Innovation Lab For Small Scale Irrigation

Innovation Lab For Small Scale Irrigation

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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.

Interview: Ethiopian entrepreneur invents new plow that breaks down barriers for small scale irrigation

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Expanding the use of small scale irrigation requires problem solving across sectors. The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) is partnering with private sector actors who can play important roles in developing and bringing to market innovative technologies. That’s what Melesse Temesgen, General Manager of Aybar Engineering PLC, did when he invented a new plow with numerous benefits, including increased infiltration of rainwater. His invention can help make more groundwater available for farmers to practice small scale irrigation in the Ethiopian Highlands.

What’s the problem with the traditional Maresha plow that is so widely used by farmers in the Ethiopian Highlands?

The main problem with the traditional Maresha plow is that it creates V-shaped furrows, leaving behind unplowed strips of land. Farmers have to plow at least twice, sometimes three times, and they have to move in a crisscross pattern over their fields. Beyond taking time and energy, this effort damages the soil structure, and it makes contour plowing—that is, following along the contours of the steep slopes—impossible.

Melesse Temesgen is the General Manager of Aybar Engineering PLC. Photo: AfricaInnovation.org.

Farmers are forced to place furrows along the slope, and that encourages rainwater runoff and soil erosion. That’s why the land in the Highlands of Ethiopia is severely degraded. Also, high rainwater runoff means that infiltration and groundwater recharge is very low.

Using the Maresha plow to till at the same shallow depth during centuries has created a hard crust below the soil’s surface that reduces water infiltration and root growth. This also results in soil loss and reduced groundwater recharge. This means that farmers face water shortages during the dry season.

Other problems caused by the Maresha plow include high evaporation of water from soil, difficulties in getting rid of weeds, a need for high draft power, and incompatibility with other soil conservation practices.

What benefits come from using the Berken plow that you invented?

The Berken plow solves all of the above problems. It completely tills the soil in the first plowing, and it allows farmers to carry out contour plowing. It tills deeper and disrupts the hard crust. It is also convenient to use in fields where soil and water conservation structures have been built. It requires less draft power, it controls weeds better, and it improves root growth, which results in better crop yields. In combination, this increases infiltration, boosting the groundwater level and water flowing in streams during the dry season. Increasing the availability of water is very important for smallholder irrigators.

Inspecting the Berken plow. Photo: Rudi Schmitter.
Field-testing the Berken plow in the Ethiopian Highlands. Photo: Rudi Schmitter.

How did you come up with the idea?

Long ago, we realized that the traditional Maresha plow is not effective, and we have tested out several different alternative options that didn’t work out for different reasons. Then, on March 5, 2007, two weeks after defending my PhD, I suddenly thought of creating a plow that tills deeply over a relatively narrow strip of land in combination with tilling at a more shallow depth over a wider area. This results in wide furrows, meaning farmers only have to plow once, and it breaks up the hard crust. But coming up with an acceptable prototype was not so easy. The first versions were not effective, while later versions were too heavy for the oxen to pull. These were followed by improved and lighter versions. The Berken plow, which has proved to have an ideal design, is the sixth version and was developed in 2015.

A close-up of the new Berken plow. Melesse Temesgen.

What have you learned from collaborating with ILSSI and our partners?

Working with ILSSI researchers has been very helpful. They studied the plow and its hydrological and agronomic impact scientifically. Their research enabled us to explain the benefits of the Berken plow in a scientific way, which became crucial for the promotion of the technology. This type of support from public researchers should be encouraged, and collaboration should be further strengthened.

What is the next step to bringing the Berken plow to more farmers in the market?

We are currently promoting and selling the Berken plow. Farmers like the plow very much, and it is the first improved plow in Ethiopia to be directly purchased by smallholder farmers.

What farmers like about the Berken plow is that it is easy to assemble and adjust, it is easily pulled by oxen, and it is good at eliminating weeds. In addition to having several agronomic and economic benefits, we plan to show smallholders that the Berken plow can also support small scale irrigation and the ecosystem by increasing water flow in streams and boosting groundwater levels during the dry season. We base our arguments not only on the design of the plow, but also on the findings of ILSSI researchers.

