Indigenous irrigation, agriculture and development, Marakwet, Kenya

The existence of small-scale informal farmer-managed irrigation systems in sub-Saharan Africa is now widely recognized, and there is interest in the potential for development intervention to enhance their output. If such interventions are not to have adverse impacts, they need to be based on thorough research, but there are as yet few studies of the extent of these systems and the agriculture they sustain. This paper reviews knowledge of one such system, the hill-furrow irrigation system of the Marakwet Escarpment in Kenya, and presents new research on the nature, extent and significance of irrigation in the area. The paper discusses the construction and organization of the gravity irrigation system, the patterns of irrigated agriculture, and the extent of irrigation in the context of the wider irrigation sector in Kenya.