Background of irrigation development in Tanzania

                                                                                 

 

The importance of water for crop production and the development of mankind, in general, is obvious. History tells us that the w civilization started  along  some of the famous rivers for instance as Euphrates,  Tigris, and the Nile.

In our country, irrigation history sends us way back to iron age whereby traditional irrigation systems have long been of considerable importance in various parts to date. Before the 1950s the colonial government involvement in irrigation concentrated on the provision of  advice and assistance to traditional irrigators.

Although modern irrigation had first been introduced  to Tanganyika in the 1930s at the Tanganyika planting company estate near Moshi town for sugarcane the colonial government involvement in  irrigated agriculture received more attention after the second  world war when in 1948 a thousand hectares rice farm was started at Kilangali in Morogoro Region just to abandoned in 1951.

In 1954 a Royal commission was established to examine possible measures to improve the living standards of the people in East Africa. The importance of agriculture was strongly acknowledged

but the commission  found that more than half of East Africa was not considered suitable for intensive  agriculture because of inadequate rainfall. The commission stressed the important role that water irrigation The division is established. Thus in 1955 the water Development  and irrigation Division was established in the Ministry of Agriculture. This division rehabilitated a number of existing traditional  schemes through the improvement of their headworks, furrows and in some cases, construction of dams.

In the late of 1950s and early 1960s intensive efforts to identify potential sites for irrigation development were done by undertaking surveys of most major river basins. The results of these surveys were not exhaustive as they were limited to large land blocks ignoring many smaller potential areas. More importantly, the potential was assessed without considering socio-economic and other factors  as criteria. Thus the definition of potential meant realizable by major sophisticated and expensive programs. The decade target of 20 small scale irrigation schemes being  developed by 1970 and another 10,000 ha be developed each subsequent year was a failure due to various problems. The program was among others, over-ambitious with regard to the availability of financial and human resources.

The impetus of irrigation Development decreased further in 1973 when wd&id become the ministry of water development and power.  However in 1975 the responsibility for irrigation reverted to ministry of Agriculture, which had no capacity for the task.

In 1974/1975 coincident with a major food crisis and  a vacuum in institutional capability for irrigation development, the responsibility for development  was centralized whereby small scale schemes were allocated to the Regional Authorities, which established an irrigation unit under the Regional agricultural office. The food crisis highlighted the potential importance of irrigated Agriculture. Expatriates  were recruited from India to become Regional irrigation Experts because of lack of indigenous expertise. The period of  1975/1979 was of intensive irrigation activities in most of the regions of our country. Unfortunately the program was badly planned, underfinanced and under-equipped. Very few of the schemes started at that time were completed and few still are now operational.

In 1975 the irrigation division was initiated but it was until 1980 when an outline proposal for the National village irrigation development program was established. It had neither plans to follow nor a clear role or function. The NVIDP laid down a strategy of rehabilitation and/or upgrading village irrigation schemes. Multilateral, bilateral donors and NGOs financed this program. It is through this program that the six zonal irrigation units were established each covering three or four regions. The irrigation division through the zonal units implemented the development responsibilities, which were central to the regions.

The zonal irrigation units have to date played an important role as technical service providers for  three or four regions each and their districts as far as irrigation development is concerned. Each zonal irrigation unit has a team of different professionals who are relevant for irrigation such as agronomists, sociologists, environment engineers, agricultural engineers, and civil engineers.