From the field

Small scale irrigated forage production: Abate Wale’s pathway out of poverty and malnutrition

July 19, 2022 by abbey.kunkle

by Melkamu Derseh, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Abate Wale is one of the early adopters of irrigated fodder production practices promoted by the USAID supported Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation in the Robit Bata Kebele of Bahir Dar Zuria district. Like any other farmer in the mixed farming system, Abate’s livelihood depends on crop production and livestock rearing. His engagement in small scale irrigation and improved livestock production has helped him to diversify his income. “I am now in a better position to lead my family than few years back,” he says.

**Senait Abate, daughter of Abate Wale**
**(Photo credit: Apollo Habtamu/ILRI)**

Change in family nutrition

Abate has five children, all of whom are attending school in their locality. Senait was a little girl four years ago (Fig 1, left) when a documentary of early adopters of irrigated fodder was produced (https://www.ilri.org/news/irrigated-forages-improve-livestock-productivity-and-livelihoods-ethiopia). Now, well grown and with a smiling face (Fig 1, right), she said that the family has more cows now than before. “My mother gives me milk every day, before and after school. I am now in grade 2 and am happy with my school time,” she said. The way Abate’s children are growing and sent to school are testimonies to an improved life for his family.

Abate’s children in their fodder farm (right, Senait Abate) (Photo credit: Apollo Habtamu)

Increased feed biomass and quality of feed

Abate recalls his first experience several years back, “When researchers from the International Livestock Research Institute and Andassa Research Center approached us and explained the benefits of growing fodder for livestock using supplemental irrigation, many of us were skeptical of the benefits, but I decided to try it on a small plot.” He added, “After I tried it, I was surprised to harvest fodder every 4 weeks and get good quality feed from a small plot. As a result, my interest to expand my fodder plot has increased.”

Abate Wale, carrying milk he has just milked from his cows

Change of attitude

When the ILSSI project started experimenting with irrigated fodder in the Robit kebele, farmers in the kebele had no prior experience cultivating fodder and only just over a dozen (15-17) farmers were willing to collaborate with researchers and allocate a small plot (100m²) for the trial, Abate being one of them. Through a series of on-farm trials and demonstrations, however, the awareness and interest of farmers has increased considerably. Nowadays, close to 300 farmers are producing irrigated fodder on a range of farmland sizes in that village. The demand increases every year and researchers are working with development partners to reach more farmers.

Abate is also one of the farmers who replaced part of the Khat plant [stimulant] in his farmland with irrigated fodder to be able to produce enough feed for his lactating cows.

Currently, he allocates a total of 1250m² of land (9% of his total land holding) for irrigated fodder production. Compared to Khat production, Abate explains that irrigated fodder is less labor and [agri-chemical] input demanding, and he is happy with the new practice.

Diversified income options

He said, “My income from the sale of milk increased considerably after I started using irrigated fodder to feed my lactating cows, and milk available for my children also doubled.” Prior to the intervention, he had only local cows. Over time, he acquired a crossbred cow – which produce more milk than local breeds – through Andassa Research Center. Now he has two crossbred lactating cows and plans to increase that number in the future.

Formation of a dairy cooperative

“The presence of a functioning dairy cooperative on our doorstep encourages me to engage more in irrigated fodder and dairying,” he said, referring to the new milk collection and processing facility built by the Genet Lerobit farmer dairy cooperative through ILSSI project support.

The first attempt at a cooperative, which was formed before the ILSSI project’s intervention, collapsed as members could not supply sufficient milk for the market due to low volume of milk production because of the feed shortage. However, after the intervention of irrigated forages project, the cooperative was revived.

Market challenges

The successes are, however, not without challenges. Abate says a reliable market for milk remains a constraint for the farmers in the village. “Through our cooperative, we supply milk to collectors and processors. However, the milk collectors and processors sometimes do not respect the contract agreement they entered with us and hold back our money for a long time. We are still hopeful the cooperative would be in a better position to bring our dairy products to the market,” he said.

