Innovation Lab For Small Scale Irrigation

Innovation Lab For Small Scale Irrigation

Search Results for: groundwater

ILSSI knowledge sharing workshop in Ethiopia

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by Melkamu Derseh, International Livestock Research Institute

On 25 May 2023, ILSSI organized a workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to share findings and lessons from the ten years of research for development work under the program. Attended by more than 80 participants from within and abroad, keynote speakers included ILRI’s Director General Representative to Ethiopia, State Minister for Irrigation and Lowlands, and representative to the USAID Ethiopia mission. 

The workshop covered sessions on irrigated fodder development, watershed management and groundwater governance for SSI, lessons from public-private sector engagements in scaling SSI technologies, and emerging issues in farmer-led irrigation. Presentations on research results were followed by panel discussions, question and answer and reflections from participants. In addition, graduate fellows sponsored by the program displayed poster presentations of their research results. The deliberations highlighted strong evidence that SSI is an essential gateway to intensification and building resilience in the smallholder system. The results also highlighted the importance of groundwater governance to sustainably use limited water resources. Creating better enabling environments and incentives for private sector investment in SSI were found to be important priority areas that need the attention of relevant stakeholders.

As part of the presentations, two video documentaries, the first about engagements with dairy cooperatives through irrigated fodder development, and the second covering lessons from groundwater governance interventions, were presented. The documentary on ILSSI’s engagement with dairy cooperatives provided evidence on how the research for development intervention impacted the livelihood of dairy producers in the project sites. In the video, cooperative chairs narrate the challenges they faced in accessing better feed for their livestock and market for their produce. Through the ILSSI interventions, the capacity of the cooperative increased and members were able to access technologies to produce and use irrigated fodder. This has increased the confidence of farmers in the cooperative, with membership and milk collection increasing five to eightfold. The cooperatives were able to fulfill basic facilities to create good market linkages for their farm produce, which was a key pull factor for farmers to adopt irrigated fodder. The documentary shows that apart from milk production and marketing, the cooperatives were able to embark on producing forage seed/planting materials for sale to the local market, thereby diversifying their incomes and filling the local demand for forage seeds/planting materials.

The second video on groundwater governance narrates the attitude change that ILSSI intervention brought about in a district where groundwater has been used for vegetable production. Before the intervention, the communities in that district were using groundwater without any consideration for crop water requirements and safe extraction limits to the water resource. Groundwater management trainings allowed the communities to realize the importance of collective actions, with members drafting bylaws and abiding by them to manage and wisely use their water resources. The irrigators now believe they have made the right decisions and would like to see regulatory bylaws enforced beyond their communities.        

A rich tradition of community and partnership – The Multiple Uses of Water in Northern Ghana

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In Ghana, it is estimated that 17% of rural households rely on piped-borne water as their main water supply. Those without access to piped water rely on water sources such as communal boreholes, rivers, and unprotected wells for multiple livelihood activities or purposes. For instance, rural communities in Ghana may use a communal borehole to water their livestock and provide households with clean water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning.

In addition, water from these communal sources is shared between community households. Communities use the tradition of water sharing between households to keep them resilient during the long dry season and reinforce and inform how communities use water for multiple purposes.

Rural communities in Ghana may use a communal borehole to water their livestock and provide households with clean water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning

In October 2022 and January 2023, I spent time with smallholder farmers in irrigating and non-irrigating communities in Northern Ghana. My visit aimed to understand how the water-sharing tradition between households informed how communities used water for multiple purposes.

In sitting down with community members in the irrigating and non-irrigating communities, households will first tell you that, above all else, “Water is life” and “is a gift from God.” Households will tell you they share water because “we are all one people.” This point is crucial as it highlights that water use in these communities is steeped in a rich tradition of community and partnership.

Secondly, you soon realize that a vibrant patchwork of local governance systems and structures, such as water user groups and committees, is used to manage the local water resources in irrigating and non-irrigating communities. There are user groups for surface water sources such as rivers and small dams and groundwater sources such as communal boreholes. Water user groups in these communities serve as a mechanism for decision-making, resolving disputes, and appealing to higher levels of government.   

Yet, while there are similarities, there are also distinct differences between communities that can irrigate in the dry season and those that cannot. For instance, in this irrigating community, there existed one large dam and many communal boreholes. For multiple water use, the community used water from the dam for productive purposes, like dry season gardening, livestock, and cottage industry, such as shea butter processing, and used water from the boreholes for domestic purposes, such as drinking, cooking, and cleaning. 

