Small Scale Agriculture

The Pemba Foundation supports Pemba's farmers by: designing and installing small, efficient drip irrigation systems; introducing high-value crops like passion fruit; and developing vanilla production and export.

irrigation:

Nassor, left, from Pemba Foundation and Bakar, center, visiting Ali's farm to design his new irrigation system. Bakar received his system in 2014 and now advises other farmers for the Foundation.

Pemba has good farmland, but yields are severely limited by the 6-month dry season. With abundant groundwater, recharged during the rains, Pemba is an ideal place for irrigated agriculture. But as domestic water networks develop, groundwater demand is growing fast, so it's essential to use water-efficient drip methods for irrigation. Most farmers cannot afford to invest in irrigation, and we receive many requests from all over the island for help.

We design systems, provide the materials and advice, and the farmers contribute the labour for well-digging, land clearing and system building. Most systems use a conventional petrol-powered or electric water pump. We would like to install pumps that use renewable energy, like an innovative low-tech wind pump designed by EMAS, a Bolivian rural-technology organisation. We fabricated one locally and tried it out on one farm, but it was expensive compared to a petrol pump. Now we are trying a new solar-electric pump made in India.

Some of our systems use our own design of drip emitters: they're effective, easy to clean and cost much less than commercially available designs.

In addition to subsistence crops, some farmers are growing, at our suggestion, passion fruit for cash. It's a non-traditional crop, and brings good prices in local markets. The potential of irrigated agriculture in Pemba is demonstrated by the success of Bakar Hamad Said, one of the first farmers for whom we built a drip irrigation system, in 2014. Bakar now harvests 40 kg of passion fruit every 2 days. Wholesalers come to him to buy at $1/kg, and because his plants are protected from the dry season it's year-round income. He's added a watermelon field to take advantage of spare pump capacity, and is building a house on his farm for a worker and family. Bakar's 3-acre farm before irrigation made about $3/day, which had to support a family of 7 plus 2 dependents and other extended family -- way below the usual poverty line of $1-2/person/day. With irrigation, the farm yields $12/day, which lifts Bakar and his family out of poverty.

Bakar has become a skillful and successful farmer and businessman. He taught himself how to get the best out of irrigation, and how to market his produce. Now he advises other farmers on using our irrigation systems.

We've installed about 20 small irrigation systems so far, and we'll continue to install as many as funding allows -- Pemba could use literally hundreds.

Our irrigation program was originally proposed by an adviser, Jeroen de Boorder.