TY - JOUR AU - Fanadzo, M AU - Ncube, B PY - 2018/07/31 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Review: Challenges and opportunities for revitalising smallholder irrigation schemes in South Africa JF - Water SA JA - WSA VL - 44 IS - 3 July SE - Review DO - 10.4314/wsa.v44i3.11 UR - https://watersa.net/article/view/6635 SP - AB - <p>South Africa is classified as a water-scarce country, and depends on agriculture for food production. The irrigation sector is&nbsp;the largest consumer of water in the country, accounting for about 62% of water utilisation, but also losing 30–40%. Given&nbsp;the threat of drought and climate change, efficient irrigation systems have become a necessity, especially in the smallholder&nbsp;farming sector where most losses occur. Smallholder irrigation schemes (SIS) were developed to improve rural livelihoods&nbsp;through sustainable food production for food security and poverty alleviation, but these development objectives remain&nbsp;largely unfulfilled. The objectives of this review were to assess challenges facing SIS and explore opportunities for revitalising&nbsp;the schemes. The focus was on government policy and strategies to support smallholder farmers. A review of government&nbsp;policy showed that although the needs and interests of smallholder farmers are high on the national agenda, there is&nbsp;insufficient financial support to the sector, suggesting that smallholder agriculture is not really seen as a potential driver of&nbsp;the economy. The core focus of the government on repairing irrigation infrastructure while neglecting the soft components&nbsp;relating to capacity building has partly been blamed for the failure of SIS in South Africa. Capacity building is one of the&nbsp;missing links in smallholder irrigation development and many failures have been attributed to lack of adequately trained&nbsp;farmers and extension staff, particularly in irrigation water management. Land tenure insecurity has been singled out as a&nbsp;major institutional challenge leading to poor performance of irrigation schemes. The diversity of schemes means that different&nbsp;kinds of interventions are needed to respond to varying farmers’ needs, resources and agricultural contexts. These findings&nbsp;point to the need to balance the soft and hard components of the irrigation schemes for sustainability. It is therefore evident&nbsp;that the government needs to review its priorities in revitalisation of SIS. Land tenure policies allowing increased access to&nbsp;arable land need to be developed urgently, together with the promotion of alternative cropping systems that are suitable for<br>the smallholder farming sector.</p> ER -