The rainy season in the intervention zone of the CODE-WA project is only 3 to 6 months long. During the off-season  farmers often do not have activities which add to their income. Therefore, many young farmers leave their villages to find work in coastal countries.

However, if water is available for irrigation, off-season activities like vegetable or fruit growing can be envisaged. They have a great potential to create income. That the crops grown in the off-season increase agricultural phytodiversity, is an additional reason for the CODE-WA project to engage in these activities.

A major problem, with respect to the off-season production is property of, access to and price of water. Irrigation projects should from the beginning respect resource protection and in this sense develop water saving technologies. At the same time investments have to be low to make the technology attractive to the farmers and to allow for a net return. Therefore CODE-WA tries to develop schemes in collaboration with and under financial contribution of farmer organisations. In order to present one possible micro-irrigation technology, a short film was produced which shows the major components of a micro-irrigation scheme.