Sustainability of Agricultural Production in Communal Areas of Zimbabwe: Case of Chionekano Communal Lands (original) (raw)

Agricultural production in most parts of the semi arid Katsina is supplemented by other sources of water supply especially during the dry seasons. Since the construction of Jibia dam in 1991, only about 170 hectares out of 3,500 hectares have been under irrigation due to inadequate supply of diesel to power the engine for adequate water supply to the farms. This situation has worsened leaving large areas of land uncultivated while the dam stores large volume of water. In this paper therefore, the potential of renewable sources of energy in hybrid form (wind, solar thermal, small hydro, and agricultural waste fuel) is explored and harnessed to generate power that could subsequently be used to adequately supply water to the vast uncultivated agricultural lands around Jibia irrigation project in Katsina state.