The Food and Agriculture Orgainisation (FAO), has told Ugandan farmers to harvest rainwater which they can use for irrigation during long spells of drought.
Mr Massimo Castiello, the deputy FAO Country Representative, said rainwater harvesting should be used as a technique of creating water availability to Uganda’s rain-fed agro-economy. “A few years ago, land and water were available but it is no longer the scenario with population rise. Land is now a limiting factor and at same time water is becoming a limiting factor,” Mr Castiello said.
He was speaking at the inception workshop held in Kampala last Friday to launch a new agricultural water management project dubbed: “Strengthening Agricultural Water Efficiency and Productivity on the African and Global level.”
Resources under utilised
Despite Uganda being considered as a food basket for the East African region, Mr Okaasai Opolot, the director crop resource at the ministry of Agriculture, noted that food productivity remains low and the water resources remain under-utilised. “Water harvesting and accounting for each drop is important. We need to improve crop productivity by utilising the abundant water available,” said Mr Opolot.
Citing an example of high altitude areas such as Kabale, Mr Opolot noted that farmers could tap water as it comes from the hills which in turn can be used for agricultural activities.
According to FAO, the first phase of the three-year project is aimed at enhancing capacity for improved crop water productivity, increased water harvesting, increased water efficiency in small scale irrigation and agricultural water policy management.
The project is being implemented in three countries; Uganda, Burkina Faso and Morocco at a cost of US$3.9million under the funding of the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC). It will be implemented by FAO, Partnership for Agricultural water for Africa (AgWA), Ministry of Agriculture and other partners.
Mr Manfred Kaufmann, the Water Policy Advisor Africa for SDC, said the 21st century will be characterised by increasing water scarcity be it physical and economic scarcity.
He added that the project will help generating knowledge and information on agricultural water resource management.
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