Benefits of Irrigation for Rural Farming

Irrigation is the artificial application of water to land.

Fake rain.

Why is this important here in Zambia?

Well there are two seasons here...the rainny season and the dry season. The dry season is actually dry, there is no rain from May till November (if there was, it would be a shit show...this is not to say it has not happened but the likelyhood is rare and would disturb farming practices all around).

Since there is no rain here and one requires water/rain to produce crops it is then recessary to "import" the water from somewhere. On a rural farm this is either a well/borehole/pond/stream. Without pumps and irrigation systems farmers typically use a plastic bucket to collect the water then distribute it around the farm. Can you imagine going back and forth around 1-2 hectars of land with one bucket watering a thousand heads of cabbage or lettuce..what a long and tedious process.

Irrigation technologies help save time and effort. They also give you time to hunt giant rats to each.

Treddle pumps work by using a similar motion to that of a "stair master"...like walking up stairs, the pump pulls up water from the source and through a tube to be used in a various manner of ways.

The water can be stored into a container to future use, can be pushed through a pipe and hosed around the plants if you have enough tube (and a second person) or it can power a sprinkler system.

So insted of filling a bucket, dragging it around the farm and water each plant the irrigation techonologies allow farmers to treddle their way into efficient production!
I will look through my photos and post some descriptions of different pumps and sprinklers.
Hit me up with any questions.

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