Innovation Lab For Small Scale Irrigation

Innovation Lab For Small Scale Irrigation

Events

Multi-stakeholder dialogue on farmers’ access to credit for irrigation in Ghana

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Ensuring that smallholder farmers have access to credit or other financing products is an essential requirement for expanding the use of small scale irrigation. However, lenders are often hesitant to develop products for smallholder farmers, and frontier markets imply risks that make financiers and equipment suppliers reluctant. Therefore, lack of access to finance has emerged as a key barrier to sustainable expansion of small scale irrigation.

To find solutions, stakeholders from the irrigation sector in Ghana came together for a virtual meeting on August 27, 2020. They discussed how to make more financing products available to farmers, who are increasingly leading investments in irrigation and other water management solutions.

A space for dialogue and collaboration

The meeting was the second congregation of the Small Scale Irrigation Dialogue Space, which was established in 2019 by the Feed the Future Innovation Laboratory for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). The space is envisioned as a unique strategy for bringing stakeholders together to encourage collective thinking across sectors and explore new opportunities for expanding small scale irrigation.

On this occasion, the 45 meeting participants—representing government agencies, private sector companies, farmer organizations, financial institutions, and more— shared insights into challenges and opportunities in financing irrigation to benefit smallholder farmers, gender equity, and youth. They also discussed emerging innovative financing solutions to enable farmer-led irrigation investments.

A new partnership

The private sector plays a crucial role in overcoming market and financing barriers to expanding small scale irrigation. Acknowledging this dependency, ILSSI and partners have made concerted efforts to include private sector actors in dialogue discussions, and have most recently awarded its first catalyst grant to a private sector partner: PEG Africa.

PEG Africa works to bring solar power to West Africa, through distributing solar-power systems that provide for households’ energy needs. The company has a unique consumer financing pay-as-you-go system, offering farmers the option to make a minimum deposit and spread the rest of their payment over a productive period of 18 months. PEG Africa also runs a very rigorous credit assessment system, which considers the business case and water resources for each individual farmer.

With the grant, ILSSI and PEG Africa will collaborate on investigating business cases that are workable for farmers looking to access finance for irrigation. One objective will be to customize PEG’s pay-as-you-go system to solar-powered irrigation.

Recommendations to take forward

Participants in the dialogue meeting synthesized several key messages from their discussions, as summarized in the event report. First, the report says, expanding small scale irrigation requires expanding the whole ecosystem that surrounds the practice, including financing, policies, input and output markets, and more.

Second, enabling farmers to invest in irrigation, a single technology or financing solution, is inadequate—farmers’ interest in leading small scale irrigation investments must be supported throughout the whole value chain. Such support could include bundling credit with technologies, after-sale services, agronomic extension, input and output market access, and insurance services.

Third, financing solutions for smallholder famers are still missing. Many irrigation technologies and financing solutions need to be tailored to the local context and smallholder farmers’ conditions. Finally, strategic partnerships are valuable as multiple partners, such as relevant government, research, financial, insurance, and farmer organizations, can all contribute to ensuring farmers’ credibility when it comes to accessing credit.

ILSSI and its partners are continuing to champion the Small Scale Irrigation Dialogue Space in pursuit of expanding small scale irrigation in West and East Africa. Another  multi-stakeholder meeting, focused on financing solutions for sustainable and inclusive farmer-led irrigation scaling, took place in Ethiopia on September 23, 2020, and more events are planned for the coming months.

Read the report: Small scale irrigation dialogue space: Partnerships and financing solutions for sustainable and inclusive farmer-led irrigation scaling in Ghana

ILSSI and Texas A & M celebrated ten years of Feed the Future Innovation Labs

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Ten years’ worth of effort to end hunger and eliminate poverty were celebrated when Texas A & M AgriLife hosted a virtual get-together on September 17, 2020.

A virtual U. S. Congressional event, titled Cultivating Hope – Innovation Beyond the Decade, marked the tenth anniversary of the Feed the Future Innovation Labs. The Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) is one of those programs. ILSSI, hosted by Texas A & M Agrilife, is part of the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture.

This event recognized the latest U.S. university-led agricultural research and innovation, celebrated a decade of Feed the Future, and reflected on what lies ahead in the fight to end global hunger.

The event highlighted support from members of the U.S. Congress for international agricultural research and recognized champions through awards for Representative Kay Granger and Representative Nita Lowey.

The event’s keynote speaker was Julie Borlaug, vice president of external relations at Inari and granddaughter to Norman Borlaug. She emphasized the need to deliver research innovations to farmers.

