Marianne Gadeberg

Coping with climate change: Could irrigation bring relief to Ghana’s parched cocoa sector?

March 11, 2022 by Marianne Gadeberg

In Ghana, the cocoa sector represents 20 to 25 percent of the total export earnings and is an important source of employment and income for about four million households. But in recent decades, dry spells and droughts have challenged cocoa farmers and hampered production.

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) is partnering with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana to investigate how small scale irrigation practices can help protect Ghana’s cocoa production as climate change impacts intensify in the future.

Increased year-round, long-term productivity

Agriculture in Ghana is mainly rainfed and therefore changes in weather conditions greatly affect the productivity of crops. Over the years, Ghana has recorded wavering trends in cocoa yields, which have been attributed to erratic rainfall, including longer dry spells during the rainy seasons. As a result, farmers’ incomes have dwindled. This is the current status in the cocoa sector, as explained by Janet Afia Boadu, a second-year MPhil Environmental Science student at KNUST, who is collecting data to support the investigation.

“Implementation of irrigation systems could help boost cocoa productivity by increasing yield all year round – and it could support young cocoa plants. Increase in productivity will also improve the livelihoods of farmers by raising their incomes. Finally, irrigation systems have added advantages in that they can help nurture other crops that could be used for shade or food,” said Boadu.

Currently, cocoa production is declining for mature trees, and an estimated 40 percent of new cocoa seedlings die before reaching maturity. While there are three cocoa seasons per year, the output across those seasons remains below potential. Government agencies, research institutions, and private sector actors involved in the cocoa sector are therefore advocating for the use of supplementary irrigation and improved soil and water management for cocoa seedlings, mature trees, and inter-cropping.

To understand how and where irrigation might support the cocoa sector, Boadu’s fieldwork is focused on two aspects:

“I’m using questionnaires to establish baseline conditions, with special emphasis on the livelihoods and agricultural production, in the Ashanti and Western Regions of Ghana. Second, I’m sampling water and soil to analyze the environmental quality that supports their agricultural production to find eco-friendly strategies—for example using recycled agricultural waste—to restore cocoa farms.”

Janet Boadu interviews a cocoa farmer in Ghana’s Western Region. Photo: Prof Tetteh/KNUST.

Challenges abound for cocoa farmers

The first, major challenge cocoa farmers face is the lack of irrigation facilities that could help them adapt to climate change effects, according to Dr Isaac K. Tetteh, Associate Professor of Climate (Atmospheric) and Environmental Science at KNUST, who leads the ILSSI-supported KNUST research on cocoa, irrigation, and climate adaptation.

Boadu elaborated by adding that even with irrigation technologies available in the market, farmers are likely to encounter some challenges in developing irrigation on their cocoa farms. For example, farmers still need access to enough, and clean enough, water for irrigation to be a suitable solution. Unregulated, open-pit gold mining is widespread in Ghana, which causes pollution with sediments and chemicals flowing into nearby water bodies in important cocoa-growing areas.

Another challenge is that the installation, repair, and maintenance of an irrigation system – from boreholes to motorized pumps – is expensive, and farmers have limited access to credit, while financial assistance from cocoa-buying companies, governmental and non-governmental agencies is inadequate.

“The maintenance of irrigation system sometimes requires technical know-how that might not be common with farmers and extension officers. This might stifle daily operation and minor maintenance and would affect the effectiveness and durability of the systems,” said Boadu. High-quality irrigation technologies are needed to minimize risks for farmers’ investments in irrigation.

Dr Tetteh also listed high costs of pesticides to control pests and diseases, limited mechanization, low prices, and decreasing availability of land as significant challenges. The lack of access to water may also worsen some of these factors.

“Until the biggest challenges listed are adequately addressed, the future might look bleak, especially for young cocoa farmers,” said Dr Tetteh.

Innovation and research

Strong research collaborations between the departments of the Colleges of Science and Agriculture and Natural Resources at KNUST, the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, and international research programs such as ILSSI do exist. It is through these partnerships that innovative research could bring practical solutions to some of these challenges, said Dr Tetteh.

“However, this also calls for funding to ensure quality research, the findings of which can be disseminated to the grassroot level for enhancement of cocoa production,” he emphasized.

Dr Tetteh also highlighted the role of young academics, explaining that mentorship is key for graduate students to become research-oriented, critical thinkers, analytical, problem-solvers, and entrepreneurs:

“The outcome of this research path, especially in the area of science and technology, will surely play significant and complementary roles in addressing some of the major challenges unique to cocoa farmers and bring a new lease of hope to many rural folks whose primary occupation is agriculture.”

For Boadu, her fieldwork so far has already had an impact on her thinking about her future research career:

“I have witnessed rivers and lakes polluted with wastes from mining, and that has really emphasized to me the need for high-quality water resources for irrigation. I’ve gained confidence to explore the various remediation technologies for water and sediments, and I would like to explore and design filters to be installed in irrigation systems to remove pollutants,” she said.

