Farmers turn to irrigation to boost production #rwanda

EVERY YEAR during the dry season, Christine
Mukabatsinda had to down her tools and wait for up to
three months for rains to start farming.
For the resident of Kibeho Sector in Nyaruguru District,
Southern Province, previously there were only two farming
seasons throughout the year; the rainy season between
February and May and the one from September to
December.
Mukabatsinda, a subsistence farmer, would spend the other
remaining months almost doing nothing - a long wait that
sometimes proved painful, as she would at times run out of
food to feed her family.
For years, thoughts of living a better life were a mere
daydream until she decided to join hands with other
residents and try, against all odds, to grow crops
throughout the year.
Months ago, Mukabatsinda's dream of a better life turned
into reality when she attended a training on commercial
farming and was introduced to irrigation as a way of
modernising agriculture, increasing production and farming
for markets.
Together with other local residents, they started a
cooperative named 'Ejo Heza' (-literary meaning, A Better
Future-) to improve their living conditions.
They decided to start a small-scale irrigation scheme as a
way of ensuring constant and improved production.
With a focus on market-driven vegetable farming, they
decided to invest in enhancing production to meet the
growing market demand.
They, therefore, decided to embrace irrigation. Every
morning and evening the residents meet in their fields to
water their crops-something they say is crucial in achieving
their objective.
"With hand irrigation, we are able to grow crops all year
round, regardless of whether it is a rainy season or not,"
Mukabatsinda says as she waters a carrot field.
"For years, I thought I was condemned to a poor life
because the harvest from traditional agriculture was very
low. I always struggled to find enough food to feed my
family," she notes.
"I am no longer the peasant who used to grow crops for
home consumption but rather a modern farmer producing
enough for home consumption and then markets."