans, about half of the people who needed food.

Yet when the rains are good, there is enough food for everybody.

I then started Prosper on Farms to ensure that every farmer has access to irrigation so that there will be enough food in Zimbabwe at all times.

Last year I had an interesting chat with irrigation specialists in Zimbabwe. Two irrigation specialists, however, had the most fun and interesting stories to tell.

I had given them the task to figure out how best and to cost-effectively put 1 hectare under irrigation for one farmer.

Now, in Zimbabwe the standard irrigation set-up for 1 hectare is designed as follows: tank on a tank stand with water coming from a solar-powered borehole via pipe and to the field using drip irrigation.

One guy said there must be a 10 000 litre tank.

The other guy said a 10 000 litre tank is not necessary. I asked how so?

So he did some math with me. He said something like, “Say you have 1 hectare. What’s the plant population?”

“50 000,” I said.

Then he said, “Right, and how many litres of water does each plant need per day.”

“One litre,” I said.

Then he said, “And your tank is 10 000 litres. So how many plants can you water using 10 000 litres?”

I then laughed.

Then he said, “I have come to realise that you don’t really need a tank. The pump is usually working most of the time. Most of the work is actually done by the pump. People who are putting tanks are just adding an unnecessary expense.”

I had a good laugh.

But looking back as I write this, I figure that people put tanks as a water reserve for cloudy times when there will be not much sunlight to produce solar energy.

If the sunlight is there, the tank may be unnecessary for sure.

It was an interesting way of looking at things.

I then asked him, “What about the pressure? When the customer is using drip irrigation it has to be at the right pressure.”

He replied saying, “You can use a pressure regulator.”

One of the things we will do in our operations when we start massively rolling out irrigation systems is to require irrigation specialists to justify their designs.

Yeah, apart from the fact that I don’t want us to be sold things that we don’t need, the design must be justified and must win on merit, and not just cost or the wow factor or “everybody is doing it that way”.

This is the start of great things.