Innovation Lab For Small Scale Irrigation

Innovation Lab For Small Scale Irrigation

Research highlight

Irrigating fodder crops to improve nutrition for animals and people in Ethiopia

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When livestock is fed high-quality fodder, produced with the help of irrigation, they deliver better milk and meat, benefitting the nutritional health of their keepers and consumers. The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) and its partners are investigating best-bet options for where and how to expand the production of irrigated fodder in Ethiopia.

With urbanization, increasing incomes, and a growing population, the demand for animal-based products such as beef and milk is on the rise in Ethiopia. The livestock sector not only provides rural dwellers with cash income, draft power, and transportation, it also serves as an important source of food and nutrition for the entire country. Studies have shown that when livestock keepers are able to increase milk production and provide milk for the household, the nutritional health of children below the age of five is stabilized.

When farmers are able to increase milk production, the nutritional health of children is stabilized. Photo: Melkamu Deresh/ILRI.

However, the health and productivity of livestock is hampered by shortages of livestock feed, seasonality of feed supply, and unreliable feed quality. Weak market linkages also make it difficult for livestock keepers to access commercial feed, though fodder markets are growing in Ethiopia. A low feed supply compromises the supply of milk and meat, making it difficult to fulfill the nutritional needs of Ethiopians.

ILSSI, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems (LSIL) have been collaborating to identify where and how to expand fodder production—toward ensuring a steady supply with higher quality—using promising small scale irrigation practices.

Almost 20 percent of Ethiopia’s land is suitable for irrigated fodder

The Government of Ethiopia and donor partners have expressed interest in expanding fodder production under irrigation. To contribute to national decision-making and planning, ILSSI and partners have mapped where such expansion can sustainably be done.

This work began with field studies on irrigation opportunities for fodder production. Those studies show high potential for irrigating certain fodder species and for directing that feed to crossbred animals for higher productivity. Equally important, farmers saw the trials and began to irrigate fodder to meet demand in their local areas, pointing to the possibility for scaling.

To pinpoint where to scale these practices, ILSSI scientists selected promising fodder types, chosen to fit into the different agro-ecological settings in the country. They then mapped areas suitable for these fodder types, taking into account factors such as climate, soil, infrastructure, and market access. The results indicated that, with the use of small scale irrigation, ~31% of the country (about 350,500 km2) is highly suitable for producing desho (Pennisetum glaucifolium), followed by vetch (Vicia sativa) (23%) and Napier (Pennisetum purpureum) (20%).

The factors used to determine the suitability of land for irrigated fodder production include climate (rainfall and evaporation), soil (soil texture, pH, and soil depth), land use, and slope as well as access to markets and feed demand.
A preliminary mapping of land suitable for irrigated Napier production. The most suitable area was assessed to be 92 percent suitable, whereas the least appropriate area was assessed to be only 20 percent suitable. Land is considered suitable at 80 percent and above.

Local interest and impact of irrigated fodder

Since 2015, ILSSI has been collaborating with ILRI and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), as well as local partners such as Bahir Dar University, Amhara Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI), and Southern Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), to demonstrate and promote the production of irrigated fodder. Continuous engagement with farmers through on-farm trials and demonstrations piqued farmers’ interest in irrigated fodder production.

For example, in the Robit Bata Kebele of Bahir Dar Zuria district, 15 farmers participated in evaluating water productivity and nutritional quality of fodder during the first year of the project, in 2015. They allocated plots of land ranging between 50 and 140 m2 per household for Napier grass production. Water for irrigation was sourced from shallow groundwater wells, varying in depth between 6 and 17 meters. The continued farmer participation and strong collaboration with local partners meant that more farmers adopted the practice, reaching 400 farmers by 2018, and with many households allocating as much as 1,000 m2 for irrigated fodder.

The introduction of irrigated fodder production has helped the farmers increase their incomes through milk production and cattle fattening. The farmers are embracing the practice and now fodder and milk markets are emerging. According to Aberra Adie, feed and forages researcher with ILRI, the trial has shifted farmers’ preferences:

“Before the introduction of irrigated fodder, farmers used irrigation to grow khat—a stimulant perennial cash crop. In the region, khat is not socially and religiously acceptable, but it used to earn them a good profit. However, since the introduction of irrigated fodder, farmers are abandoning khat in favor of forage farming. The farmers also indicated that fodder irrigation is a lot easier than khat production, which needs lots of water and pesticide.”

Partnering with cooperatives and scaling within the market system

Currently, ILRI is partnering with multiple farmer cooperatives, the private sector and regional extension offices in Ethiopia to scale up irrigated fodder production.

In the ILSSI project sites, identified as most suitable for irrigated fodder, ILRI is facilitating strong partnerships between private enterprises and emerging farmer cooperatives to work in forage seed production and marketing. The engagement is expected to identify the favorable conditions for smallholder farmers to access forage seeds and irrigation facilities. Specific attention is being given to opportunities for women in irrigated fodder and dairy value chains.

