Course 4: Irrigation and Water Resource Management

Duration: 5days Cost: $500

Background

Justification

Irrigated agriculture will continue to play an important role in the country’s pursuit of food security and food self-sufficiency, employment and foreign exchange earnings. Irrigation projects and especially community-based irrigation projects in Kenya continue to operate at very low efficiencies.  This is especially so for projects where surface (basin, furrow, border) irrigation methods are practiced.  The low efficiencies in water abstraction, conveyance, distribution and application leads to wastage of the scarce water resources. At the same time, inappropriate irrigation practices can lead to loss of land due to salinization and water logging, which is one of the major problems facing irrigated agriculture in the world. As irrigation faces stiff competition for water from such demands as industrial, domestic and recreation, it has to justify every drop of water it uses.  Consequently irrigation has to improve its efficiency to compete effectively

General aim of the Course

This course targets extension workers and small scale farmers and aims to enhance their knowledge and skills in small scale irrigation techniques and crop husbandry. The course also aims to enhance their knowledge in business and general management of farming activities.

Course Objectives

The specific objectives of the course are to:

  1. To impart necessary skills to farmers in efficient running of irrigation projects.
  2. To equip the farmers with skills that will enhance the exploitation of water sources for irrigation development.
  3. To impart necessary practical expertise to the farmers in running and maintaining irrigation machinery.
  4. Introduce new and up-coming technologies in irrigation to the farmers.
  5. To build enhance farming capacity at the grassroots.
  6. To impart necessary skills to farmers in efficient running of irrigation projects.
  7. To equip the farmers with skills that will enhance the exploitation of water sources for irrigation development.
  8. To impart necessary practical expertise to the farmers in running and maintaining irrigation machinery.
  9. Introduce new and up-coming technologies in irrigation to the farmers.
  10. To build enhance farming capacity at the grassroots.

Training Methodology

Besides lectures, the course will also include practical sessions, discussions, problem solving, case studies, exercises and demonstrations on various aspects of the course. The resource persons/trainers are required to set demonstration sites and exercises relevant to their topics and the course in general.

Resource Persons

The resource persons will be drawn from the pool of experts in irrigation and water resources management from Public Universities, Ministry of Water Resources Management & Development, Private Sector Institutions, and NGOs.

Training Cost/Scholarship and Acccomodation

The full cost of the training course is USD 500 (Ksh. 65,000) to cater for course facilitation / training fees, full board accommodation, meals and field trips, training   resource materials, stationery and other training supplies; certificates and cost of training venue. The training cost does not cover medical insurance and other personal expenses in course of the training.

All Participants will be accommodated within AICAD Hostels at JKUAT. There is limited accommodation and participants are requested not to come with dependents.

Course Modules

  • 01

    Small holder irrigation techniques

    The module will introduce participants to the basic principles of irrigation and discuss different methods of irrigation, layout of systems as well as how equipment can be maintained. It is aimed at giving farmers knowledge and skills, through demonstrations, of how irrigation works.

  • 02

    Water Harvesting and Storage

    The module is aimed at giving participants knowledge and skills in water harvesting and storage.

  • 03

    Soil, water, Irrigation and environment

    The module will cover effects of irrigation on the interactions of water use and soil and general environment. In particular it will give participants knowledge on how to address issues that spring up as a result of irrigation.

  • 04

    Crop Farming Methods

    The module aims at dealing generally with issues that are of interest to the small scale farmer whose resources are limited. The major aim of the module is to help farmers make informed choices about the various issues in their farming activities.

  • 05

    Irrigated agriculture as a business

    Most farmers engage in farming as a way of life. The module aims at getting farmers to examine ways through which farming can be made more rewarding as an economic activity.

  • 06

    Crop scheduling with relation to weather

    This module will sensitize participants on the dependency of farming activities on weather patterns and how irrigation can be scheduled to meet the demands of weather changes. Indirectly, the module deals with the issues of diversification and flexibility. It will help farmers examine how they make decisions on what crops to plant, planting seasons and moisture maintenance e.t.c.

  • 07

    Action Planning

    In this module participants will be expected to come up with plans in the following ways.

  • 08

    Field Trips

    The training course shall involve field trips to relevant sites to provide hands-on and practical experience on irrigation and water resources management. The field trips are meant to offer participants an opportunity to see, analyze and evaluate some community-based irrigation and water management projects and to prepare a group report on lessons learnt and make recommendations for improvement.

For more information on the training course please contact:

AICAD , Director Training and Extension
Africa Institute for Capacity Development
P.O. Box 46179 – 00100 GPO, Nairobi, Kenya
Email: wakhu@aicad.or.ke or te@aicad.or.ke
Tel: +254 726 610 402 or 0733523014