An oasis in the arid Turkana landscape

It is harvest time for the sorghum farmers of the Kolioro irrigation scheme in Turkana County in northern Kenya. Despite scorching temperatures, a delayed start to the long rains and a lower than average rainfall prediction for the region, farmers in this arid part of Kenya are still expecting two harvests of sorghum this year.

Thanks to funding from the European Union in 2018 to construct a water intake and to improve existing irrigation canals, the 1,000 farmers spread over 3 blocks of the Kolioro irrigation scheme benefit from an asset creation scheme that channels water from the nearby Turkwell River through constructed canals and onto their farms.

Mary Akamais, 46, a mother of four, is one of these farmers. Her family farm half an acre of irrigated land near the river and can harvest up to 18 bags of sorghum per year, each weighing 50kg.

In 2012, following repeated droughts, livestock deaths and poor food security in the region, Mary’s family and others were encouraged by the World Food Programme (WFP) in partnership with the National Irrigation Board and the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) to identify land close to rivers from which water could be used for crop irrigation purposes.

“We needed a lasting solution,” said Gabriel Ekaale, WFP’s Programme Policy Officer, “In previous years’ the communities constructed rain-water harvesting structures and would sometimes have to wait several years for the rain” he says.

By improving the primary canal structures and channeling water from one of the county’s only permanent rivers, Mary’s family can now irrigate their crops throughout the year. In times of plentiful rainfall, they can grow vegetables and in harsher times they can still farm sorghum, cowpeas and even maize.

“This irrigation scheme has really helped us to farm,” says Mary, “When we irrigate we have less hunger. It’s not like before when we had to wait for rain and if it came we could plant, if not we struggled.”

When harvests are good, the farmers are able to produce surplus crops for sale in markets in the nearby town of Lodwar. Farmers from this irrigation scheme and others in the surrounding area are also encouraged by WFP to explore the larger food markets in Kakuma and Kalobeyei refugees camps in the north of the county.

“Once we saw that farmers were producing surplus crops we started an initiative to link them to markets” says Ekaale. “We began building storage facilities and training them on market linkages and how to price their commodities.”

WFP is also one of their customers. Farmer groups are given forward delivery contracts and a price is agreed even before planting begins.

“This gives the farmers an assurance that there is somebody who is going to buy the commodities and gives them the space to concentrate on their farming activities,” explains Ekaale.

The county government provides seeds and facilitates ploughing, while WFP provides support on fumigation, trains the farmers on post-harvest management and conducts quality checks on the food.

Farmers are encouraged by WFP to aggregate their produce and each contracted household is expected to provide a minimum of one 50kg bag at the agreed price.

“WFP pays within fourteen days of collection and the money is deposited into the farmers’ group account,” says Ekaale. “This builds their confidence to engage in structured markets where contracts are signed so that in future they can engage other customers such as the county government or traders in the refugee camps.”

With funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), WFP expects to buy 166 metric tons of sorghum in 2019 from two irrigation schemes in this area and from one in the south of Turkana. This will be used to supply various schools in the county under the Local and Regional Procurement (LRP) Program.

Fearing the predicted delay in rainfall, Mary’s family chose not to sell their produce from this harvest but to keep it for their own consumption and that of their extended family.

“My family is self-sufficient,” says Mary, “But not everyone in the community has food and that pulls us back because we are forced to provide support for our neighbours and relatives.”

Many farmers, including Mary, have also diversified their livelihoods by investing in livestock such as cows, goats and poultry. Once the sorghum grains are harvested, the stems of the crop are dried and can be mixed with other products such as molasses and sold as livestock feed.

“I am one of the lucky ones to have half an acre,” says Mary, “If my farm could be extended to two or three acres, that would give us enough to eat and enough to sell to replace livestock, to pay school fees and to look after the health needs of my family.”