Explaining this issue, the chairman of the dairy cooperative said that the contract agreement they entered with milk processors was on a post-paid basis. That means they supply milk daily to the processor and payment is made at the end of the month based on the amount of milk supplied. However, recently one processor owed the cooperative more than six hundred thousand birr (approx. USD 12,000), but failed to pay them for more than five months.

Abate participating in field days organized to evaluate different forage options (Photo credit: Apollo Habtamu/ILRI)

Alternative ways to mitigate challenges

The chairman noted that despite such challenges, members including Abate continue to bring their milk to the cooperative and currently it supplies about 500 liters of milk daily to the local market. “The cooperative is now embarking on processing milk into shelf stable products (butter and cheese) in the newly built facility with the financial and technical support of the Innovation Lab, and we hope this will solve some of the market problems we face at the moment,” he said. They also count on the support and commitment of district and zonal level experts and decision makers to further increase their dairy production in the locality. Consumption of nutrient-dense dairy foods is widely understood to improve child nutrition and health.

Newly built milk collection and processing center

Lessons

Small scale irrigated forages production can change livelihoods if supported by research products like improved forage varieties, irrigation technologies, and follow up assistance from public sector and local stakeholders. Moreover, attention to fodder to dairy value chain elements and working with partners to address each element is crucial to sustain the benefits. To decide which technology to adopt, farmers need to see for themselves what works for them. In this respect, the participatory research approach that the ILSSI project followed in the project sites serves as a platform for scaling up lessons.

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.

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.

Ghanaian farmers use solar-powered irrigation to innovate and diversify

November 11, 2021 by Marianne Gadeberg

by Nicole Lefore, Director of Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI)

During a recent field visit in Ghana, I experienced firsthand how farmers are willing to invest in solar-powered irrigation and use it to experiment, diversify, and adapt to climate change. Talking with these frontrunner farmers can teach us important lessons about how to enable even more smallholders, through better access to credit and stronger value chains, to benefit from small scale irrigation.

For the past few years, we have seen solar-powered irrigation emerge as a promising, climate-smart solution for smallholder farmers to increase their incomes and improve their livelihoods and nutrition. However, for most farmers, investing in pumps and photovoltaic panels still represents a significant risk. So far, this has been hampering large-scale uptake of the technology.

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) is working to find different ways to enable more smallholders to make the investment, without putting their livelihoods at risk. For example in Ghana, we are partnering with PEG Africa, a private sector provider of solar-powered pumps, to find ways to reach farmers ‘at the bottom of the pyramid’. This year, PEG Africa’s game-changing asset-based financing solution has enabled several dozen farmers to purchase solar-powered pumps on credit, without the usual collateral or credit history required for a loan.

During my recent visit to Ghana, I discovered how these investments are prompting farmers to push the boundaries of diversification and to explore how they can make the best return and gain the most benefit at farm level. The solar-powered pumps are changing farmers’ practices, profitability, and plans for the future.

Nicole Lefore visiting innovating farmers in Ghana. Photo via Nicole Lefore.

Irrigation allows farmers to break new ground in cocoa production

When launching our partnership with PEG Africa, we had expected that most farmers would be interested in using the solar-powered pumps for horticulture. Surprisingly, we have found that some farmers are diversifying far beyond this area, including using pumps for other purposes than irrigation and even breaking new ground by introducing irrigation in cocoa cultivation.

Cocoa is central to Ghana’s economy, engaging around 600,000 farmers directly. However, aging farms and climate change are creating challenges. While old trees need to be replaced, around 40 percent of the seedlings die due to lack of rainfall. Low rainfall is also reducing production across all three cocoa-producing seasons.

At the same time, farm income from cocoa remains extremely low, making it difficult for farmers to replant farms and adapt to the changing climate conditions. In short, changing rainfall patterns are making irrigation an urgently needed investment.

When visiting farmers near Offinso recently, I was happy to see that several of them are using their new solar-powered pumps to rehabilitate their cocoa farms. The pumps allow them to regularly water their cocoa seedlings to prevent loss and to inter-crop vegetables and staples such as plantain, while the newly planted seedlings come into production.

