Top award for drip kits case study

Family members busy in a drip irrigation garden

Plan Zimbabwe has won the 2006 Multiple Uses of Water Group Case Study Award from the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.

The award for the case study, entitled 'Household Economic Security: The Case of Drip Kit Micro Irrigation Project', comes with €1,000 to support further research.

Compiled by Plan Zimbabwe Water and Sanitation Advisor Nigel Murimiradzomba, the case study details a Plan drip kit micro irrigation project which started in Zimbabwe in 2003 to help communities produce vegetables to improve nutrition and enhance their earning capacity.

Partnering with IDE, Linkages for Economic Advancement for the Disadvantaged and ECI-Africa, Plan rolled out 1,500 drip kits along with various types of vegetable seed across seven districts.

The kits were targeted at mainly HIV and AIDS affected families and other vulnerable households that would benefit greatly from the labour-saving devices.

Drip kits feed water directly to plant roots and soil through a network of valves, pipes, tubing and emitters – minimising water use and saving countless hours that would otherwise be spent watering gardens and plots.

Helping communities

Desmond Sibanda, a peasant farmer in Kwekwe district, could barely feed his family of 11 before he received a drip kit. Now he produces enough vegetables to sell at the markets.

“You should have seen how we struggled to water our garden in the last three years. All the wells were drying up and could produce water enough for domestic use only. We had only 1 bed of vegetables and we used wastewater to water the garden. This technology conserves water and is time saving,” he said.

A number of schools have also benefited from the drip kits, where they are used for demonstration purposes to help equip children with agricultural skills.

Download the award-winning case study (PDF, 822Kb) >>

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