ILRI is also collaborating with other projects to increase the awareness and practice of irrigated fodder production across the country, serving development outcomes on food security, nutrition, poverty alleviation, and sustainable use of ecosystems.

Irrigated fodder production can help farmers increase their incomes through milk production and cattle fattening. Photo: ILRI.

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This news story was put together with significant contributions from Abeyou Worqlul and Yihun Dile (Texas A & M University) & Melkamu Derseh and Aberra Adie (ILRI).

What women want: First steps to inclusive irrigation investments

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by Elizabeth Bryan, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Small scale irrigation can increase smallholders’ income, contribute to economic growth, boost food and nutrition security, and enhance climate resilience. In the past, these immense benefits have been top priorities for decision-makers investing in small scale irrigation. Another potential outcome has been receiving growing attention: empowerment of rural women.

But, successfully designing irrigation interventions to support women’s empowerment requires concerted efforts and careful planning. Women’s level of empowerment depends on the context within which they live, resources they have access to, and their ability to make strategic life choices resulting in well-being improvements. These factors change throughout the course of women’s lives. That’s why studying what empowerment looks like and what women want—in a certain place, at a certain time—is a crucial first step to inclusive irrigation investments.

This is one conclusion my colleagues and I have reached based on recently published research on the link between small scale irrigation and women’s empowerment, conducted with support from the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation.

Understanding empowerment

In the Upper East Region of Ghana, many households live on the edge of malnutrition and poverty. They have few options to improve their well-being, but small scale irrigation offers the potential to expand production during the long dry season and boost incomes, food security, nutrition, and health.

Conducting focus groups and interviews with men and women farmers and traders in four villages in the Garu-Tempare district, we sought to understand whether introducing modern technologies for small scale irrigation could also increase women’s empowerment by changing their access to resources, decision-making authority, control over income, and time burden.

A woman carries vegetables, and her baby. Photo: Elizabeth Bryan/IFPRI.

Overall, we found women were becoming more involved in income-earning activities, and were taking on more leadership roles, contributing a larger share of household income, and participating more in decision-making. While this trend was generally viewed as positive, many women felt burdened by the additional responsibility of being expected to provide for their family:

“My father farmed a lot and had large stock of food and so looking for food to feed the family was not the job of my mothers and my father also supported his children’s education. But now everything is on me. My husband is not able to support,” said a woman irrigator in Akara village.

On the other had, women also reported increasing access to financial resources, information, and training as well as freedom to travel and to participate in trade.

The role of irrigation in empowerment

In this context, many women were engaged in irrigated production during the dry season. The women who were involved reported that they did directly benefit, gaining control over income from the irrigated plots they managed. They also listed indirect benefits, including greater income and food security for the household.

“Those who use the machine [motor pump], it helped us to get money. When our husbands gave us land and we see that it is small, we use some of the money to go and buy more land to farm. We also used some of the money to buy seeds and hire ‘by day’ labor to help us in our farming activities and buying fertilizers,” reported one woman who used a motorized pump in Mongnoori village.

Both men and women recognized welfare improvements as a result of small scale irrigation, including higher social status, greater food security and diet quality, and the ability to achieve shared goals, such as sending children to school. Gains such as these are factors that can contribute to women’s empowerment.

Barriers to women’s empowerment

However, several barriers hinder women from directly adopting and benefitting from small scale irrigation. We found that women tended to have less access to resources, such as land, water, and pumps.

“If we get [a pump], we will give it to our husbands and are helping them…. [We] can’t do [our] own [irrigated farming] because we don’t have land,” said a woman from Yidigu village.

Women also lacked access to financial resources like credit to purchase irrigation equipment, rent land near water sources, or hire labor to dig wells. Social norms contributed to these social inequalities—especially inheritance norms limiting women’s access to land and property.

A dry riverbed, from which farmers extract water via hand-dug wells during the dry season. Photo: Elizabeth Bryan/IFPRI.

However, women often benefitted indirectly from small scale irrigation, even when they themselves did not directly engage in the activity, as it freed up time previously spent farming to engage in other income-earning activities over which they had more control.

“Your husband farms [in gardens] and you water and thank God associations have come and we can now get access to machines [pumps], and the men will use them to irrigate. So, now we only observe and they irrigate,” explained a woman in Mongnoori village.

This finding suggests that women might benefit from investments in small scale irrigation in unexpected, indirect ways. In this specific context, decision-makers looking to achieve empowerment for women through small scale irrigation might consider other strategies—beyond providing access to irrigation—such as developing opportunities for women within value chains or marketing activities.

Tools to start right and stay on course

As governments and programs increasingly expand investments in irrigation infrastructure and technologies, the constraints, needs, and preferences of women should factor into the design and implementation of irrigation interventions to ensure that women benefit.