One cocoa farmer said that he had previously walked five kilometers to reach a stream for water, but now the solar-powered pump is near his house, enabling easy access to water for multiple uses and cutting down on labor. Another smallholder cocoa farmer told me that he is using the pump to expand into ginger and turmeric production.

A cocoa seedling benefits from irrigation. Photo: Nicole Lefore.

A farmer has diversified, using the pump for catfish production. Photo: Nicole Lefore.

Learning from these farmers will help inform the work we are doing with PEG Africa – and in collaboration with one of Ghana’s largest cocoa-buying companies – allowing us to better understand how to make solar irrigation accessible for cocoa farmers to adapt to climate change and remain viable.

The way the farmers in Offinso have begun to innovate and diversify their production can be expected to enable them to continue cocoa production through farm rehabilitation, while also producing horticulture and specialty produce for increased income. These farmers could be providing one of the first clues that smallholders really can afford solar-powered irrigation, adapt to climate change, and still be profitable.

New technologies, better business ventures

Another small farm business I visited in the Eastern Region, the Growing Gold Farm, is combining solar-powered pumps with other technologies and online platforms to maximize profit, allowing them to continue to reinvest in climate adaptation and environmental health.

The Growing Gold Farm replaced hand watering vegetables and fruit on their two-acre farm with a solar-powered pump purchased from PEG Africa. The farm manager emphasized to me the cost savings made possible now that they no longer need to hire people to irrigate by hand and instead engage that labor for improved agronomy.

The farm increased its profitability and then reinvested in regenerative agriculture practices, including mulching and integrated pest management, as well as water management technologies, such as drip tubes.

The Growing Gold Farm manager explains the savings made possible by investing in solar-powered pumps. Photo: Nicole Lefore.

The farm records the amount of water used on different crops and observes the productivity and quality changes, using tools provided by another ILSSI partner, the International Water Management Institute.

One of the reasons for the profitability of the farm is that it sells produce directly to customers in the Greater Accra market, using Instagram for marketing and orders, and then delivers produce by Uber, both of which have helped to ensure better prices for their high-value produce. They have gained a following by ‘foodies’ in urban markets looking for high-quality, fresh produce, which has generated more social media attention.

The lesson here is that using multiple technologies and turning to online platforms and social media for direct marketing does have promise in emerging markets where urban households are getting further and further away from the farm. When we see a smallholder farmer jumping over the middleman, finding new marketing approaches, profits increase and enable investments in new technologies.

These two examples, the smallholders irrigating cocoa farms and the Growing Gold Farm, both show that smallholder farmers can successfully invest in solar irrigation – utilizing asset-based financing – and expand their benefits and returns through diversifying what they produce and how they engage the market.

We can learn from such cases, which help us better understand how farmers can afford to invest in irrigation through credit and through better linkages within different irrigated produce supply chains. For me, it was a reminder that farmers – including those on very small plots – are the ones who are willing to innovate, take risks, and experiment. Looking to farmers’ innovations will help us and our private sector partners devise better solutions for expanding small scale irrigation in Ghana and beyond.

Ethiopian dairy cooperatives use irrigation for forage production, increasing farmers’ incomes and resilience

June 22, 2021 by Marianne Gadeberg

by Aberra Adie, Research Officer, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

“Our collaboration with the ILSSI project has enabled us to increase our milk production and sales considerably,” said Alemu Demoze, the chairman of the Genet Lerobit Dairy Cooperative in Bahir Dar Zuria district, Ethiopia.

Alemu Demoze, chairman of Genet Lerobit Dairy Cooperative. (Photo credit: ILRI/Fikadu Tessema).

Irrigated fodder production is a recent development in Ethiopia. But now, after years of collaboration with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI), both individual farmers and dairy cooperatives have started using small scale irrigation techniques and new forage varieties to produce fodder year-round for livestock feeding. ILSSI has provided technical support to the dairy cooperatives in its project sites, which has helped these entities to establish a new milk-collection center, a forage seed store, and sales shops.

A new milk-collection center and forage seed sales shop, constructed by the Genet Lerobit Dairy Cooperative (Photo credit: ILRI/Fikadu Tessema).

