Solving water challenges for farmers
Local farmers stand to benefit after Water Research South Africa launched the Giyani Local Scale Climate Resilience Programme at Ndhambi village in Dzumeri.
According to Virginia Moluse of the Water Research Commission (WRC), a team of researchers recently spent two days demonstrating new innovations to the farmers around the Dzumeri area. The research is funded by WRC and addresses solving water challenges in the country. “Among the innovations are how to use less water without compromising yields.
These include putting soil into a bag and planting seeds inside,” explained Moluse, saying this was economical in terms of the water needed for the crops to grow. Moluse said they demonstrated the use of a smart app that shows farmers how much water they need on a particular crop. The app is able to generate accurate crop data on the information captured.
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“If you grow sweet potato, the app can show you how much water you would need, the type of soil needed for your potatoes as well as the right time of the year to grow it,” she continued. “We have also signed a memorandum of agreement with the Mopani district for them to include the programme in support of its activities,” she said. This programme is said to be the first in the country and aims to help farmers with alternative ways to survive during periods of drought.
Farming schemes that have been assisted are Khwezi, Ahitirheni, Tubatse, Mangena, Ndambi, Mayephu, Mzilela, and Mbedle farming cooperatives. Rivonia Pulosi of Khwezi Farming Cooperative said the programme was an eye-opener as it taught them various options to make farming easy. “We now have several viable ways that we can use to boost our production even with low availability of water in our area,” she said.
