Community -Led Irrigation for Food Security

Rusinga island is receiving Emergency Food Relief yet it has a great potential to produce food to feed itself and supply other areas. The island is surrounded by Lake Victoria waters and has numerous underground water resources. Land, Labour, Water, Markets are in plenty, yet the island’s population is food, nutrition and income insecure. This paradox will be addressed simply by moving water into the land.
SCAN AgriAbility Enterprise is initiating a Community-Led Irrigation project to make Rusinga a Model Food and Economic Secure (MFES) Island.
In order to achieve a MFES status, SCAN AgriAbility Enterprise plans;-
• To initiate and run self-sustaining water suplly and agricultural production scheme benefiting 1,973 households comprising of 4,597 small scale farmers.
• To building a strong agribusiness community structure capable of running and expanding project from the original 37 households to1,973 households in 3 years.
• To establish and run 6 cottage industries in Rusinga Island processing the surplus food as a result of the Irrigation.
Expected Impact:
• Due to the increased income levels, the lives of small-scale farmers will be improved.
• The surplus money raised from the sale of food will be used to educate the young ones and therefore improved education in Rusinga Island.
• There will be enough food for consumption and surplus for sale.
• The surplus food will be processed and added value then sold out to the markets.