TITLE:
Small-Scale Irrigation in the Highlands of Western Cameroon: A Diagnostic Study of the Southern Slope of the Bamboutos Mountains
AUTHORS:
Sibelle Tsague Mouafo, Nasse Fetio Ngoune, Roger Ntankouo Njila, Barthelemy Ndongo
KEYWORDS:
Market Gardening, Water, Energy, Small-Scale Irrigation, Southern Slope of the Bamboutos Mountains
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.16 No.2,
February
18,
2025
ABSTRACT: Irrigated agriculture in Cameroon is practiced on a large scale by large private firms and parastatals, and on a small scale by individual producers in different production areas of the country. Although small-scale irrigation can supply local and sub-regional markets with food in the off-season, it has received little research and its challenges are therefore rarely addressed. In order to contribute to the knowledge of these small-scale irrigation systems, with a view to improving their structure and the management of irrigation water and energy, an assessment of small-scale irrigation in the southern slopes of the Bamboutos Mountains has been done. After direct observations, field measurements, surveys of 100 irrigators with questionnaires and interviews with administrative managers, analyses were carried out using Xlstat software. It was found out that about 226 small-scale irrigation systems designed and managed by producers have been installed on this slope between the end of December 2022 and mid-March 2023. Intended for market garden crops, 84.96% of these irrigation systems use sprinklers and 15.04% surface irrigation (furrow irrigation). Surface or underground water is mobilized using gravity (50%), fossil fuels (34.51%), electricity (14.6%) or solar energy (0.9%). Sprinkler irrigation is mainly carried out using locally manufactured hydraulic turnstiles. There is a lack of formal associations of irrigators in an environment marked by conflicts between water users, when there is not allocation for water withdrawal. Apart from the high cost of pumping energy ($1.32 per liter of fuel), the main constraint identified, which has become more acute over the years, is the lack of irrigation water during the water shortage period (from mid-January to mid-March). These constraints have led to a transition from surface irrigation to sprinkler irrigation, and the adoption of new energy supply and water mobilization technologies. The construction of collective surface and groundwater catchment structures with solar-powered pumping systems, the setting up of formal irrigators’ associations and an irrigation support service, could improve the availability of water throughout the irrigation season, thereby helping to improve the income generated by irrigated market-garden farming on the southern slopes of the Bamboutos Mountains.