Private sector joins multi-stakeholder dialogues on farmer-led irrigation development in Ghana and Ethiopia

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by Petra Schmitter and Thai Thi Minh

Farmer-led irrigation has been identified as one way to improve nutrition, increase incomes, and enable water security and greater climate resilience, by institutions such as the World Bank, African Union, and African Development Bank as well as by national governments.

However, systemic barriers, such as lack of access to credit, gender norms, under-developed irrigation supply chains, and limited in- and output market linkages, continue to prevent smallholder farmers from engaging in small scale irrigation globally. Because these farmers generate between 30 and 34 percent of the global food supply, it is crucial to tackle these systemic barriers.

Furthermore, private sector companies are increasingly recognized for the roles they can play in agricultural production and value chain development. This is no different when looking at small scale irrigation development, with irrigation supply chains and services being crucial to the resilience of smallholders and our entire food system. Finally, the market for serving small scale irrigators could be profitable for such companies.

So, how can businesses better be included in and even accelerate farmer-led irrigation and agricultural growth?

Multi-stakeholder dialogues to strengthen food systems

The concept of multi-stakeholder dialogues, and related learning alliances and innovation platforms, is not new. These approaches are used in various agricultural research-for-development projects. Outcomes and successes vary depending on how they are designed, the way they cater to diverse stakeholder interests and views, as well as the individual and institutional commitments. Hence, they need to be carefully designed to ensure contextual relevance to stakeholders’ needs and interests, while addressing the complexity of the enabling environment.

In Ghana and Ethiopia, platforms or dialogue spaces on small scale irrigation either do not exist or have a narrow mandate. Additionally, private sector companies have largely been overlooked as partners in existing platforms. To increase the resilience of our overall food systems by facilitating smallholders’ access to irrigation, we are working toward including the private sector.

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), under the sponsorship of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI), has kick-started system-level collaboration, including with the private sector, through multi-stakeholder dialogues in Ethiopia and Ghana to create ‘win-win’ solutions in small scale irrigation.

Participants at the multi-stakeholder dialogue event in Ethiopia in February 2020. Petra Schmitter/IWMI.
Participants at the multi-stakeholder dialogue event in Ethiopia in February 2020. Petra Schmitter/IWMI.

A dialogue to discuss regulations and financial support mechanisms for the private sector

Analysis of business cases for solar-powered irrigation in Ethiopia shows that investments in this area could boost food and nutrition security. However, the current lack of clarity on tax regulations for solar-based products and irrigation equipment, following recent policy changes, hampers the current development of solar irrigation supply chains and services.

“Our long time efforts have helped us achieve quality certification and duty-free import for solar energy products in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, while achieving that, solar pumps for irrigation have not yet been included in the list of duty-free items because of some certification issues. We want to bring affordability to irrigator clients, but this requires changes to import regulations,” said Nabil Ishak, Vice-chairman of the Ethiopian Solar Energy Development Association.

Nabil Ishak is the Vice-chairman of the Ethiopian Solar Energy Development Association. Petra Schmitter/IWMI.
Nabil Ishak is the Vice-chairman of the Ethiopian Solar Energy Development Association. Petra Schmitter/IWMI.

Similarly, in Ghana, complex tax regimes constrain market expansion:

“We face some challenges when it comes to importation duties. Solar pumps should be exempted. However, they made us pay for it and said, ‘Later on, you can apply for tax exemption.’ Given the challenges of recovering the taxes, our products are now more expensive for the farmer,” said Iyad Hatoum, Managing Director, HTC IrriGATE.

As long as irrigation equipment remains a high-risk product in frontier markets, suppliers will be unable to reach the poorest farmers. Fragmented markets and unclear application of regulations, as well as limited infrastructure in remote areas, add up to high transaction costs, which are passed on to farmers.

A dialogue space offers the opportunity to bring relevant actors together to catalyze change. Companies’ growing interest in market-based solutions led to unprecedented participation in the multi-stakeholder dialogues: companies made up around one-third of participants in both Ghana and Ethiopia.

A dialogue to accelerate farmers’ initiatives and bundle solutions

Potential ‘win-wins’ emerge when irrigation supply chains and services are integrated with agricultural value chains. In the past, businesses have focused mostly on selling irrigation equipment and less on providing services such as agricultural extension, operation, and maintenance or linkages to value chains. At the same time, development organizations often focus on the agricultural value chains or on micro credit, without necessarily considering the irrigation supply chains and services.

