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The ‘Irrigation for a Resilient and Sustainable Agriculture in Vanuatu’ project supported by the Italian government is well underway at Tagabe Agriculture Farm.
The farm is one of the six sites for this project.
The project aims to identify sustainable irrigation systems for vegetable production that promote local agriculture resilience to the impacts of climate change, in particular during Vanuatu’s dry season.
Irrigation is essential in sustainable agriculture as agriculture crops rely heavily on water especially during drought periods.
The current activities at the Tagabe Agriculture Farm site include installation of a 14 solar panel system that could discharge around 100 litres of water per minute from an underground water source.
The irrigation techniques used are sprinkler and drip irrigation.
The irrigation system was installed by Vanuatu Agriculture Supplies (VAS).
The setting up and installation of the system is of a standard that will be a model that farmers can adopt.
The total cost of the project at the Tagabe Agriculture Farm is around VT 2 Million.
Farmers will earn more income than the expenses if they use this system in the future.
“The sprinkler and drip irrigation system is up and running.
“This system will not cause any huge expenses for the Department of Agriculture in the long-term, in terms of water bills for watering crops,” said Willie Iau, Irrigation Project Coordinator.
Mr Iau said, “the next project site is Malafau in North Efate. At this site, a hand irrigation system powered by solar energy will be implemented.
“This is a first ever irrigation system trial by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) in six project sites, Tagabe Agriculture Farm being the first site.
The trial sites aim at establishing demonstration farming models for the surrounding farmers and these farmers will be involved directly with awareness and training on solar irrigation.
Photo supplied Caption: Solar irrigation system at Tagabe Agriculture Farm