For the irrigating community, having multiple water sources for multiple uses across seasons meant that they could diversify their productive activities and spend less time and energy having to find clean water sources. As one irrigator noted, “we now worry less about having enough water in the dry season and now have more resources to invest back into our household and community.”

In contrast, the non-irrigating community did not have a surface water source they could rely on for productive activities. Therefore, they had to rely on community boreholes and a shallow river that dries up when the rains stopped. In this community, there were no livestock and little to no productive activities beyond the rainy season. Unlike the irrigating community, the non-irrigators had fewer livelihood options and faced increased pressure on their groundwater resources.  

For non-irrigators, the lack of sustainable water sources in the dry season saw the community have fewer productive opportunities and found households investing more energy and time searching for a clean water source.

Interventions around multiple water use should take a bottom-up approach and start by working with communities to develop targeted solutions that fit their local situation, customs, and traditions

The empirical literature will tell you that to support irrigating and non-irrigating communities using water for multiple purposes,  a top-down, policy-heavy approach to developing and scaling multiple-use water services and systems for rural communities is needed.

Based on my time in the field, a top-down approach would be counterintuitive. Instead, interventions around multiple water use should take a bottom-up approach and start by working with communities to develop targeted solutions that fit their local situation, customs, and traditions. Revaluing the approach to multiple water use would create opportunities that support those for whom public policies consistently fail and are the most vulnerable to climate shocks and stress.

Expanding investment in sustainable, small scale irrigation for agricultural-led growth, resilience and well-being: Lessons from 10 years of research

Expanding investment in sustainable, small scale irrigation for agricultural-led growth, resilience and well-being: Lessons from 10 years of research

March 1, 2023 at 8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, DC

Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation Symposium

ILSSI brought together partners, collaborators and stakeholders to share ten years of research on small scale irrigation at a recent symposium in Washington, DC on March 1st. In addition to presentations on research results and capacity development in Ghana, Ethiopia, Mali and Tanzania, featured keynote speakers and panelists highlighted remaining knowledge gaps and future issues for research. Check out the presentations and program below:

Welcome

Nicole Lefore, Texas A & M University

Water and agriculture in the U.S. Global Food Security Strategy

Jerry Glover, USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security,

Climate adaptation and agricultural water

Katie Kennedy Freeman, Sr Ag Economist, Agriculture and Climate Adaptation, World Bank

Linking Science to Action – A World Bank/CGIAR Partnership Scaling Innovations in Irrigation

View the full program.

Session 1: Inclusive and Sustainable Agricultural-Led Economic Growth

Contributing to agricultural led growth and improved livelihoods through small-scale irrigation

Moderator: Michael Dockrey, ACDI-VOCA

Presenters:

Discussion: Climate adaptation, agriculture and market systems: Irrigation scaling and research-private partnerships (Video)

Moderator: Keith Dokho, USAID

Panelists:

  • Ku MacMahan, USAID
  • Joy Busolo, World Bank
  • Tesfaye Hailu, Power for All

Session 2: Strengthened resilience among people and systems

Scaling irrigation for sustainability and resilience of people and systems amid climate change

Moderator: Dr. Srinivasan, Texas A & M University

Presenters:

Discussion: Climate resilience, water risks & steps toward sustainability (Video)

Moderator: Ann Vaughan, USAID

Panelists:

  • Peter Thorne, International Livestock Research Institute
  • Carlijn Nouwen, Climate Action Platform
  • Tess Russo, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Agustin Cornejo, Off Grid Manager at Tetra Tech, SURE Senegal Project

Session 3: A well-nourished population, especially among women and children

From irrigation to improved nutrition and equity: Guiding intervention

Moderator : Katherine Snyder, University of Arizona

Presenters:

Discussant:

  • Kelley Cormier, Food Safety Division Chief, USAID

Session 4: Cross-cutting – Capacity development

Ensuring the capacity to sustain water for agriculture and resilience

Moderator : Jessica Bagdonis, USAID
Localization at USAID

Presenters:

Session 4: Looking Forward

Discussion: Building a resilient future: Issues in farmer-centered, smallholder irrigation (Video)

Moderator: USAID

Panelists:

  • Nicholas Brozovic, Daugherty Water for Food Institute, University of Nebraska
  • Belete Bantero, Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute
  • Biniam Iyob, USAID
  • Jen Mayer, Mercy Corps

Student Interview: Improving livelihoods with increased livestock productivity in Ethiopia

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Mekuanint Tadilo, graduated with his BSc degree in Animal Sciences from Metu University, College of Agriculture and Forestry in 2019 and is currently working as an animal nutrition laboratory assistant and MSc student studying animal production at Bahir Dar University College of Agriculture and Environmental Science.