Bringing relevant actors—including private sector companies—together can help bridge these fragmented efforts and create opportunities. For example, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is setting out to collaborate with farmer cooperatives producing dairy products as an avenue to expand irrigated livestock fodder. Stronger linkages between irrigation suppliers, fodder irrigators, dairy producers, and processors mean business opportunities across the market.

In Ghana, irrigation equipment businesses have also begun to develop such linkages. Companies are providing a bundled package of irrigation equipment and services as well as credits and output market linkages to farmer groups, allowing them to grow vegetables in the dry seasons. These packages help ensure that farmers are able to pay off their equipment after the third harvest and are able to expand their irrigated area within two to three seasons. Hence, in these regions, vegetable value chains can be maintained without disruption from supply shortages in the dry season.  

“We had to come up with a complex, but flexible business model since December 2017 to deal with small scale farmers, who have from 1 acre to 10 hectares. We have combined irrigation supply and services, which include installation and after-sale technical support, credit, and market linkages to farmers. This business has brought the best year for us in 2019,” said Kwabena Opagya Amoateng, the CEO of Agro-Africa.

A dialogue for interactive learning and inspiration

In Ghana and Ethiopia, the actors invited to the multi-stakeholder dialogue acknowledged the value in fostering learning and experience sharing. Actors valued the opportunity to learn from what works and what does not, whether it is a business case, a policy regulation, or approaches to support social and gender inclusiveness. Actors mentioned that they see the dialogue space as a means to facilitate adaptive learning from mistakes, reflect upon system-level weaknesses, and leverage others’ strengths.

“From what I have seen today, this multi-stakeholder dialogue has brought quite a significant number of private sector actors, which is an important element, and in my opinion it should continue in the future and also be linked to existing government and development partner dialogues,” said Kaleb Getaneh of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Water and Irrigation.

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Petra Schmitter is a Research Group Leader for Sustainable and Resilient Food Production Systems, and Thai Thi Minh is a Senior Researcher, both at the International Water Management Institute.

Student interview: Working with the private sector to find acceptable solutions to farmers’ challenges

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Habtamu Muche is currently working as a lecturer at the University of Gondar, Ethiopia. In 2016, he joined ILSSI’s capacity development program as a graduate student, while enrolled at Bahir Dar Institute of Technology, Bahir Dar University. For two years, Habtamu Muche studied the how the Berken plow can be used to improve infiltration and crop productivity in the Highlands of Ethiopia. He carried out his MSc thesis together with researchers at Bahir Dar University and the International Water Management Institute, funded through ILSSI.

You are a co-author of a paper on the benefits of using the Berken plow in the Ethiopian Highlands. How did you get interested in this topic?

Conventional tillage is the major cause of soil and water losses in Ethiopia. For thousands of years, farmers in Ethiopia practiced repeated cross-plowing with the traditional tillage implement, the Maresha. Long-term use of the Maresha is believed to create a hardpan, thereby restricting water movement and root growth, while decreasing yield of crops. In 2015, we tested deep tillage through manual digging and learned that breaking the hardpan can increase rainwater infiltration. However, we did not have the right implement for farmers to practice deep tillage. We heard that a new tillage implement, known as the Berken, had been developed by Aybar Engineering to enable farmers to break the hardpan. We initiated a study to assess its impact on hydrological and biophysical processes.  

Habtamu Muche collecting a soil sample in the Ethiopian Highlands.
Habtamu Muche collecting a soil sample in the Ethiopian Highlands.

What’s the most unexpected thing you found?

Looking at the Berken plow, we first thought it was a simple modification of the Maresha, with little or no impact. However, we found that the Berken affects several hydrological variables in positive ways. For example, the tillage depth increased more than we expected and disrupted the restrictive hardpan layer because the plow cuts the soil deep at the center and shallow on the sides. Second, the infiltration rate was significantly improved—tilling the soil at that depth increases the microscopic channels in the soil that allow water to move from the cultivated surface and to the subsurface layer of the soil. We also saw that rainwater runoff and sediment yield reduced because each furrow laid along the contour of the steep slopes helped slow the movement and generation of runoff and sediment. Finally, root development and grain yield also improved. The higher water infiltration might have led to more moisture being available deeper in the soil, and that has positively affected maize grain yield.   

