Farming using Underground Wick Irrigation innovation

Musa Juma Musa is one innovative fellow. He has invented a technique that irrigates plants in dry areas. The underground wick irrigation system has become a lifesaver for dryland farming, so much that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has contracted himand the Ruben Center to undertake a project in Kakuma. Ruben Centre is a non-profit, faith-based organization striving to empowerdeprived communities by providing quality education, health, financial and social services.
Wick irrigation at Kalobeiyei refugees settlement Turkana was founded by FAO. The system was first used in Central Somalia in a town called Abudwak in 2013. The FAO contract has commissioned Ruben Center to train refugees at Kakuma camp to effectively use the irrigation system. Using this system, the refugees have successfully engaged in farming and are even selling surplus produce to the local community.
The system is an improvement from a similar system called the container wick irrigation system pioneered at JKUAT. The advantages of the system are that it uses less water, requires less time for workers to be in the farm, has higher yields that can be harvested for longer.
Mr. Musa uses plant varieties that are drought resistant and that can be harvested for longer. These include Fordhook Giant spinach, a thousand headed kales, dubious amaranth, African nightshade, eggplant and multicut coriander. The multicut coriander is harvested by plucking the leaves instead of uprooting the entire plant and thus it can be harvested for longer.
He teaches purely organic farming because the areas where the irrigation system is used are remote and it’s not easy to get farm chemicals there.
To set up the wick irrigation system, a waste pvc pipe that is 4 inches wide is needed. A standard waste pvc pipe is 20metres long and with this pipe, one can set up two small gardens that are 1m wide by 8m long. A polythene paper of the same size is also needed.
A trench that is 1metre wide and 2ft deep is dug. The 1st foot of the top soil is put on one side of the trench. The 2nd foot of the sub-soil is put on the other side of the trench.
The next step is to lay the polythene paper down in the trench. The polythene paper prevents nutrients and water from leeching deep into the soil past the 2ft dug. The third step is creating compost. On the polythene paper, some twigs, hay and old plant material are laid down. These will decompose and provide nutrients for the plants.
The top soil put to one side is put back first. The soil will rest on the compost layer that had been laid down. The sub-soil with farmyard manure is mixed and put back into the trench to rest on the top soil put in first.
The manure will leech down with time and reach the compost layer put on the polythene paper. When putting back the sub-soil, an allowance of six inches from the ground level is left. This is where the waste pvc pipe will be laid down for irrigation.
To prepare the pvc pipe, two bend sockets are needed, one for each end of the pipe. The bends are fixed and one end permanently covered to prevent evaporation. The other open end will act as an irrigation water inlet.
The next step is to create holes where the wick will be inserted. To create holes, a hot knife is used to burn two holes, 2 inches apart, 2 inches long and two inches from the bend.
From the first hole, an allowance of 1 foot is left before creating the next set of holes and so on and so forth according to the plant spacing to be planted. The wick used is felt material which is a non-stretch material.
The felt can be cut into 1.5 inch strips. It is then inserted into the pvc pipe 4 inches inside so that it gently rests on the bottom of the pipe. The length of the felt is then laid out onto the garden and covered with 2 inches of soil and mulch.
Plant seeds one inch from the wick on both sides. After planting, the soil is irrigated directly for the seeds to germinate. After germination the wick kicks in. The pipe is then filled with water.
A six metre pipe can take in 30 litres of water. The 30 litres will take 2 weeks to drain. After the pipe is empty, the soil will remain moist for three weeks without needing to be watered. “Plants want moist soil, not wet soil or damp soil,” says Musa.