Why did you choose the discipline you work in? What pulled you towards this?

Livestock play a major role in smallholders’ livelihood by providing cash income, food, farm power, and other inputs such as manure to improve crop production in Ethiopia. However, the productivity of livestock is low due to feed shortages both in quantity and quality. The increasing demand for livestock products, together with the shortage of feed and of the complex layers of constraints posed by climate change, justifies the need for alternative feed production and supply systems in Ethiopia. This being the case, I chose this discipline, to study the effect of fertilizer rates on quantity and nutritional qualities of different forage varieties and to recommend the best quality fodders for livestock productivity and thereby improve farmers’ livelihood in the community and the region.

The ‘business-as-usual’ approach to livestock feed sourcing is no longer a viable option, and there is an urgent need to optimally use available land, inputs, water, and capital resources to produce high-quality forage for a sustainable livestock feed supply and production system.

What is your current focus of study? What social or economic changes do you hope to contribute to with your research?

Feed shortages have worsened due to limited investment in feed and forage development as well as the increased urbanization of cropland that has begun to encroach into grazing land. As a result, the ‘business-as-usual’ approach to livestock feed sourcing is no longer a viable option, and there is an urgent need to optimally use available land, inputs, water, and capital resources to produce high-quality forage for a sustainable livestock feed supply and production system.  To mitigate feed shortages, the introduction and evaluation of adaptable and high-yielding forage crops by applying the manure and urea fertilizer that enable producers to get a large amount of fodder biomass with limited land and resources are essential. Moreover, the use of improved forages would reduce pressure on natural pasture and create higher productivity per area. With this research, farmers can learn the importance of fertilizers (organic and inorganic) for forage productivity in terms of quality and quantity to secure the shortage of feeds and incur income from feed and livestock products.

What is your view on the role of irrigation in Ethiopia’s future, especially small scale? How does this view influence your current work?

Irrigation is one way to improve farmers’ resilience under changing climatic conditions, through increasing feed and food production. Using available surface water and groundwater resources, small scale irrigation can positively contribute to intensifying crop–livestock mixed farming systems and a means of income generation for the smallholders in Ethiopia. Irrigated fodder production practice is not common in Ethiopia. Therefore, integration of irrigated fodder production with crop production to improve the livelihoods of the farmers is crucial.

What is your research about? What do you hope to learn from this experience?

My research focuses on the effect of animal manure and fertilizer on the agronomic performance, biomass yield and nutritional quality of different forage varieties under rainfed conditions in ILSSI project site. Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) (16791, 16819 and 16803), Panicum maximum 144, Desho grass (Pennisetum glaucifolium ArekaDZF590), Brachiaria (decumbens 10871, mutica 18659), Desmodium uncinatum 6765, Stylosanthes (hamata 75, scabra 140) forage varieties were selected for this research. To select the right forage varieties for the community, I will research the rate of fertilizer and/or manure or urea fertilizer that will be most beneficial for those forage varieties, as well as which forage varieties are more important in quality and biomass yield in small units of land.

How can we address recurring global food and fuel crises? The role of solar powered irrigation

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by Claudia Ringler and Hua Xie

It seems that joint food and energy crises have become the norm: Three have now occurred in just the last 15 years, driven by climate change and other human-made crises such as COVID-19 and the Russia- Ukraine war.

All three crises dramatically pushed up food and energy prices, as well as those of fertilizers, leading to an increase in the number of undernourished people worldwide (Figure 1). The number of hungry has now been on the rise for almost a decade now, and it is unclear if or when the global community will come together to implement interventions to turn this around.

Figure 1: Changes in global food and energy prices and GDP growth in low-and middle-income countries

Source: Headey and Hirvonen (2022) using data from FAO, the World Bank, and the IMF.

The three recent food-fuel price crises demonstrate that food and energy systems are interlinked and that these systems, in turn, are affected by continuing degradation of the environment and water resources. Addressing—and ultimately preventing—such crises is a complex global challenge. Encouraging small-scale actions in these systems that address climate change and pollution, and build sustainability and resilience, can play a key role. Solar irrigation pumps are a particularly promising technology in this regard.

