Columbia Water Center is working in Mali, Africa, as part of its PepsiCo Foundation funded project to improve rural water use and livelihoods.
The Mali component of the project aims to develop an effective irrigation system to improve agricultural productivity and food security. In recent months, CWC’s Mali-based staff signed a Memorandum of Understanding with two farmer associations in the villages of Djéguélia and Iloa (near Toya) to provide a loan to pay for pumps and engines, and create the management structures needed to set-up a community fund. Through this program, and with improved management of the pumps, farmers are now able to increase and diversify production, which will increase their incomes and decrease the amount of time needed to recover the cost of the pumps.
Farmers prepared their fields for irrigation by constructing and rehabilitating the reception basins and canals, and by leveling the fields. The pump sets were installed in Djéguélia and Iloa in early March and are now operational and being used to irrigate the off-season rice crop.
The Regional Directorate of Agricultural Engineering and two private companies carried out a technical study on the rehabilitation and development of the irrigated perimeters, and as a result construction of improved ponds and canals started March 31st on both perimeters. The first loan payments have already been made.
Over 313 farms, 3,212 residents total in the villages of Iloa and Djéguélia, have begun to benefit from increased access to water.
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