Nakonde District Agriculture Coordinator David Subakanya has called on farmers in the district to take up irrigation farming, saying reliance on rain alone leaves households poor while water sits idle in our rivers and weirs.
Subakanya made the call on October 29, 2026, during a gardening exchange visit that brought together farmers from Msanza, Kalungu and Waitwika Agricultural camps, according to LusakaTimes.com. The farmers toured excelling gardening farms in Nega and Msanza villages to learn improved production methods.
His message is simple and it is a message every Zambian farmer should hear: stop waiting for the sky to feed you. The rains come for a few months and disappear. The water in our streams does not go anywhere. Use it.
What the District Agriculture Coordinator said
Subakanya told farmers that farming is not only for rain-fed crops, and that available water sources should be put to work through irrigation.
“I want to encourage our farmers that farming is not just for rainfed crops but it’s also for irrigated crops so we can engage using the rain and we can also engage when we find a water source where we can draw water to irrigate,” Subakanya said.
“As we have seen there are weirs that we can use just to get that extra income. So I would encourage each one of us that we employ both rainfed and also irrigation with water which we can pump, which we can convey through weirs,” he said.
He pointed to the weirs already in place as tools farmers can use to earn extra income beyond the rain-fed harvest.
Farmers speak: the proof is in the gardens
A farmer of Waitwika camp, Winter Siuluta, observed that irrigation farming is more profitable than waiting for rain-fed maize alone. He said he was impressed with the use of weirs, which makes gardening easier and less labour intensive.
“I have learnt a lot from this visit regarding farming with irrigation. I have learnt that it is very profitable unlike waiting for rainfed maize alone. I have also found that using weirs for irrigation farming makes things easier so I would also like that to encourage my fellow farmers to continue working hard so that we can reach a point where we can even acquire centre pivots and contribute to the development of the country,” Siuluta said.
Judith Mwanza, a farmer from Mwenzo camp, said relying on one farming season is not enough to improve household livelihoods. She was motivated after seeing tomatoes and maize grown in the dry season, a sharp contrast to the common practice of growing maize only when the rains come.
“I am grateful for this privilege because I have learnt a lot from the farms we have visited. I have learnt that relying on one season for farming cannot help much. Today we saw tomato, maize grown in the dry season because most of the farmers only grow maize in the rainy season,” Mwanza said.
She has since encouraged her fellow farmers to take up dry season gardening.
Fred Singongo, a farmer from Kalungu camp who has been gardening for a long time, thanked the organisers of the educational visit and said it equipped him with new knowledge on improved gardening methods. He appealed to the agriculture department to continue running such programmes so more farmers can be exposed to best practices.
“We are very thankful to the organisers of this exchange visit. Continue with the same spirit. I have learnt a lot of good things. I have been gardening for a long time,” Singongo said.
Why irrigation is the future for Zambian farmers
Let us be honest with ourselves. For decades, Zambian farmers have been chained to the rain calendar. One bad season and a household starves. One delayed rain and a whole district goes hungry. That is no way to build a nation.
The answer is not in foreign boardrooms or donor conferences in Geneva. The answer is right here: our own water, our own land, our own hands. When a farmer in Nega village can grow tomatoes and maize in the dry season using a simple weir, that is sovereignty in action. That is a Zambian feeding a Zambian, with Zambian water.
Our neighbours already know this. Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni recently urged farmers in Sheema District to embrace irrigation, pasture growing, fertiliser use and commercial agriculture to boost productivity, protect their livelihoods against drought and lift households out of poverty, ChimpReports reported. The Government Citizen Interaction Centre in Kampala carried the same message. If Uganda is pushing its farmers to irrigate, Zambia cannot afford to sit back and watch the rain decide our fate.
But here is the difference we must fight for: the water in Nakonde’s weirs must be controlled by Zambian farmers, for Zambian households. Not a single drop should be managed from outside. The farmers of Msanza, Kalungu, Waitwika and Mwenzo are showing the way, and the Ministry of Agriculture should back them with more exchange visits, more weirs and real support for centre pivots, as Siuluta hopes.
What happens next
The farmers who visited Nega and Msanza villages have returned home with new knowledge and a new challenge. The dry season is no longer a dead season. With a weir, a pump and hard work, it can be the most profitable time of the year.
The agriculture department in Nakonde has been urged to keep organising such exchange programmes. The next harvest will tell whether the message has taken root.
Frequently asked questions
What did Nakonde farmers learn from the exchange visit?
Farmers from Msanza, Kalungu, Waitwika and Mwenzo camps visited gardening farms in Nega and Msanza villages on October 29, 2026, where they saw tomatoes and maize grown in the dry season using weirs for irrigation.
Why is irrigation farming being promoted in Nakonde?
District Agriculture Coordinator David Subakanya said irrigation allows farmers to produce year-round and earn extra income instead of depending only on rain-fed maize.
How do weirs help farmers?
Farmers said weirs make it easier to draw and convey water to gardens, reducing labour while making dry season production possible.