期刊名称：The Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa (JSDA)
电子版ISSN：1520-5509
出版年度：2010
卷号：12
期号：3
出版社：Institute of Sustainable Development in Africa
摘要：Irrigation development is principally regarded as a technology to provide water for crop production. However, on
most smallholder irrigation projects, often the irrigation water provides a wide range of other services besides just
irrigating crops. These services, frequently unrecognized often contribute significantly to the local economy and
quality of life of the irrigators. In addition to the single-use perspective in irrigation water, other irrigation
infrastructure such as electrical energy for pumping is mostly limited to the pump station. These multiple uses of
irrigation water and other important resources for the scheme such as electricity prove to be elusive to the policy
makers, planners and project designers of smallholder irrigation schemes in Zimbabwe. This paper investigated
why. We used a mixture of qualitative data collection techniques in this research. Our study demonstrated in
several ways that smallholder irrigation should be conceptualised as a technological intervention to enhance the
livelihood of a given community and not as a technology to just irrigate crops. Our conceptualisation of irrigation
as part of a farming livelihood system opens up the irrigation infrastructure to other livelihood sustaining
activities of the farmers. We, therefore, recommend a new a design culture for smallholder irrigation schemes.
This new design culture must incorporate the multiple-use approach of irrigation water and other associated
resources such as electricity for pumping at policy level
