Planet
Access to irrigation enables farmers to farm year-round, enabling them to adapt to the impacts of climate change on traditional rainfall patterns.
| Company | Chanyanya Infrastructure Company (CIC) |
| Sector | Agri-infrastructure |
| Country | Zambia |
| PIDG Commitment |
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| Dates of PIDG involvement | 2006 – present |
Chanyanya is located near the Kafue River, south of the Zambian capital, Lusaka. Farmland there is fertile but underutilised, and yields are often constrained by unpredictable rainfall. As a consequence, many of Chanyanya’s smallholders live below the national poverty line and are, at times, reliant upon food aid. Irrigation systems installed by nearby commercial farms have allowed farmers to diversify, extend the growing season, and improve yields. However, smallholders lack the required scale, finance, and specialist knowledge to emulate these successes. The Zambian Government are committed to pro-poor agriculture-led development and have identified irrigation as central to long term economic growth and poverty reduction.
In 2006, a group of 126 smallholders and 4 commercial farmers formed an interim committee to secure the right to extract water from the Kafue River. The group approached InfraCo, PIDG’s project development solution, seeking the financing and expertise needed to convert these rights into a bankable irrigation project. InfraCo designed a transformative project.
The project established the Chanyanya Infrastructure Company (CIC) and the Chanyanya Smallholders Cooperative Society (CSCS). In 2008, CSCS entered into a partnership with CIC, leasing their land to establish a commercial farm. CIC installed the bulk water infrastructure required to support four pivots and provide infield irrigation to 148ha of farmland. In turn, CSCS receive regular lease payments, hold shares in the commercial enterprise and have access to individual irrigated market garden plots which provide smallholders with the opportunity to farm year-round and grow a variety of higher value vegetable crops.
The government will have ownership of the expanded bulk water system upon completion.
Access to irrigation enables farmers to farm year-round, enabling them to adapt to the impacts of climate change on traditional rainfall patterns.
The project employs a full time Agronomist to support farmers and a Social Development Officer to build governance capacity within CSCS. Once all investment into CIC is repaid, CSCS will have the option to own the commercial enterprise outright: an empowering long-term goal.
Following the pilot’s success, InfraCo was instrumental in the government securing grant funding from the Dutch ORIO Facility to fund an expansion of the project, and technical assistance to finance the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP). Delivered in partnership with the GoZ Steering Committee, ORIO funding has been used to expand the Chanyanya project to cover up to 124ha of additional land and to provide 15ha of additional market garden plots for smallholders.
Having identified a lack of safe and adequate pre- and post-natal facilities in Chanyanya, InfraCo secured technical assistance funding to build a maternity clinic which opened in June 2021. The Zambian government has provided equipment and staff for the unit.
InfraCo funded phase I of the Chanyanya project as a ‘proof-of-concept’ pilot. The successful pilot unlocked grant and private sector finance for phase 2 and the much larger Chiansi Irrigation project serving three neighbouring communities.
