Currently, most irrigation equipment in sub-Saharan Africa is imported. In many cases it is prohibitively expensive and often inappropriate for use by small-scale farmers. FAO estimates the number of chronically undernourished and hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa at 185.9 million people or 34 percent of the population. Many African farmers are still using bucket-lifting technologies, which are slow, cumbersome and labour intensive to irrigate very small plots of land, FAO said. Water lifting rates are only between 0.5 and one cubic metre per hour.
Treadle pumps are far more efficient and user-friendly.
They can be used in a comfortable way, the farmer stands on the treadles, pressing the pistons up and down, lifting up to five cubic metres per hour. Treadle pumps are available in African countries, mainly introduced by non-governmental organizations, but could be further promoted, the report said. These pumps are used by small farmers with up to one hectare of land. Case studies from Kenya, Niger, Zambia and Zimbabwe show that by using treadle pumps farmers could increase irrigated land, reduce work time compared to bucket irrigation, improve crop quality, grow new crops and increase the number of cropping cycles. In Zambia, FAO's Special Programme for Food Security, now operational in more than 60 countries, has contributed considerably to the use of small pumps.