This can mean engaging gender experts and using research-based tools to help ensure that women benefit from planned interventions. For example, the Gender in Irrigation Learning and Improvement Tool (GILIT) can be used to enable gender equity in irrigation projects and schemes, and the REACH toolkit can provide guidance on how to include women in planning and evaluating irrigation projects. Later on in the lifecycle of irrigation programs, the Pro-WEAI tool can help measure women’s empowerment, enabling decision-makers to make adjustments to reach empowerment goals.

These types of gender-sensitive tools are indispensable for anyone investing in small scale irrigation with the goal to support women’s empowerment. While women can benefit from small scale irrigation, one cannot assume that providing access to irrigation is necessarily enough. Investing in understanding how to benefit women—whether directly via irrigated farming or via adjacent opportunities—is necessary to successfully add women’s empowerment to the long list of benefits that small scale irrigation delivers.

Four papers on water and climate change impacts in Ethiopia and Ghana

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Four recent publications from the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) investigate how climate change is likely to affect water availability in the future. All four papers present results that suggest needs to put in place measures to adapt to and mitigate risks of plausible climate change.

Gebrekidan Worku, Ermias Teferi, Amare Bantider, Yihun T. Dile. 2019. Observed changes in extremes of daily rainfall and temperature in Jemma subbasin, Upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia

ILSSI scientists have been supervising a graduate student from Addis Ababa University who analyzed observed extreme rainfall and temperature in the Jemma subbasin of the Upper Blue Nile basin in Ethiopia. The analysis used data for the period 1981 to 2014. Results showed an increasing trend of annual and summer rainfall and a decreasing trend of spring rainfall in most parts of the subbasin. An increase in rainfall and extreme temperature events was also observed. The study recommends appropriate water management interventions to adapt to and mitigate risks associated with the observed changes in rainfall and temperature.

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Gebrekidan Worku, Ermias Teferi, Amare Bantider, Yihun T. Dile. 2020. Statistical bias correction of regional climate model simulations for climate change projection in the Jemma subbasin, Upper Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia

One of the challenges in climate change studies is selecting the right type of bias correction methods. Biases are systematic errors, either decreases or increases, in actual observations or estimates in climate data. This study, applying several statistical matrices, found that the distribution mapping technique was better for correcting biases than other methods. Distribution mapping is a distribution-based approach that corrects the mean, standard deviation, and extremes and distribution of rainfall and temperature events of climate model outputs. The distribution mapping was applied to bias correct the future (2021–2100) simulation of Regional Climate Models, which showed a decline of rainfall and an increase of temperature as well as of extreme rainfall and temperature events in each of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC)’s three scenarios for plausible future greenhouse gas emissions trajectories.

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Abeyou Wale Worqlul, Yihun Taddele Dile, Essayas Kaba Ayana, Jaehak Jeong, Anwar Assefa Adem, Thomas Gerik. 2018. Impact of climate change on streamflow hydrology in headwater catchments of the Upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia.

In this study, ILSSI researchers assessed the impact of climate change on water availability and variability in two subbasins in the Upper Blue Nile basin of Ethiopia. An emission scenario representing the baseline period (1961–1990) was used to predict future climate and as input to a hydrologic model to estimate the impact of future climate on the flow of water in the two rivers in three future time horizons: 2020–2045, 2045–2070, and 2070–2100. Daily maximum/minimum temperatures are expected to increase throughout the future time horizons. The minimum and maximum temperature will increase by 3.6 °C and 2.4 °C, respectively, toward the end of the 21st century. Consequently, potential evapotranspiration is also expected to increase by 7.8%. The increase in evapotranspiration suggests increased crop water requirement in future crop production, which must be taken into account when planning future irrigation infrastructure. A notable seasonality was found in the rainfall pattern, such that dry season rainfall amounts are likely to increase and wet season rainfall to decrease. The hydrological model indicated that the local hydrology of the study watersheds will be significantly influenced by climate change. Overall, at the end of the century, water flow will increase in both rivers by up to 64% in dry seasons and decrease by 19% in wet seasons.

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Abeyou W. Worqlul, Yihun T. Dile, Jaehak Jeong, Zenebe Adimassu, Nicole Lefore, Thomas Gerik, Raghavan Srinivasan, Neville Clarke. 2019. Effect of climate change on land suitability for surface irrigation and irrigation potential of the shallow groundwater in Ghana. 

ILSSI researchers applied a GIS-based Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) technique to evaluate the suitability of land for irrigation in Ghana for a baseline period (1990–2010) and future time horizons, namely the 2050s (2041 to 2060) and the 2070s (2061 to 2080). Model results suggest that due to climate change, on average, rainfall will increase by 15 mm in the 2050s and 20 mm in 2070s, compared to the baseline period. Results on average temperature show a consistent increase across most of Ghana, which will increase potential evapotranspiration by 6.0% and 7.6% in the 2050s and 2070s, respectively. As a result of these changes to rainfall and temperatures, 9.5% of the current land area that is suitable for irrigation will become unfavorable for irrigation in 2050s, and may continue to become unfavorable in the 2070s, reducing land suitable for irrigation by 17%.

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