Groundwater is increasingly seen as crucial to both agricultural and domestic water supply in sub-Saharan Africa. Citing climate change and growing populations, there is especially a notable shift towards promoting groundwater for irrigation to ensure food security. Increased use of the resource will undoubtedly be accompanied with new questions of governance, with groundwater overexploitation in other parts of the world functioning as a strong cautionary tale. This article provides an overview of the current groundwater governance literature on sub-Saharan Africa. Using a critical water governance lens we analyse how groundwater governance is framed, what terms, categories, and measurements are used to describe and assess groundwater governance, and whose perspectives are considered. We also assess whether groundwater governance research has taken place across sub-Saharan African countries in a balanced way. We find that groundwater governance research in sub-Saharan Africa, even more so than elsewhere, ignores the voices and perspectives of those physically encountering the resource. Instead, it is dominated by the views of formal, technical groundwater experts focusing on the need for more hydrogeological data and formal policies. While the existing contributions to the literature are valuable, the current bias in perspectives calls for others to join the field of groundwater governance and to supplement current conceptualisations and approaches with those of users and others dealing with groundwater management on a daily basis. We argue that groundwater users’ practical governance experiences, locally adapted solutions and knowledges, can add important complementary perspectives and insights towards crafting effective, sustainable and equitable groundwater governance processes across the continent.

Farmer-led irrigation development, a process in which farmers initiate the establishment of irrigation, is increasingly recognised as the driving force behind irrigation expansion, agricultural intensification, and commercialisation in sub-Saharan Africa. Governments and development agencies aim to build upon these practices to further stimulate agricultural production and expand the irrigated area. In what seems the recognition of farmers’ ability to take the lead, various African states have developed policies for ‘demand-driven irrigation development’. This article scrutinises the actual practices of such a policy through a case analysis of an intervention in Northern Tanzania. The analysis demonstrates how even demand-driven policies can disturb the development trajectory of farmer-led irrigation development by reinforcing modernisation ideals adhered to by both farmers and government employees. An emphasis on the aesthetics of modernity leads to symbolic modernisation, cementing the dominant role of the state and formal expertise and paralysing farmers’ irrigation development initiatives. This does not necessarily lead to agricultural intensification and commercialisation, which the formal policies seem to aim for and which is central to processes of farmer-led irrigation development.

In both Mozambique and Tanzania, farmer-led development of irrigation is widespread, yet it is little recognised in irrigation policies and is under-supported by the government. This paper explores how this situation is exacerbated by modernisation ideas in irrigation policy and professional thinking. By means of a historical review, we trace modernisation thinking in irrigation development from the colonial period onwards, and analyse how this thinking continues to play out in contemporary irrigation policies in both countries. We then examine the relationship between modernisation thinking and practices of farmer-led irrigation development, drawing on policy documents, field studies, and interviews in both countries. Based on this analysis, we argue that the nature of farmer-led development of irrigation is consistent with many of the goals identified by state agricultural modernisation programmes, but not with the means by which government and state policies envisage their achievement. As a consequence, policies and state officials tend to screen out farmers’ irrigation initiatives as not relevant to development until they are brought within state-sanctioned processes of technical design and administration.

The debate around what kind of irrigation, large- or small-scale, modern or traditional, best contributes to food security and rural development continues to shape irrigation policies and development in the Global South. In Tanzania, the irrigation categories of ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ are dominating irrigation policies and are shaping interventions. In this paper, we explore what these concepts really entail in the Tanzanian context and how they relate to a case of farmer-led groundwater irrigation development in Kahe ward, Kilimanjaro Region. For our analysis, we rely on three months of qualitative fieldwork in 2016, a household questionnaire, secondary data such as policy documents and the results of a mapping exercise in 2014–2015. In the early 2000s, smallholders in Kahe started developing groundwater. This has led to a new, differentiated landscape in which different forms of agricultural production co-exist. The same set of groundwater irrigation technologies has facilitated the emergence of different classes of farmers, ranging from those engaging with subsistence farming to those doing capitalist farming. The level of inputs and integration with markets vary, as does crop choice. As such, some farms emulate the ‘modern’ ideal of commercial farming promoted by the government, while others do not, or to a lesser extent. We also find that national policy discourses on irrigation are not necessarily repeated at the local level, where interventions are strongly driven by prioritization based on conflict and funding. We conclude that the policy concepts of traditional and modern irrigation do not do justice to the complexity of actual irrigation development in the Kahe case, and obfuscate its contribution to rural development and food security. We argue that a single irrigation technology does not lead to a single agricultural mode of production, and that irrigation policies and interventions should take into account the differentiation among irrigators.

