Pumping irrigation water using electricity or diesel generators is expensive, so the government is implementing a Sh7.5 billion gravity water flow system in Tana River county.
The project is being set up at Korakora intake along River Tana for the Bura Irrigation Scheme.
Water and Irrigation PS Joseph Irungu said a similar project will be put up in Hola.
Irungu said during a tour of the Tana irrigation scheme that farmers have been paying high costs to get water for irrigating their farms.
The National Irrigation Authority owns 25,000 acres of land in the Bura and 16,000 acres within the Tana Irrigation schemes which are underused due to the high costs of power.
“We are also replacing the old pumps and the money is already with us and we shall also educate the farmers because it is meaningless to bring water when farmers don't know what to do with it," he said.
The PS said in Hola the NIA has already completed the construction of a Sh34 million water reservoir with a capacity of 200,000 cubic meters.
He said the ongoing projects in Bura will cost Sh7.5 billion while those at the Tana Irrigation Scheme will cost Sh188 million.
Irungu said the government is also spending Sh200 million in Tana Delta on similar water projects.
“I would like to appeal to the county government to help farmers in capacity building, marketing and with farm inputs so that they can benefit from their toil,” he said.
He said the national government has invested in infrastructure and the onus is on the county government to manage them.
The PS said NIA builds farrows and canals but extension services and marketing has to be done by the county government.
Bura Irrigation Scheme manager Peter Orwa said contractors are already on site working on phases one and two of the project.
Orwa said the costs of maintenance of the generator, control panels, pumps and supply of water to the Bura irrigation scheme will be lower.
He said only 12,000 acres of the 25,000 acres were under crops.
Tana Irrigation Scheme in Hola manager Peter Kirimi said farmers are charged Sh3,500 per acre of land each planting season.
The pumping of water is always at a volume of 11 cubic meters of water daily with only 2,250 acres in use out of the 16,000 acres.
“We currently have ten reservoirs and the newly constructed one is the largest since it will offer stability in the supply of water," he said.
John Asumbi, the chairman of the Tana Irrigation Water Users Committee, said that they had crafted a model where farmers who fail to pay for water are either assisted or are barred from the farms in the preceding planting season.