Irrigation project to help wealth flow to farmers

Like most people in the area round the Yellow River Valley in Qinghai province, Jamyang Gyatso, a 56-year-old farmer from the Tibetan ethnic group, lets his fields lie fallow for seven months of the year.

With only 300 to 400 millimeters of rainfall annually and evaporation exceeding 1,300 mm, local farmers have long battled an acute water shortage.

Although the Yellow River flows through the region, its level is well below that of the surrounding farmland so the locals use electric pumps to raise the water they need for drinking and irrigation.

The cost of powering the pumps on Gyatso's 4,000 square meters of farmland is about 900 yuan ($132) a year - a significant amount given that his annual income from farming is about 6,000 yuan before the cost of fertilizers, seeds and labor are deducted.

"That's just enough to feed us," he said, referring to his family of nine in Gabu, a village in Jainca county. The family's main income comes from Gyatso's three sons, who work in a nearby town, and the fungi he and other members of the family collect to sell.

However, the lack of water and the old, small-scale pumping stations will soon be history because they will be replaced by a more efficient irrigation system which is currently under construction.

The new system - called the Qinghai Rural Water Management Project - will use water from two reservoirs in the surrounding mountains, so conduits are being built that will allow gravity to carry it to the farmland.

The project was approved by the provincial government in 2006 and work started five years later to build irrigation channels in three counties in the Yellow River Valley - the Hualong Hui, Jainca and Xunhua Salar autonomous counties.

The work is due to be completed on Sept 30, having received total investment of about 1.58 billion yuan.

Inadequate supply

Li Zhihong, an agricultural expert on the project, said the lack of water means the land is "little better than a desert".

A field of wheat usually needs to be watered five to seven times before it is fully ripe, but the water shortage in the valley means farmers usually irrigate their crops just twice during the growing season, resulting in low yields.

In addition, the lack of water can lead to conflict among farmers. The high strain on water resources means Gabu is allocated just three hours of water five to seven times a year, which is barely enough to irrigate the 667 sq m of farmland in the village (equal to the traditional Chinese measurement of 1 mu, which is used in the region), according to Ji Jincai, who has been head of Gabu for the past four years.

The technique means the water supply is quickly exhausted, so outlying fields, which are the last to receive the water, are rarely irrigated adequately. As a result, villagers downstream often quarrel with those upstream and fights are common.

"Those who receive the water first are the ones that benefit most," said Ji, adding that with adequate water, farmers can easily harvest an extra 100 kilograms of wheat per 667 sq m.

Li Ou, an irrigation specialist with the project, put it more bluntly. "In arid areas such as this, there is no agriculture without irrigation," he said.

Electric blues

Situated in the northeast of the Tibetan plateau, Qinghai is the source of the Yellow, Yangtze and Lancang rivers.

The landscape's features - high mountains, valleys and basins - resulted in many reservoirs and hydroelectric power stations being built to raise water storage capacity and generate electricity.

However, a 2006 report by the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China showed that rather than alleviating poverty the dams had entrenched low standards of living in the Yellow River Valley.

The dams flooded a vast amount of farmland, and local farmers faced an extra challenge because they were required to pay 120 to 150 yuan every year for the electricity used to irrigate every 667 sq m of farmland they cultivated.

Local agriculture has been far too dependent on electricity, according to Ma Xin, production manager of the Yellow River Vegetable Basket, a vegetable producer in Haidong city, Qinghai, which operates more than 800 greenhouses in the region.

More water, less poverty

A year after the successful application for construction of the water management project in 2006, the central government formally added the initiative to a list of projects funded by low-interest loans provided by the Asian Development Bank.

The bank, which provided $60 million for the building of four main canals that start at the Lijia and Gongbo gorges and run for 105.5 kilometers in total, finished its evaluation procedures within three years. Construction work started in 2011.

"Both the government and the bank accelerated their normal work rates," said Qiu Jihui, an official at the water resources office who oversees foreign-funded projects.

"That showed they were both convinced that the irrigation project would bring economic and social benefits."

Improving the efficiency of water use will boost agricultural productivity by bolstering irrigation management and agronomic practices. That will allow farmers to grow cash crops in addition to subsistence crops, and raise incomes, according to experts.

"People are excited," said Ye Xiang, deputy head of Hualong, recalling how crowds of locals watched when the ditches were put into trial operation. "They had never seen so much water."

With a flow rate of 2.85 to 3.5 cubic meters per second, irrigation will become more flexible, which will allow farmers to irrigate according to their needs and at their convenience.

"Now we will be able to water whenever we want," said Han Zhong, head of Qunke village in Hualong.

More than 200 hectares of previously arid land are expected to become new farmland as a result of the improvements, with much of the land suitable for planting vegetables. That will mean 667 sq m could produce annual yields worth about 3,000 yuan, at least three times the amount the farmers can make from growing and selling wheat.

Livestock farmers will also benefit from the provision of more and cleaner water.

For example, every cow in Ma Yuan's farm in Hualong will be able to drink an extra 10 liters of water per day, which will raise its weight by 40 to 50 kg. Before, the alkaline water in the local well upset the cows' digestion.

"If there is not enough water, there is no way to eradicate poverty," Ye, the deputy head, said.

Hualong, Jainca and Xunhua are designated as State-level poverty-stricken counties, so the new water supply will help to raise living standards.

The environment has also been taken into account.

The project planners decided to change the original route to protect local forests and avoid the use of explosives to force tunnels through a mountain that is home to the Zongneng Temple, a renowned Buddhist sanctuary.

The decision raised construction costs by almost 8 million yuan.

In return, the temple authorities persuaded people to embrace the project. Jainca was the first county to complete land acquisition for irrigation ditches, said Zhou Zhilong, head of the foreign-funded projects office in Jainca.

To boost water-use efficiency and farmers' management skills, 12 water users associations have been founded in the three counties and another 30 are being established.

Hualong, Jainca and Xunhua are home to people from the Tibetan, Hui and Salar ethnic groups, which are male-dominated societies in which women are discouraged from participating in public affairs. However, women account for more than 30 percent of the associations' membership.

Following the training program, the women's irrigation skills will allow them a greater say in agricultural activities and social affairs.

They will also be able to oversee the fields because the concrete conduits will not be washed away like the earth ditches they will replace, which means men will not be needed to maintain them.

New ideas, new lives

In a bright, warm greenhouse, a sprinkler system was watering 40-day-old pepper seedlings grown by The Yellow River Vegetable Basket.

Ma Jin, the company's marketing manager, said a stable water supply will allow enough vegetables to be grown to meet the needs of Qinghai and Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, while the use of greenhouses will enable the company to grow and sell vegetables out of season.

Every day, the company hires about 200 farmers to help cultivate the crops, and they can also earn money by selling the company the right to use their land for agricultural purposes while retaining ownership.

As smallholdings are being consolidated into larger farms, technology is being introduced to develop mechanized, modern agriculture, which is more efficient and profitable.

"The project is not only bringing new techniques, but also new ideas," Qiu said.

Gyatso said the extra, cheaper water that will soon become available means his family will not only plant traditional winter wheat this fall but will also grow vegetables to sell in the hope of seeing their income rise and their living standards improve.