Assessing the potential of supplemental irrigation at Kaweri coffee plantation.

Abstract

The increasing climate unpredictability has brought to the fore, irrigated agriculture as the most responsive means of drastically improving agricultural productivity and sustainability. With irrigation being an expensive project and less adopted in Uganda, there is need to assess the potential of irrigation and also find out the yield benefit of irrigating a given crop for proper planning and interesting the stake holders. about the benefits of irrigation. This research paper therefore assesses The potential of supplemental irrigation at Kaweri Coffee Plantation, Mubende. In order to achieve the objectives, the net irrigation Water requirement of Coffee (Robusta) was determined by getting the difference between effective rainfall and the Coffee water requirement. It was observed that water deficiency occurs during the flowering stage of' coffee which is a critical stage of coffee growth. that can lead to abortion of flowers and reduce yields, the estimated yield loss at Kaweri Coffee plantation is up to 60%. The ground water use potential also analvzed and. it was found out that. the plantation can save a water reserve of 172,800,000 liters from ground water sustainably. This water resource can irrigate approximately 260 hectares of land. Irrigation benefit was found out that it would increase yields by 47.5%. Two hundred sixty (260) hectares of land when put under the company will be able to achieve a monetary increase of approximately 3562.38USD/hectare (12,112,092 Shs). According to the topography of the land and the conditions under which Robusta Coffee is grown, a hose and basin irrigation system was recommended to be designed and implemented at the plantation in order to achieve the yield benefits. The cost of implementing an irrigation system is 672.52.USD/hectare (2.286.568Ushs per hectare) as adapted from the Kaweri Irrigation. Design, 2013). The payback period of implementing an irrigation system On 260 hectares was found to be 0.8 which is approximately three months of coffee harvesting. This will be achieved when 104.9tonnes of dried coffee beans are sold at 1,667USD/Kg.