Groundwater is an important resource for a large share of the global population and economies. Although groundwater dependence in most sub-Saharan African countries is relatively low at the national level, localized overexploitation is occurring, leading to a decline in groundwater levels and quality deterioration. Currently, the sustainable and equitable governance of groundwater, both through promotion and regulation, is turning out to be a key challenge in many sub-Saharan African countries. This paper uses case studies of urban groundwater governance in Arusha, and rural groundwater development in the Pangani basin, to analyse how the current policy and regulation inadvertently creates spaces for asymmetric access to (good quality) groundwater resources in Tanzania. It shows how the groundwater landscape is evolving into a situation where small users (farmers and households) rely on springs and shallow wells, while large users (commercial users and urban water authorities) are encouraged to sink deep boreholes. Amidst a lack of knowledge and enforcing capacity, exacerbated by different priorities among government actors, the water access rights of shallow well and spring users are being threatened by increased groundwater exploitation. Hence, the current groundwater policy and institutional setup do not only empower larger actors to gain disproportionate access to the groundwater resources, but presents this as a benefit for small users whose water security will supposedly increase.

This booklet was written to share research results with farmers and practitioners in Tanzania. It gives a summary of the empirical material collected during two months of field work in Kahe ward (Kilimanjaro Region), and includes maps, tables and photos. It describes the history of irrigation in Kahe, as well as current irrigation and farming practices and the challenges experience by different groups in the area. 

Most importantly, we found that:

• Using wells and pumps, farmers are less dependent on unreliable rain or limited river water
• Farmers with a well harvest more maize, and are more likely to grow high value crops
• The biggest challenge for farmers is the cost of agricultural inputs and fuel
• Insufficient agricultural extension work means that farmers do not get the necessary support in dealing with pest and diseases
• Not all farmers can benefit equally: those who are rich benefit more than those who are poor, because: 1) They can afford the agricultural inputs and labourers needed for high value crops such as onions and tomatoes. 2) They do not have to use middlemen and can take their crop to markets with better prices. 3) They often do not grow maize, and can plant early in order to sell their crops at higher prices.

Kitabu hiki kimeandikwa ili kusambaza matokeo ya utafiti kwa wakulima na watendaji wa hapa Tanzania. Kitabu kinatoa muhtasari wa taarifa za utafiti zilizokusanywa katika miezi miwili ya ukusanyaji taarifa katika kata ya Kahe (Mkoa wa Kilimanjaro), pamoja na ramani, majedwali na picha. Kitabu kinaelezea historia ya umwagiliaji ya Kahe, ikiwa ni pamoja na umwagiliaji unaoendelea kufanyika sasa, shughuli za kilimo pamoja na changamoto zinazoyakabili makundi mbalimbali katika eneo hilo.     

Mambom uhimu tuliyoyagundua ni:

• Kwa kutumia visima na pampu, wakulima wanapunguza kutegemea mvua isiyoaminika au maji kidogo ya mto
• Wakulima wenye visima wanavuna mahindi mengi zaidi na wanaweza kulima mazao yenye thamani kubwa.
• Changamoto kubwa kwa wakulima ni gharama za pembejeo za kilimo na mafuta
• Upungufu wa maafisa kilimo unasababisha wakulima kutopata msaada muhimu katika kukabiliana na wadudu waharibifu na magonjwa.
• Wakulima hawanufaiki kwa usawa: wakulima matajiri wananufaika zaidi kuliko wakulima masikini, kwa sababu: 1) Wanaweza kumudu gharama za pembejeo na nguvukazi inayohitajikakwa ajili ya uzalishaji wa mazao yenye thamani kubwa kama vitunguu na nyanya. 2) Hawahitaji kutumia madalali na wanaweza kupeleka mazao yao kwenye masoko yenye bei nzuri. 3) Mara nyingi hawalimi mahindi, na wanaweza kupanda mapema ili waweze kuuza mazao yao kwa bei za juu.

After years of relatively low investment, irrigation development in Africa has been put back on the policy agenda as a way of increasing agricultural productivity. In spite of existing evidence of farmers’ irrigation initiatives across the African continent, current policy prescriptions still revolve around (large-scale) state intervention. Farmers’ irrigation initiatives are generally considered traditional, backward, and unable to contribute to the agrarian transformation that many African nations are after.

This study aims to problematize this narrow notion of farmers’ irrigation initiatives, and explores how underlying ideas of modernity/modernisation influence irrigation policies and interactions between farmers and the state. Focusing on Tanzania, this thesis consists of an introductory chapter and three separate studies.

The first study is a historical analysis of the state’s attitude towards irrigation development and farmers’ irrigation initiatives in Tanzania. It shows how historically, the development narrative of ‘modern’ irrigation as a driver for agricultural transformation has been successful in depoliticizing irrigation interventions and their actual contribution to development.

The second study engages with a case where farmers have developed groundwater irrigation. The study analyses how differentiated access to capital leads to different modes of irrigated agricultural production, and shows the variation between and within farmers’ irrigation initiatives. It also illustrates how an irrigation area that does not conform to the traditional/modern policy dichotomy is invisible to the government.

