Changes

Water Portal / Rainwater Harvesting / Surface water / Road runoff harvesting

492 bytes added, 03:38, 15 November 2012

→‎Field experiences

====Improvements====

One improvement regarding adoption of the system would be to assist farmers in layout and design. These road runoff harvesting systems can be very effective, but if not well designed or managed may lead to high maintenance requirements and an increased erosion hazard. An idea for improving Musyoka’s system, from the WOCAT data collectors who visited him, is that he could make his channels shallower to allow more water to spillover into his fields, rather than it being lost through deep infiltration. In terms of research, this is one of the systems most in need of validation and full description, as water harvesting is extremely important in the drylands of Kenya. And here is a system that works.

====Adoption by other farmers====

The farmer has designed systems for two neighbours: indeed the main channel from the road passes through the farm of one of these, with whom he works co-operatively. The total adoption is recorded to be around 40 farmers. They are all now harvesting runoff from tracks or hillsides in this vicinity. However, several of those who have taken up his initiative have not managed to guide the runoff water through the farm as effectively as Musyoka has done.

==Acknowledgements==

* Kithinji Mutunga and Will Critchley, [http://www.samsamwater.com/library/TR27_PFI_WOCAt.pdf FARMERS’ INITIATIVES IN LAND HUSBANDRY Promising technologies for the drier areas of East Africa.] UNDP – Office to Combat Desertification and Drought (UNSO/ESDG/BDP) and Sida’s Regional Land Management Unit, 2001.

Winona

Akvopedia-spade, akvouser, bureaucrat, emailconfirmed, staff, susana-working-group-1, susana-working-group-10, susana-working-group-11, susana-working-group-12, susana-working-group-2, susana-working-group-3, susana-working-group-4, susana-working-group-5, susana-working-group-6, susana-working-group-7, susana-working-group-8, susana-working-group-9, susana-working-group-susana-member, administrator, widget editor

30,949

edits