Agricultural development is identified in the ‘National Development Plan – Vision 2030’ to drive the economic development of the rural areas in South Africa (NPC 2011). Irrigation is the ‘driving force’ in the proposed agricultural development strategy. It is argued that 0.5 million hectares of new irrigation land can be added to the current 1.5 million hectares of irrigated land, by using existing water resources more efficiently and by developing new water schemes. The aim of this chapter is to provide pointers that should be considered when planning new smallholder irrigation schemes in South Africa. This is done by analysing important factors known to affect scheme and farm performance on four schemes located in the Cape region, where smallholder irrigation scheme performance has been particularly poor relative to other parts of South Africa (Bembridge 1997, 2000; Commission for the Socio-Economic Development of the Bantu Areas within the Union of South Africa 1955; Fanadzo et al. 2010; Legoupil 1985; Van Averbeke et al. 1998). A framework of smallholder scheme development trajectories, based on local and international experiences, guided the analysis. The results of the analysis were used to identify what type of scheme development would be most likely to succeed under the various circumstances that occur in the Cape region and elsewhere in South Africa, and to highlight the key factors for consideration when a particular scheme development is opted for.

Smallholder irrigation schemes in South Africa

Irrigation is the artificial application of water to land for the purpose of enhancing plant production. Irrigation water can be abstracted from the source and conveyed to the field by farmers individually or in a group as an irrigation scheme. Accordingly, an irrigation scheme can be defined as an agricultural project involving multiple holdings that depend on a shared distribution system for access to irrigation water and, in some cases, on a shared water storage or diversion facility (Van Averbeke et al. 2011). The term ‘irrigation scheme’ is also used more broadly to refer to a multitude of entities that correspond to this definition, when these entities share the same bulk conveyance system (Reinders 2010).