In these ways, partnerships for innovation and research could support farmers in Ghana to overcome climate change challenges, restore their cocoa farms, and secure sustainable livelihoods in the future. These advances not only would secure farmers’ livelihoods now and in the long term, but also enable them to maintain and grow the cocoa sector and its contributions to Ghana’s economy.

Multi-stakeholder dialogues identify opportunities and challenges to advancing farmer-led irrigation

January 10, 2022 by Marianne Gadeberg

In October 2021, the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) hosted, in collaboration with our research partners, our latest small scale irrigation dialogue platform meetings in Ghana and Ethiopia. These meetings are part of the Small Scale Irrigation Multi-stakeholder Dialogue Spaces, which we first established in project countries in 2019, that bring stakeholders together to encourage collective thinking across sectors and explore new opportunities and solutions to scaling farmer-led irrigation.

Irrigation for climate-resilient cocoa production

In Ghana, the recent meeting focused on the cocoa sector, and was co-convened with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. The overall goal of the cocoa-focused multi-stakeholder dialogue is to contribute to the sustainability of the cocoa system through a market approach to improved water management and irrigation of cocoa.

This first meeting focused on the cocoa sector and explored producer market segmentation, agricultural water management, and small scale irrigation suitability for cocoa production. Participants represented private sector companies, such as ECOM Trading, PEG Africa, and PumpTech; government stakeholders, including the Ghana Cocoa Board and the Cocoa Health and Extension Division; and research partners such as the Cocoa Research Institute, Water Research Institute, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and Ghana Irrigation Development Authority.

In addition to presentations on the need for, as well as the potential and suitability of, irrigation, participants also discussed approaches to ensuring equitable and affordable access to irrigation for smallholder cocoa producers. Participants also networked and set the foundation to collaborate toward a climate-resilient cocoa sector. A meeting report includes links to all presentations made.

Participants discuss opportunities and challenges for expanding small scale irrigation in Ghana. Photo: ILSSI.

Leveraging offtake markets to unlock irrigation

In Ethiopia, our recent event focused on the role of offtake markets in unlocking small scale irrigation investments. We brought together stakeholder including cooperatives, lead firms, and digital marketing companies to learn from their experiences. More than 28 stakeholder organizations attended the event, either physically or virtually.

Through their discussions, stakeholders found that actors in offtake markets, such as agribusinesses and start-ups, cooperatives, processors, exporters, and wholesaler traders, have multiple roles to play in unlocking investments in small scale irrigation. For example, they can help improve access to inputs, irrigation technologies, loan and credit services, technical support, markets, as well as cold chain and other facilities. Likewise, the enabling environmentis critical in supporting investments in and marketing of small scale irrigation. Notably, local and export market demand, favorable conditions for irrigated production, economic return, policy support, tailored services provided by micro-finance institutions, and information and communications technology platforms all can help create opportunities for greater investments in small scale irrigation.

Stakeholders identified current challenges that hamper offtake market actors’ ability to accelerate small scale irrigation. These include the fact that some aspects of irrigated fruit and vegetable markets are largely informal, with high risks and price fluctuation, low transparency, and unbalanced decision-making power between actors. Limitations in accessing inputs, technology, facilities, financial services, and markets to ensure return on investment along with capacity gaps on contract enforcement, certification, international marketing, operation, and management of cold store facilities and irrigation technologies are also among the challenges. Policy and institutional barriers were also identified, including those related to tax and duty exemption processes for irrigation technologies, packaging material regulations, financial regulations on mobile money transactions, and limited coordination between key institutions.

Finally, discussions highlighted a number of opportunities, including optimal use of agro-ecology for growing fruits and vegetables, irrigation of high-value crops to increase farmers’ revenue by enabling more harvests per year, and increased donor and project interest in supporting small scale irrigation development and creating access to services and technologies for smallholder farmers. The revision of Ethiopia’s agriculture and rural development policy was highlighted as an opportunity to further create the desired enabling environment. A meeting report details further insights from discussions.

Games to stimulate groundwater governance: An introduction and example from Ethiopia

December 9, 2021 by Marianne Gadeberg

One of the greatest water management challenges is depletion from overuse, which is a particular challenge for groundwater resources as declines are not directly visible. Also, groundwater management is highly complex, with many users, often unknown to each other, sharing the same resource and not realizing their interconnectedness. Participatory behavioral or experimental games that simulate real-life resource use are a valuable tool for improving users’ knowledge of resources like groundwater.

In this project, the aim is to improve community groundwater governance in Ethiopia through behavioral games. In four districts in SNNPR, community members play different rounds where they each individually choose between planting higher and lower water consumptive crops and learn about the difference in collective outcome (water table levels) and individual gains (income) based on their choices. This is followed by a community-wide debriefing discussion where players and the wider farming community reflect on the game experience and discuss challenges and lessons for real-life governance of water resources. Use of experimental games as an intervention have been shown to increase community understanding of groundwater conditions and the need for coordination and adoption of rules for effective resource management, thus aiding collective action and decision making.