Julie Borlaug, vice president of external relations at Inari.

A decade ago, Feed the Future was born out of a global food crisis. This U.S. Agency for International Development initiative set out to use science and innovation to solve the global challenges of producing food to meet rising demand, improving nutrition, and supporting those who rely on agriculture for a living to be more resilient.

Feed the Future established a network of twenty-four Innovation Labs, partnerships that involve more than 70 U.S. universities and colleges. Working directly with partner countries, the initiative has supported more than 23 million people to exit poverty and ensured that more than 5 million families achieved food security.

Today, as pandemics and other threats have persistent negative repercussions for rising global hunger, the Innovation Labs continue to play an ever more important role in building resilience and supporting food security.

Tapping into the potential for vegetable seed production in Mali

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by Pepijn Schreinemachers, World Vegetable Center

Vegetable consumption is generally low in sub-Saharan Africa, a factor that affects the health of many Africans. Raising vegetable consumption will benefit the health of consumers, but could also boost the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

Today, many farmers in Mali produce staple crops, even though producing vegetables is generally more profitable. Yet, vegetable production faces many constraints, including limited access to water as well as poor quality and unavailability of vegetable seeds.

 Against this background, the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) is partnering with the World Vegetable Center in Mali to develop a more reliable supply of vegetable seeds and promote the use of efficient irrigation methods.

Opportunities for growth

In Mali, the formal vegetable seed sector consists of local seed companies, foreign companies, and farmer cooperatives. Most seed companies have vegetables in their portfolio, but local breeding programs are mostly nonexistent. Seeds of economically important vegetables, such as onion, tomato, and chili pepper, are mostly acquired through imports, but imported varieties are not adapted to local growing conditions.

Certified onion seed production in Mali supported by World Vegetable Center. Photo: World Vegetable Center.

Seeds of traditional vegetables, such as African eggplant, okra, and jute mallow, are mostly produced by farmers themselves and distributed through informal channels. We are collaborating to assess opportunities for stimulating local vegetable seed production and improve seed quality of both exotic and traditional vegetables.

What’s more, lack of water appears to be a key constraint to seed production in Mali. However, the high value of vegetable seed is expected to make it more economical for farmers to invest in irrigation. We are therefore also investigating if improved irrigation methods, combined with capacity building in vegetable seed production and marketing, could contribute to strengthening local vegetable seed production and thereby create a more reliable supply of affordable vegetable seed.

Getting together to get started

Our joint project got started with an inception workshop held at the World Vegetable Center’s Regional Center for West and Central Africa – Dry Regions on July 2, 2020. The number of workshop participants was restricted in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. We brought together 16 key actors from the vegetable seed sector, including researchers and representatives of seed cooperatives and seed companies.

Key actors from the seed production sector in Mali were brought together for a workshop in July, 2020. Photo: World Vegetable Center.

Dr. Siaka Dembélé, seed consultant hired by World Vegetable Center, and Dr. Kabirou Ndiaye, Regional Director, chaired the meeting. The workshop provided an opportunity to discuss the constraints faced by the vegetable seed sector in Mali, and allowed local actors to comment on the study plan and improve the proposed survey tools.

Participants particularly emphasized the high production costs of irrigated vegetable seed and the unavailability of first-generation seed. The workshop participants also recommended that the study account for the important role of farmer cooperatives in supplying farmers with vegetable seed, and the need to address fake and counterfeit seed.

Next steps for knowing more

Data collection for the study started after the workshop in July, and was completed on August 20, just after political tensions culminated in a coup d’état in Mali on August 18, 2020. The survey included focus groups discussions with vegetable farmers and informant interviews with seed regulators, seed companies, seed cooperatives, seed traders, among others.

Study results are expected to become available toward the end of 2020, and will contribute to a plan of action on how to develop a more reliable supply of vegetable seed and promote the use of efficient irrigation methods.

Webinar: Market-based agricultural technology scaling in fragmented markets

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During a time when face-to-face meetings and trainings are temporarily suspended, experts from the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) are turning to webinars to share research-based insights and recommendations on how to expand smallholders’ access to small scale irrigation.

One webinar, organized by Agrilinks.org, explored the complex process of market-based scaling of agricultural technology. This event took place on June 10, 2020, and it delved deep into the difficulties of scaling agricultural innovations in fragmented markets.

Nicole Lefore, ILSSI Director, presented in the webinar in partnership with Jean-Baptiste De La Salle Tignegre, Lead of the Allium Breeding Program at World Vegetable Center. They spoke of ongoing work in Mali, which is investigating how irrigated production of vegetables could improve farming households’ nutritional health.

