Runoff Harvesting and Storage for Rice Crop at Hamelmalo, Semiarid Region of Eritrea

Abstract

Rice is staple food in Eritrea but it is not cultivated in the country due to semiarid conditions. However, possibilities exist for growing rice using runoff produced from nonagricultural hilly lands, which occupy >50% - 80% area of all agricultural watersheds in Eritrea. Study was undertaken in 6 ha watershed at Hamelmalo to design and develop waterway for safe harvesting of runoff from 5.5 ha catchment into a pond for facilitating runoff farming of rice in 0.5 ha field at the outlet end receiving recurrent floods. Slope of the catchment ranged from 1% to 6%. The waterway was designed to intercept and carry runoff from two major drains in nonagricultural land together and delivering into a pond made adjacent to rice field. The waterway was about 323 m long with 3 m top width, 1.5 m bottom width and 0.3 - 0.8 m depth from surface. The pond was 60 m long, 9 m wide and 1 m deep with 1.5 m high earthen dam towards rice field using soil excavated from the pond...