Cooperatives boost incomes and value chains

Alemu explained that membership numbers in the Genet Lerobit Dairy Cooperative have increased from 57 members 3 years ago to 180 now, due to the growing interest in irrigated fodder production and the market opportunities created for fluid milk:

“Currently, we are supplying about 300 liters of milk daily at a price of 22 birr (US$0.50) per liter to a milk processor in Bahir Dar town. This volume of milk is up by more than 50 percent from what we used to supply few years back.”

The cooperative’s engagement in forage seed multiplication and marketing is expected to provide an additional source of income for its members, while also strengthening the fodder value chain in the communities.

“We have allocated 1.5 hectares of dedicated land for forage seed multiplication and also formed farmer interest groups, which showed interest in multiplying forage seeds and planting materials on their own land and supply to the cooperative,” said Alemu.

According to him, the cooperative is planning to use both individual farms and the land secured through the cooperative as a source of forage seed and planting materials.

Alemu Demoze (right) standing in front of the newly constructed milk-collection center and feed shops (Photo Credit: ILRI/Fikadu Tessema).

Explaining further the cooperative’s preparations to strengthen the irrigated fodder value chain, he added:

“With the support we received from ILSSI, we have constructed a forage seed store, milk-collection and processing rooms, as well as sales shops. These facilities will considerably increase our market share and incomes in the near future.”

The cooperative’s management believes they are now in a good position to increase dairy production in the community, using irrigated fodder technologies and new market opportunities created through the collaboration with ILSSI and other development actors.

“We are in discussion with the local extension office so that they can support us in certifying the forage seeds that we plan to produce this season. We are also in discussion with the livestock and fisheries sector development project to create market linkages for forage seeds,” Alemu explained.

Providing protection against COVID-19 disruptions

Habebo Dairy Cooperative, located in the Lemo district of Ethiopia’s Southern region, is another entity engaged in irrigated fodder development. The cooperative provides services to its members by collecting fluid milk and processing it into butter and cheese, which allows the cooperative members to sell these higher-value products to consumers. Over the past three years, the support the cooperative members received from ILSSI enabled them to grow their capacity and become more resilient to market fluctuations.

Aberash Tamre, chairman of Habebo Dairy Cooperative (Photo credit: ILRI/Tigist German).

“Our collaboration with ILSSI came at a critical time for us,” said Aberash Tamire, the chairwomen of the cooperative. “When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted market chains, we were able to cope with problem by processing our milk into shelf-stable and easily transportable products, such as butter and cheese. Other farmers who didn’t have the capacity to process milk were seriously affected by the movement restrictions and market disruptions for fluid milk.”

This cooperative has managed to construct a well-designed milk processing room, a forage seed store, and sales shops in their compound with a grant received from ILSSI.

Habebo Dairy Cooperative management members in their newly set up milk-collection and shop center (Photo Credit: ILRI/Tigist German).

“Our members are highly indebted to the support provided to grow our capacity. This collaboration with ILSSI has also motivated other farmers to apply for cooperative membership, and currently the total membership has reached 220 households, which is up by 40 percent compared to two years ago. Some of the newcomers recently bought crossbred cows and joined us,” explained Aberash.

Tackling land and water challenges

In the areas where these two dairy cooperatives are located, land remains a major constraint to agricultural productivity. There is a lot of competition for land to produce food crops and fodder. However, adoption of irrigated fodder production has helped ease the competition for land, as farmers are now able to produce fodder year-round on a small plot of land.

In addition, ILSSI is working with national partners to provide alternative forage varieties that can be grown with minimum water and nutrient input and at the same time supply the needed fodder for farmers’ livestock. Adoption of such new varieties would further ease the pressure on natural resources, and cooperative members are currently participating in the evaluation of the new forage varieties for wider scaling.

Finally, ILSSI has planned a series of training programs to build the capacity of the cooperatives in forage seed multiplication and marketing businesses. The impact of the ILSSI intervention is now visible in the project sites:

“We are very happy at the moment because we are making tangible progress in improving our income and livelihoods,” concluded Aberash.