How water, energy, food, and environmental systems in recent crises are interlinked

The 2007/08 crisis was triggered by innovations in bioenergy development—especially the use of maize as transportation fuel, putting food and fuel production in direct competition with each other—and was compounded by higher oil prices and a series of climate shocks. While water issues are not seen as a cause of the crisis, extreme climate events did affect agricultural production levels and water was diverted to grow crops for biofuels, thus reducing water availability for food production and other human needs. The 2011/12 crisis was caused by similar factors, with even more food being diverted for fuel and further climate shocks.

The current crisis began with the COVID-19 pandemic, which quickly spread due to poor public health management in many countries. The pandemic may also be tied to the underlying driver of environmental degradation causing increased human-wildlife interactions, allowing the easier spread of zoonotic diseases. The pandemic response in turn disrupted global transportation networks, including those for food, fertilizer, and fuel. As in previous crises, a series of climate shocks, heat waves, droughts, floods, and cyclones reduced food production in key breadbasket regions, as well as energy access and use and water security.

Small steps to break the fuel and food price crises

Can such crises be prevented? Unfortunately, it appears unlikely that the global community will come together to take decisive action to address them—the limited sharing of COVID-19 vaccines, continued failure to act collectively on climate change, and recurrent food and fertilizer export bans by key producers suggest that there is no will for the complex, coordinated global effort required. However, there are many small steps that individual governments can take, such as eliminating subsidies for fossil fuels. There are also many steps that each one of us can take, such as switching from personal cars to public transportation, reviewing and reducing our energy use, and re-evaluating our diets. 

There are also many steps that farmers can take, including more judicious use of fertilizer, adopting improved agronomic practices and seed technologies and better and adapted use of irrigation technologies. Many of these actions would address the water, energy, and food price crises jointly. As an example, improved nutrient use efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers would both reduce water pollution and increase food security by lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

Solar irrigation pumps—a force to reckon with?

The switch from diesel to solar irrigation pumps is another way to help reduce fuel price spikes and also build climate resilience through improved water security at the farm and household level. Solar pumps eliminate the use of gasoline or diesel fuel for running irrigation pumps (and, for electric pumps, the need for electricity produced by burning fossil fuels). They thus decouple fuel from food price shocks for farmers. At larger scales, increased adoption of solar pumps dampen the transmission from fuel to food price spikes.

Solar pumps might well be a force to reckon with. Their costs have declined dramatically and they can democratize energy access in regions that either remain off-grid, such as much of rural sub-Saharan Africa, or where the reliability of electrical grids is poor, such as Pakistan. Solar-powered groundwater irrigation can increase and stabilize food production during dry seasons and droughts and thus counteract the food price shocks stemming from many extreme climate events.

Moreover, recent analyses using lifecycle analysis suggest that the technology is now highly favorable financially in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. For example, the breakeven cost of a solar irrigation systems drawing groundwater is US$2.50 per watt peak in central and Southern Africa for most crops and water application methods, that is, at that solar irrigation installation cost, diesel pumps are not competitive.  If solar pump costs can be lowered further, to US$2 per watt peak, diesel pumps would lose their comparative advantage for half or more of irrigable crops in West and East Africa.

Moreover, as shown in Figure 2, the competitive edge of solar irrigation is growing further with climate change, as a result of complex interactions across higher solar irradiation levels, increased crop water demands and higher temperatures (the latter of which can negatively affect solar system performance). And this higher economic viability of solar over diesel pumps is irrespective of the food-security enhancing climate mitigation benefits of these systems.

Figure 2: Change in solar array cost per watt peak in sub-Saharan Africa under climate change: Areas in green indicate improved cost effectiveness of solar over diesel pumps by 2050 compared to the recent past

Source: Xie in preparation.

However, despite the low cost, climate resilience attributes, and increased agricultural productivity of solar irrigation pumps, few have been deployed in the low- and middle-income countries that would benefit most. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), as of 2019 less than 3% of the total solar water pump capacity in the world had been installed in Africa. Most solar pumps are in use in India, with 91% of the total installed MW, thanks to long-term government subsidies for the technology. But even in India, this translates only to about 300,000 pumps, compared to more than 5 million diesel pumps still in operation.

Thus, while the potential is large, implementation faces considerable finance and supply chain challenges. The USAID-supported Innovation Laboratory for Small-Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) has developed finance models that can expand inclusivity of access to this technology in Ghana and Mali, and the CGIAR NEXUS Gains Initiative is starting pilots to identify business and finance models in South Asia.

As with all technologies, the solar-powered irrigation pump is not a silver bullet that can strike at the heart of the water-energy-food-environment nexus on its own. But solar array by solar array, it can help farmers, and eventually all of us, to dampen recurrent fuel and interlinked food price spikes while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Texas A&M University System Member