FIGHTING FAMINE IN SOUTHERN MADAGASCAR –INTRODUCING SOLAR-POWERED MICRO-IRRIGATION

Missing rainfall heavily affects Madagascar’s rural areas. To tackle increasing hunger and poverty in the South of the country, AFC introduced solar-powered micro-irrigation schemes for family farming.

In recent years, the seasonal rainfall in Southern Madagascar was disrupted because of climate change. The traditional agricultural calendars have been disturbed in their planning and production cycle. Under these conditions, new challenges for agriculture have risen. Major topics are the conservation and rational use of surface water, particularly the introduction and commercialisation of micro-irrigation techniques, which are very new to Madagascar.

To address these challenges, the EU-funded “Support for the Financing of Agriculture and Inclusive Sectors (AFAFI South)” programme started in April 2018 and runs over a period of seven years. It seeks to reduce systemic poverty and to improve the food security of rural populations sustainably, especially women in the three major regions Androy, Anosy, Atsimo Atsinanana in the South and Southeast of the world’s third largest island. The programme targets approximately 250,000 people living in 42,000 households concentrated in four different agro-ecological zones.

Farming families already impoverished by successive waves of drought cannot work with machines requiring expensive fuel, which is otherwise unavailable in the isolated rural areas. Our team of four key experts and specialised short-term experts had to find an innovative solution.

In 2021, our former team leader asked the Dutch NGO Practica, specialised in the field of irrigation for family farming, to analyse the possibility of introducing solar-powered irrigation techniques at low costs in Southern Madagascar.

From 2022 onwards, 60 solar kits were tested in the field. The kits offered different types of equipment to vulnerable farming families. Based on a solar-powered supply consisting of two to three mobile 80 Watt panels, different models of solar pumps were exposed to the real conditions of intensive use in the field. German technology submersible pumps and small Indianmade solar motor pumps were tested if they respond on the needs. The main requirement is a sufficient pumping and spraying capacity with a flow rate of around two m3 per hour. Because of the high risk of theft in those insecure regions, the second requirement is the possibility of transporting the equipment from the houses to the fields on a daily basis. As the traditional crops are usually rain-fed in Southern Madagascar, the farmers are very new to irrigation. This is why it is also important that the equipment is easy and resistant to be used intensively by non-professionals. In the end, it is Indian technology proved the most suitable for the intense conditions of use in southern Madagascar. Around 50 farming families were able to produce diversified vegetable and legume during the last agricultural season.

Farmers are enthusiastic about this innovation, which allows them to irrigate up to 3,000 m2 per farm and grow three different crops in a row per year. Between December and March, it is now possible to grow cereals such as maize and sorghum, food legumes such as beans or cowpeas between March and June, and diversified vegetables between June and October without the risk of drought if a nearby surface water resource is available. The AFAFI South programme and our team plan to scale up the pilot activity in 2023. With local technical support, 170 new kits will be distributed in three additional areas.

To lift the rural population out of poverty and improve the food security, the farmers will be professionalised in practicing market gardening and seed production.

The operation of more than 200 pumps in the field and the interest that this new technology has aroused among villagers as well as development operators in the South (NGOs, UN agencies, donors, etc.) and the private sector is promising for the sustainable adoption of the solar-powered micro-irrigation system in this part of the country.

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