Irrigating fodder crops to improve nutrition for animals and people in Ethiopia
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.
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Webinar: Potential and options for irrigated fodder production shared with policymakers and practitioners in Ethiopia
In a recent webinar, scientists presented Ethiopian policymakers and practitioners with promising findings on the potential for irrigated production of livestock fodder, which could help meet important income and nutrition gaps.
Student interview: Identifying the best water management practices and technologies for sustainable irrigation in Ethiopia
“Although irrigation could potentially boost the production of livestock fodder, this practice is not common in Ethiopia. Therefore, we need to integrate fodder production with crop production to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor.”
How connecting innovators and implementers can catalyze solar irrigation scaling in Ghana
Solar power has the potential to revolutionize water use in agriculture, providing an attractive means for farmers to irrigate their crops. This is especially the case in sub-Saharan Africa, which has among the lowest electrification access in the world and irrigation potential in dry-land regions of an additional 6-14 million hectares.
Irrigation helps Ethiopian women make more of milk and other dairy products
Ethiopian women have begun growing irrigated fodder crops to expand their opportunities in the dairy value chain, winning income, nutrition, and climate benefits. Coming up on this year’s International Day of Rural Women, we hear from a couple of these front-runners.
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Multi-stakeholder dialogue on farmers’ access to credit for irrigation in Ghana
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…
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ILSSI and Texas A & M celebrated ten years of Feed the Future Innovation Labs
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.
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Tapping into the potential for vegetable seed production in Mali
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.
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What women want: First steps to inclusive irrigation investments
Successfully designing irrigation interventions to support women’s empowerment requires concerted efforts and careful planning.
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Student interview: Finding the right crop varieties for irrigated fodder production and livestock benefits in Ethiopia
Scaling up irrigated fodder production in Ethiopia would have great benefits, including improving food security and household nutrition thanks to improved livestock productivity.
Webinar: Market-based agricultural technology scaling in fragmented markets
This 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.
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Webinar: Accelerating inclusive farmer-led irrigation and reaching scale
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)
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Interview: Ethiopian entrepreneur invents new plow that breaks down barriers for small scale irrigation
“The Berken plow 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.”
Private sector joins multi-stakeholder dialogues on farmer-led irrigation development in Ghana and Ethiopia
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.
Student interview: Working with the private sector to find acceptable solutions to farmers’ challenges
“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.”
Student interview: Investigating how gender matters for 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.
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From the field: Understanding what is holding back irrigated food production in Mali
In Mali, food production is and will continue to be severely limited as long as farmers do not have access to water for irrigation. So far, expansion of new irrigation technologies and practices is slow. One ILSSI researcher went to the field to investigate why.
Scientists and entrepreneurs battle climate change and water scarcity in the Ethiopian Highlands
Groundwater comes from the ground, right? Wrong. In the face of growing water scarcity, scientists, entrepreneurs, and farmers turn the problem on its head and increase groundwater reserves through improved water and soil management.
Building shared skills on tools for managing water across river basins in West Africa
What will happen to the environment, to farmers’ income, and to families’ nutritional health if small scale irrigation is rolled out across river basins in West Africa and elsewhere on the continent?
Four papers on water and climate change impacts in Ethiopia and Ghana
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.
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Solar-powered irrigation could boost climate resilience for millions
Coming up on this year’s World Water Day, which is about water and climate change, we are taking a closer look at what it will take for even more farmers to get started with small scale irrigation.
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Partner news: Benefits of farmer-led irrigation are “immense”
ILSSI has become a global leader in generating evidence that can inform investments in support of the U.S. global food security goals.
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Ethiopian cuisine’s star ingredient provides clues on how to farm in a climate-change era
Using conservation agriculture practices can increase food production while safeguarding water and soil on farms and across drier, hotter landscapes.
Partner news: Innovative approaches to including gender within agricultural mechanization
While increasing women’s access to agricultural technology is key to their economic empowerment, there is a real challenge in determining how to better include women in agricultural mechanization from the get-go.
Student interview: Raising the alarm on farming-related water pollution in the Ethiopian Highlands
“We found nitrate in the shallow groundwater samples. Having a high concentration of nitrate in groundwater poses a risk to human health, especially if the water is used for drinking.”