Strengthening groundwater governance through social learning

November 30, 2021 by Marianne Gadeberg

The Africa Water and Sanitation Week (AWSW), on 22-26 November, was convened by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) in conjunction with the African Union Commission and organized with other development partners.

ILSSI partners presented a session on strengthening groundwater governance through social learning – view the full session below.

Partners contributing to this session included the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) and USAID.

Learning to use Integrated Decision Support Systems is critical to ensure food security and sustainable development in Ethiopia

November 11, 2021 by Marianne Gadeberg

by Yihun Dile

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) recently marked a milestone toward its goal to support African scientists to become trainers on the Integrated Decision Support System (IDSS).

September 20-24, 2021, Harar, Ethiopia, at the Africa Center of Excellence for Climate Smart Agriculture and Biodiversity Conservation of Haramaya University.

Scientists from Bahir Dar University contributed to the first jointly implemented capacity development event at Haramaya University’s College of Medical and Health Sciences in Ethiopia on September 20-24, 2021. The training was hosted and organized by the Africa Center of Excellence for Climate Smart Agriculture and Biodiversity Conservation (ACE Climate SABC) and supported by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems (LSIL) at the University of Florida.

Dr. Jemal Yousuf, Haramaya University President, opened the training with a virtual address remarking that local capacity development in IDSS is critical to ensure food security and sustainable development in Ethiopia.

Group photo taken at the coffee break of the first day (September 20, 2021) of the IDSS local capacity development. All photo credit to ACE Climate SABC communication office.

The major focus of the capacity development initiative included training on the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), Agricultural Policy Environment eXtender (APEX), and Farm Income Simulator (FARMSIM), as well as their integration.

Students and faculty at Bahir Dar University participated in previous trainings and received mentorship from Texas A&M scientists, leading to successful thesis papers and numerous peer-reviewed publications based on the use of the models. The aim was to strengthen capacity on the tools, such that Ethiopian universities and eventually public agencies would be able to apply the models effectively to monitor and plan for natural resource use in agriculture. In addition, ILSSI sought to ensure that Ethiopian scientists would take over the trainings on the models.

The training emphasized application of the tools to the livestock sector within agriculture and natural resource management. Participants received training on the individual models relating to their fields of expertise. On the final day, all the participants came together to practice the integration of the three models in groups. Such group practice facilitates exchange of knowledge and skills learned over the week, and it demonstrates to participants the value of IDSS to research, plan and monitor in agriculture and natural resources. The group activities provide an opportunity for participants to network and establish lasting scientific collaboration.

Photo taken at APEX individual session where Drs. Abeyou W. Worqlul and Tewodros Assefa are teaching.

The increasing interest in the IDSS tools was demonstrated by the diversity of participants’ organizations and professions. Government agencies (e.g., Environmental Protection Authority of Harari Region) and non-governmental agencies (e.g., World Vision) participated. Researchers, graduate students, and/or faculty were represented from the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute (EARI), Oromia Agricultural Research Institute, Mechara Agricultural Research Center, and universities including Addis Ababa University, Arba Minch University, Ambo University, Bahir Dar University, Debre Tabor University, University of Gondar, Haramaya University, Hawasa University, Selale University, Wolaita Sodo University, Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resource, and Wollo University. The 70 participants included 13 women scientists.

Dr. Yihun Dile facilitated a group session on September 24 where participants practiced integration of the three models.

As part of the training event, participants and trainers visited the ACE Climate SABC, Haramaya University research facilities and some notable sites at Haramaya University main campus. Trainers, trainees, and organizers got the opportunity to attend a university-wide research symposium, followed by an ACE Climate SABC dinner event during which participants received training certificates. Certificates of recognition were also awarded to the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI), trainers from the Texas A&M University and Bahir Dar University, and training organizers at Haramaya University. Final remarks were made by Prof. Mengistu Urge (ACE Climate SABC Leader and Vice President for Academic Affairs), Dr. Tesfaye Lemma (Vice President for Research Affairs), and Dr. Solomon Binor (University Board Member and Science and Research Affairs Director General at the Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Higher Education). Dr. Binor emphasized the importance of short-term capacity development for effective academic and research excellence in Ethiopia. All the speakers showed strong interest to continue the collaboration in research and capacity development activities.

Photo taken after a visit to the ACE Climate SABC at Haramaya University main campus.

The multi-partner training is the result of a longer-term collaboration between ILSSI, Bahir Dar University, and the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA). The ACE Climate SABC at Haramaya University was established through the financial support from The World Bank.

Group photo of trainers and training organizers taken at the closing ceremony of the IDSS local capacity development training at Haramaya University.

This work was funded in whole or part by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Food Security under Agreement # AID-OAA-L-15-00003 as part of Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems as well as under Agreement # AID-OAA-A-13-00055 as part of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed here are those of the authors alone.