Africa-Asia Confidential, June 2009

For 15 years, Japanese technical cooperation built and backed the Mwea Irrigation Agricultural Development Centre. Mwea now produces 80% of the rice grown in Kenya.

Paddy fields stretch as far as the eye can see. Mau Mau prisoners were the first settlers at the Mwea Irrigiation Scheme, 100 kilometres south-east of Nairobi, sent by British colonialists to the Nyamindi and Thiba Rivers. Taken over by Kenya's National Irrigation Board in the 1960s, the Scheme deteriorated due to mismanagement, and in 1988 the government invited the Japanese to help rehabilitate it.

For 15 years, Japanese technical cooperation built and backed the Mwea Irrigation Agricultural Development Centre. The Centre tests new rice strands and technology, and sends Kenyans irrigation experts to Japan to train in water and waste management. Now extending over 18,000 acres of upland and lowland paddy rice, Mwea produces 80% of the rice grown in Kenya.

The scheme has its challenges. While farmers struggle to pay 2,000 Kenyan shillings (US$26) a year to draw water for each acre, farmers on adjacent land are siphoning off water from its canals, and growing rice and vegetables free of charge. The rains were poor in 2008 and people living downstream complain to local authorities that too much of their water is taken from the rivers. Even Simon Kamundia, Mwea's scheme manager, questions its sustainability.

Direct Japanese support for the scheme ended in 2003, but the Japan International Cooperation Agency is now helping with a study for a dam to extend water intake, expanding the scheme to another 4,000 hectares for paddy rice and 1,500 ha of upland rice. The farmers are keen for work to start. 'We are waiting for the dam,' said one in a village within the scheme. 'This water is very, very low.'