Mwea rice farmers rattled as scheme hit by acute water shortage

An acute water shortage has hit the giant Mwea Rice Irrigation Scheme in Kirinyaga County following a prolonged dry spell.

Consequently, farmers are worried that they may post low harvests this season.

"Water is now a scarce commodity and we may suffer," farmer Simon Njogu lamented.

The scheme's Water Users Association chairman Mauricius Mutugi said the situation was serious as water had dropped by 50 percent.

He noted that water levels in major rivers that supply water for irrigation have gone down.

The water normally flows at 8.4 cubic metres per second. It is now flowing at 4.2 cubic metres, not sufficient to irrigate the crop on 22,000 acres.

However, Mr Mutugi explained that his association plans to hold a meeting with Water Resources Management and the Kirinyaga County government to discuss how water can be rationed to save the crop from drying up.

"Only rationing of the commodity can be the solution to the water crisis in the scheme," he said.

Mr Mutugi observed that farmers depend on rice for survival and they should be assisted.

"We are strictly monitoring the situation and very soon rationing of water will kick off to ensure there is no crop failure in the scheme, which is the country's rice granary,” he said.

He urged farmers to cooperate when the rationing starts.

"Farmers will be required to follow instructions given by officers from the National Irrigation Authority so that rationing can go on smoothly once it commences,” Mr Mutugi added.

But he said the water crisis in the scheme will be resolved once the Sh20 million Thiba dam under construction by the national government is completed. This will also increase rice production by more than 100,000 tonnes.

Mwea is the largest rice-growing scheme in East Africa, supplying over 80 percent of the total rice consumed in Kenya at its peak.

A 2019 Kenya National Bureau of Statistics report notes that Kenya imports at least a third of the rice consumed in the country to plug the gap.

The new dam will see farmers diversify from rice, now the only major cash crop in the region, to other produce such as horticulture.

In addition, a double-cropping season will be introduced in the scheme for the entire 35,000 acres. Until now, farmers only cropped one season a year.

The National Irrigation Authority says the project will expand the existing irrigation capacity in Mwea to 10,000 acres, creating enough water for farming.

The new project will establish a reservoir of 15.6 million cubic metres of water for expanded irrigation and enhance water supply that will see farmers plant their produce twice a year in the existing Mwea Irrigation Settlement Scheme.

Last week, the government resumed buying rice from farmers in Mwea following the release of Sh700 million.

Mwea Rice Growers Multipurpose Cooperative Society chairman Phaniel Ndege said the Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC) is offering good prices for thousands of bags of rice that had been lying idle in stores due to lack of a market.

"We are selling a kilo of rice at Sh85 as directed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and we are happy," said Mr Ndege, adding that the society was marketing paddy rice on behalf of desperate farmers who grow rice at the Mwea scheme.

In February last year, President Kenyatta visited the area and ordered that rice be bought at Sh85 per kilogramme, up from Sh45, so that farmers could make a profit from their work.

He instructed KNTC to implement his directive immediately. The agency bought rice for some time but stopped, leaving farmers without a reliable market.

The President noted that farmers had been exploited by brokers for a long time and hence the government’s intervention.

Mr Ndege explained that 80,000 bags of rice that were lying in society stores in Ngurubani were being sold to KNTC and assured farmers that they would be paid.

"We will pay farmers next week so they should be patient," he added.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya said recently that money had been set aside to buy rice following complaints from farmers.

The government, he said, would ensure that farmers' produce does not go to waste.

He assured farmers that their rice will be bought for Sh85 per kilogramme as the President had directed.