The third study concerns a farmer-initiated gravity-fed earthen canal system. It shows how the implementation of a demand-driven irrigation development policy model can (inadvertently), through self-disciplining by farmers and a persistent shared modernisation aspiration, turn a scheme initiated and managed by farmers into a government-managed scheme, without actually improving irrigation practices.

Together, these studies show how modernisation thinking has pervaded irrigation development policy and practice in Tanzania, influencing both the state’s and farmers’ actions and attitudes, often to the detriment of farmers’ irrigation initiatives.

Although much has been written about the indigenous irrigation systems of Tanzania, there has been no comprehensive historical study of state irrigation planning. This article fills this gap by analysing irrigation development policy in Tanzania between 1935 and 2017. Based on archival research, and using the Lower Moshi area in Kilimanjaro Region as a case study, it contains an analysis of 80 years of irrigation policy and state intervention. It distinguishes between four periods, based on changes in the perceived role of irrigation and the different actors that were considered important. It notes that the belief in the necessity of state intervention and formal engineering for proper irrigation development ran through all the time periods, and that these were the key factors defining the state's attitude towards irrigation development planning, regardless of the political situation. This article argues that, ultimately, the development narrative of 'modern' irrigation as a driver for agricultural transformation has been successful in depoliticising irrigation interventions and has succeeded in closing the debate on whether state-controlled irrigation development is really the best way to reduce poverty and stimulate economic growth. To provide space for reflection on the possible role of governments in promoting, supporting, and regulating farmer-led irrigation development, future debates on African irrigation should start by recognising the unique contributions that can be made by farmers in realising the continent's development targets.

This booklet was written to share research results with farmers and practitioners in Tanzania. It gives a summary of the empirical material collected during three months of field work in the Mawala irrigation scheme (Kilimanjaro Region), and includes maps, tables and photos. It describes the history of the irrigation scheme, as well current irrigation and farming practices. It especially focuses on the different kinds of infrastructural improvement in the scheme (by farmers and the government), and the challenges that farmers face.

Most importantly, we found that:

• Water is not enough for the current area and cropping schedule, with the area increasing and water decreasing due to water weeds and increased water use by TPC.
• There are big inequalities in the scheme when it comes to water access, with the head-end benefiting more than the tail-end.
• The system of water fee collection is not fair and needs to be reconsidered to become more effective
• There are communication problems between the government and farmers leading to unnecessary disruptions in farming activities
• The current method of constructing small bits of the irrigation scheme at a time is disrupting farming activities and not leading to major improvements in irrigation practices
• Farmers' challenges are larger than only irrigation infrastructure, and more and better exentsion services could raise yields considerably

Kitabu hiki kimeandikwa ili kusambaza matokeo ya utafiti kwa wakulima na watendaji wa hapa Tanzania. Kitabu kinatoa muhtasari wa taarifa za utafiti zilizokusanywa katika miezi mitatu ya ukusanyaji taarifa katika skimu ya umwagiliaji ya Mawala (Mkoa wa Kilimanjaro), pamoja na ramani, majedwali na picha. Kitabu kinaelezea historia ya umwagiliaji katika eneo hili, ikiwa ni pamoja na umwagiliaji unaoendelea kufanyika sasa pamoja na shughuli za kilimo. Kitabu kinalenga mahususi kuainisha aina tofauti za uendelezaji wa miundombinu katika skimu (zilizofanywa na wakulima na zilizofanywa na serikali), na changamoto ambazo wakulima wanakabiliana nazo.

Mambo muhimu tuliyoyagundua ni:

• Maji hayatoshi kwa eneo lilopo na ratiba ya kilimo. Wakati eneo la kilimo linaongezeka, maji yanapungua kutokana na magugu maji na kuongezeka kwa matumizi ya maji ya TPC.
• Hakuna usawa kwa kiasi kikubwa katika skimu hasa inapokuja kwenye upatikanaji wa maji, walio mwanzoni mwa kichwa wananufaika zaidi kuliko walio mwishoni mwa mkia
• Mfumo wa kukusanya ada za maji sio wa haki na unahitaji kuangaliwa upya ili uwe na ufanisi zaidi.
• Kuna matatizo ya mawasiliano kati ya serikali na wakulima ambayo yanasababisha bughudha zisizo za lazima katika shughuli za kilimo.
• Mfumo wa sasa wa kujenga vipande vidogo vidogo vya skimu ya umwagiliaji kwa muda, unavuruga shughuli za kilimo na hauleti maboresho makubwa katika shughuli za umwagiliaji.
• Changamoto za wakulima ni kubwa kuliko miundombinu ya umwagiliaji. Huduma zaidi na bora za ushauri wa kilimo unaweza kuongeza mavuno kwa kiasi kikubwa zaidi.