The Berken plow was invented by private sector entrepreneur Aybar Engineering.
The Berken plow was invented by private sector entrepreneur Aybar Engineering. Photo: Habtamu Muche.

What did you learn about how innovation and new inventions like the Berken plow come about?

I have learned how a simple innovation like the Berken plow solves a great challenge we faced in improving infiltration. It is not acceptable to tell farmers to manually dig 60 cm into the soil to break up the hardpan. So, I learned that we need to work more on innovations to solve farmers’ problems.   

What was it like to work on a research trial with a private sector entrepreneur?

After we realized that breaking the hardpan was effective in reducing rainwater runoff, thereby improving infiltration, we wanted to test the new Berken plow in the field. We helped the inventors at Aybar Engineering by sharing our research results. It is interesting to work with the private sector because they are working on the ground with farmers. They are manufacturing and selling tools that have good impacts for farmers. As a graduate student, I felt happy to work on a tool that is going to be used by many farmers.

What do you hope to work on in the future?

In the future, I have planned to work on the impact of the Berken at the watershed scale. Conservation structures, such as soil bunds, may become more effective if farmers can use the Berken to plow the land in between the conservation structures.

Student interview: Investigating how gender matters for irrigation and nutrition

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In 2014, Elizabeth Bryan joined ILSSI’s capacity development program for graduate students, and she investigated gender and small scale irrigation, as well as the linkage between irrigation and nutrition. Today, Bryan is a senior scientist in the Environment and Production Technology Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), where she focuses on water resources management and climate change adaptation and gender.

What issues were you studying, while you were working with ILSSI?

With respect to gender and irrigation, we explored the barriers that women face to adopting, using, and benefitting from technologies for small scale irrigation. We also looked at how adopting small scale irrigation may influence various aspects of women’s empowerment, such as their level of participation in agricultural decisions, control over income and productive assets, and time burden.

Elizabeth Bryan, IFPRI.
Elizabeth Bryan, IFPRI.

The results across the countries we have worked in (Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania) are varied, given different gender roles in agriculture, social norms, and available systems, technologies, and practices for small scale irrigation.

Our findings on irrigation and nutrition highlight two main pathways through which irrigation can improve diets and nutrition outcomes: through changes in production and increased income. Irrigation enables greater production and consumption of more nutrient-dense crops, such as vegetables, that improve diet quality. Being able to irrigate also enables production during the dry season, increasing availability of food during these times. Farmers use the income from selling irrigated crops to purchase foods that improve household diets, such as milk and eggs. Irrigating farmers appear to be more resilient to drought, thanks to their improved nutritional status. Findings on the links between irrigation and nutrition were summarized in a guidance note by The World Bank to support more nutrition-sensitive approaches to irrigation investments.

Gender matters for these linkages between irrigation and nutrition because women have different preferences for which crops are grown under irrigation, how these crops are used – whether for sale or consumption – and how income from the sale of irrigated crops is spent.

What was the most surprising thing you found?

The gender sensitivity of many irrigation interventions is low, meaning that they fail to consider the linkages between gender and irrigation. This is due to limited capacity on gender in many implementing organizations and agencies. However, there is interest, including from the private sector, in utilizing strategies to better reach and benefit women through irrigation.

Another surprising finding is that when households adopt modern irrigation technologies in northern Ghana, men tend to take over irrigation activities. Rather than feeling excluded, many women were relieved not have to participate in manual irrigation, which they considered a burdensome task, and to have more time to devote to other income-earning activities.

How did the work you did with ILSSI inform the next steps in your career? 

After I finish the remaining research papers on my plate, I hope to develop some guidance for implementing partners to adopt more gender-sensitive strategies. New modalities are emerging for how to expand small scale irrigation technologies, such as through group-based or rental arrangements, and the gender implications of these also need to be examined so that these interventions are inclusive and benefit women.

What is your advice to other students looking to work with ILSSI or other Feed the Future innovations labs?

The Feed the Future Innovation Labs are a great way to engage different partners, including cross-disciplinary researchers, development practitioners, policy-makers, and donors. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to collaborate with so many inspiring people, who are dedicated to tackling some of the greatest development challenges.

Texas A&M University System Member