Fighting malnutrition with irrigation
New research supported by USAID through the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) is shining the spotlight on a so far under-appreciated avenue for improving nutrition: irrigation.
BIFAD Award for Scientific Excellence: Drs Jean Claude Bizimana, Yihun Dile, and Abeyou Worqlul
Yihun Dile, Ph.D., Abeyou Worqlul, Ph.D., and Jean-Claude Bizimana, Ph.D. are recipients of the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) 2019 Senior Research Team Award for Scientific Excellence.
ILSSI hosts NET-MAP workshops in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
The Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation hosted two Net-Map Workshops on 8 and 9 October, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The workshops brought together a cross-section of key stakeholders involved in the small scale irrigation sector The workshops help to map out influence in a network: what actors are involved in the diffusion of SSI technologies, how these actors are linked, and their level of influence on the network. The tool allows participants to explore how things are actually done, not how they should be according to policy.
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ILSSI provides training in Ghana on the Integrated Decision Support System
ILSSI held training in Ghana from 5-10 August on the Integrated Decision Support System, a set of integrated models to enable improved environmental and economic analysis, monitoring and planning, particularly as related to agricultural water management and irrigation development. The training was hosted by the CSIR’s Water Research Institute in Accra, while ILSSI provided the trainers from Texas A & M University. Over 50 participants from universities, public institutions, and research institutions in Ghana participated, including some from USAID supported projects.
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Dr. Seifu Tilahun presents on irrigation and agricultural development in Africa
On July 15th, 2019 Dr. Seifu Tilahun the Scientific Director and Associate Professor of Hydrology at the Bahir Dar Institute of Technology in Ethiopia, presented to over 30 faculty and staff within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University. His lecture, Irrigation and agriculture development in Africa: Impact on water quality and ecosystem health in the Ethiopian highlands, focused on a study being done in collaboration with The Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation.
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Solar irrigation in Mali: Potential to increase food security amid climate vulnerability
Actions are needed urgently in Mali – the country is on the front-line of climate change, and expected to experience worsened food insecurity and even food shortages. The people of Mali rely heavily on rainfed agriculture, exposing them to pervasive climate-related shocks. Irrigated agriculture is one high potential pathway to increase resilience and improve food security.
USAID Deputy Administrator Bonnie Glick’s meeting with Texas International Education Consortium
Deputy Administrator Glick visited Texas A&M University, where she met with Ambassador Eric Bost, Deputy Director of the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and Development, and representatives from the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small-Scale Irrigation and International Wheat Yield Partnership.
Lefore named director of Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation
Dr. Nicole Lefore has been named director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation.
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ILSSI presents on research in Ghana
“If you don’t work in the irrigated vegetable garden, you will sell the food crops you harvested during the rainy season – and you will be in hunger.”
Training announcement on the Integrated Decision Support System
The Abbay Basin Authority will be hosting an international training workshop on the Integrated Decision Support System (IDSS) from March 11-15, 2019 in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. The training is conducted under the Feed the Future Innovation Laboratory for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) which is led by Texas A&M University.
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Texas A&M Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture receives additional $12.5 million for research on small scale irrigation
The Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, part of Texas A&M AgriLife Research, has received an additional $12.5 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development for the Feed the Future Innovation Laboratory for Small-Scale Irrigation.
ILSSI International Symposium 2018
On January 31, 2018, ILSSI hosted an international symposium on irrigation in African smallholder farming systems.
USAID Administrator visits the Feed The Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation
USAID Administrator Mark Green visited the Texas A&M Borlaug Institute of International Agriculture on October 16, 2017 to learn more about the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI).
Agriculture and water: To whom much is given, much will be required
Much has been given to agriculture and, under growing water scarcity, variability, pollution, and continued lack of access to this vital resource by many—much will be demanded from agriculture to ensure that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6 on Water and SDG2 on Ending Hunger are achieved—and without adversely affecting other water-related targets and goals. Meanwhile, efforts to meet the SDGs must also dovetail with the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement.
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Investigating gender dynamics in irrigation
Motivated by the fact that control over water is essential, but have limited knowledge about whether women’s water needs are being met..
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