 |
The Magara
Group of 30 farmers cultivating
vegetables in Geiger |
Khartoum, 13 January
2008: Deng Kak has worked on the
cotton and sunflower commercial
farms for as long as he can remember.
Though Deng is among the few lucky
people to have land adjacent to
the River Nile, apart from household
use, the waters of the Nile have
never benefited him. The USD 1,000
price tag for a water pump and the
accompanying fuel costs are beyond
his dreams. When Deng heard that
the Northern Upper Nile RRP Consortium
was going to distribute water pumps
and seeds to groups of ten small-scale
farmers, he quickly joined one group.
Unfortunately for Deng, the water
pumps turned out to be treadle pumps
and the seeds turned out to be vegetable
seeds. He initially thought of pulling
out of the group as he only cultivated
sorghum, millet and groundnuts on
a small scale during the rainy season
and was not interested in vegetable
gardening and he doubted that one
manually operated treadle pump would
be enough for that – let alone
sharing among ten people. His group
members urged him to stay and he
is thankful they did.
Deng is among the 203
small-scale farmers currently being
supported by the northern Upper
Nile Consortium. The consortium
brings together Tearfund, Stromme
Foundation, Fellowship for African
Relief (FAR) and Mercy Corps as
the lead agency for a 3-year development
project funded by the EC through
UNDP. To help small-scale farmers
take advantage of the waters of
the Nile, NUNRRP distributed treadle
pumps and vegetable seeds from FAO
to the farmers to enable them start
dry-season vegetable cultivation.
Using both CHF and UNDP/EC RRP funding,
NUNRRP also provided these farmers
with new crops (mainly cassava,
moringa and sweet potatoes) that
were not being cultivated in this
area.
In order to continue
in the dry season the RRP supported
203 farmers have found innovative
ways to cultivate during the dry
season. The Magara group (Geiger
payam) for instance has dug a trench
from a near-by hafir to access water
as the River Nile waters have retreated
beyond the reach of the treadle
pump.
 |
Farmers
in the Ramallah Group transform
unproductive land into vegetable
gardens
|
The Panja group (Jalhak
payam) have permanently relocated
their garden to an island on the
Nile River that is too high to be
flooded but has the Nile waters
in close proximity. While the Nile
waters are completely inaccessible,
farmers have also found other ways
of accessing water for irrigation.
The Monsur group (on the main Renk
– Falouj highway) have fenced
off a pool created by oil companies
(when constructing the road) in
which water flows and is available
throughout the year and are using
these waters for irrigation. The
Khor Misuk group on the border between
Renk and Melut counties are utilizing
the seasonal Misuk river in an area
that retains water throughout the
year. This group has had to establish
a temporary settlement for two families
that guard their gardens against
animals and theft.
Another major challenge
faced by the farmers has been the
insects, ants and worms drawn to
the green vegetation in their gardens.
Of these, the stalk-borer
worm has forced many farmers to
replant. This has been a hard learning
curve as one group, in an effort
to get rid of the worm, bought insecticides
that ended up destroying the entire
crop but now they have replanted.
To support these farmers
in the coming months, NUNRRP will
be linking them to the department
of insects and pests control in
Renk.
To counter strain over
treadle pumps, NUNRRP will distribute
more treadle pumps to these groups
to reduce the ratio from 10 farmers
to 1 pump to 5 farmers per pump.
 |
The
Panja Group Leader on the
Cultivated Island
|
Having successfully
reverse-engineered treadle pump
technology and started local production
in Renk, NUNRRP has now capacitated
local artisans to produce the pumps.
The RRP is pleased to note that
some of the farmer groups, in the
interests of sustainability, have
taken their own initiative to lease
water pumps from commercial farmers.
This water is used to fill canals
/ pools near the vegetable gardens
for watering of vegetables using
treadle pumps. UNDP/EC RRP in Upper
Nile plans to support selected groups
of farmers to increase their income
and independence by providing access
to micro-enterprise funds that encourage
savings and small investment loans.
In the future, RRP
plans to help these groups procure
larger water pumps under cost-sharing
to specifically pump water into
holding areas near their gardens.
NUNRRP will also continue carrying
out cooking demonstrations in addition
to bush farmer schools to teach
farmers how to plant and consume
new crops.
To improve and sustain
the livelihoods of 23,590 residents
and returnees of Northern Upper
Nile, the RRP has a
budget of €4.5 million to set
up seed nurseries and organize seed
banks; rehabilitate 7 health facilities
and train
village health committees; drill
water points and equip boreholes
with hand-pumps; construct latrines
for households,
schools, and health centres; rehabilitate
10 schools and construct 3 new schools;
and create adult literacy
programmes. Mercy Corps is the lead
agency, and other partners include
Tearfund, Fellowship for African
Relief,
Stromme, and the Episcopal Church
of Sudan.
 |
Khor Misuk
Group Cultivates Water from
Seasonal River
|
The programme in Upper
Nile is part of the larger Recovery
and Rehabilitation Programme, which
has
projects in ten locations in Sudan:
Abyei, River Nile, Red Sea, Blue
Nile, South Kordofan, Upper Nile,
Warrap, Central Equatoria, Eastern
Equatoria, and Northern Bahr el
Ghazal. The Recovery and
Rehabilitation Programme is a €54,325
million programme, funded by the
European Commission
and managed by UNDP on behalf of
the Government of National Unity,
and Government of Southern
Sudan. The programme, which is serving
800,000 Sudanese, has a total of
47 NGOs working
together to build schools, healthcare
centres, and water networks; improve
people’s livelihoods
through vocational training, agricultural
projects, and peace-building initiatives;
and increase capacity
through training local government
administrations.
For more information on the RRP, please contact:
Alexander O'Riordan
Recovery and Rehabilitation
Programme Manager
alexander.oriordan@undp.org