View the webinar on market-based agricultural technology scaling in fragmented market settings.

Noting results from an initial study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Lefore said that irrigating households in Mali have higher consumption of nutrient-rich foods, which improve both household income and nutrition. However, weak market conditions, worsened by weather extremes and ongoing conflict, are significant barriers to farmers adopting irrigation and increasing vegetable production in Mali.

Under ILSSI, the World Vegetable Center is working to identify entry points to improve access to seed for Malian producers, including through farmer-led irrigation. Increased local irrigated production of seed could boost vegetable production, which previous research has linked with food security and health outcomes.

Tignegre said that farmers’ access to seed could be improved by decreasing the distance they need to travel to purchase seeds and by supporting the establishment of seed enterprises that can serve farmers locally. A number of regulatory reforms may also be needed to reduce barriers in the formal and informal market supply of seeds. In other words, supporting the production of seed through the private sector could, in combination with greater uptake of irrigation and increase vegetable production.

To conclude, Lefore underscored that the current fragmentation of the market in Mali decreases farmers’ resilience and increases their vulnerability, particularly in times of crises. These barriers currently limit options for addressing nutritional needs at a national level. Currently, existing and rising demands for fruits and vegetables, as well as seed, are being met through imports. ILSSI will, in its ongoing work in Mali, look to collaborate with private sector companies and cooperatives to increase farmers’ access to both irrigation equipment and seed.

Other invited presenters, who discussed how to address last-mile scaling challenges, included Suzan Bishop, Project and Technical Officer, Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards, who spoke about how private community animal health services in emergency contexts can be better supported, and Brett Rierson, Managing Director, African Harvest Ventures, who presented on how simple tools can help reduce post-harvest losses.

Webinar: Accelerating inclusive farmer-led irrigation and reaching scale

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“Farmer-led irrigation means that we start with the farmers and their farming systems, where diverse conditions and resources form a first barrier to scaling,” stated Thai Thi Minh, Senior Researcher for Upscaling Innovations at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Minh spoke about experiences on farmer-led irrigation gained through her work with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) in a webinar that took place on June 11, 2020. The event was co-organized by IWMI, the World Bank, the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, and the Global Water Partnership, and it was the first in a two-part series.

Watch part 1 of the webinar series on farmer-led irrigation development. Register now for part 2 on accelerating inclusive farmer-led irrigation sustainably.

Today, around 500 million farmers generate between 30 and 34 percent of the global food supply, but they face significant challenges, including competition for water and reliance on unpredictable rain to grow food. Now in the face of a global pandemic, enhancing farmers’ resilience by meeting water, food, and nutrition security goals, has never been more important. This is the background against which the organizers zoomed in on the potential of farmer-led irrigation.

Reflecting on challenges to bringing farmer-led irrigation to scale, Minh went on to say that this practice cannot be separated from agricultural value chains, in which barriers such as under-developed irrigation supply chains as well as limited input and output market linkages represent significant barriers. In a broader context, policy frameworks biased toward large-scheme irrigation development and use of technology-transfer approaches without understanding the actual demands across market segments hamper farmer-led irrigation from reaching scale. Minh’s recommendations for scaling included identifying which systemic barriers to tackle first, understanding how to increase investments in bundles of technologies and services, and identifying the public and private partnerships needed to scale, such as through multi-stakeholder dialogue platforms.

Speaking during the same webinar and addressing the matter of social inclusion, Nicole Lefore, ILSSI Director, highlighted the need for scientists and projects to invest in understanding what women actually want. Lefore said that while research suggests that millions of farmers can benefit from small scale irrigation, those figures assume that women farmers participate:

“But will women invest? Can they? Do they even want to?”

Highlighting a case in Mali, Lefore provided an example of a top-down, infrastructure-driven project, in which most funding went into construction and large solar pumps, but not into addressing women’s need to reduce labor. Women chose not to become members of the project’s farming cooperatives, because they were still expected to irrigate fields using calabash bowls.

“We need to understand whether women are interested in investing. And if they are, our approach to including them has to be part of a larger systemic approach, with multiple actors who will play different roles,” Lefore ended.

The webinar also featured contributions from Regassa Namara, Senior Water Economist at the World Bank, Phil Woodhouse, Professor of Environment and Development, University of Manchester, Nick Brozovic, Director of Policy, Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, and Samir Ibrahim, CEO, SunCulture.

The second part of this webinar series on farmer-led irrigation will take place on July 9, 2020, and will focus on a systems approach to reaching scale.

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