Search Results for: groundwater

Tanzania

In Tanzania, ILSSI is building on previous fieldwork, analyzing data and providing recommendations to support decision makers to expand small scale irrigation.

Opportunities

Increasing food production by irrigating crops in the dry season improves livelihoods. In Tanzania, entrepreneurs and farmers are already using groundwater, river, or stream pumping as well as private small reservoirs and ponds in emerging irrigation systems. To expand the use of small scale irrigation, ILSSI is identifying the potential for improved nutritional security, gender empowerment, and environmental resilience, with the introduction of small scale irrigation technologies and practices.

DOWNLOAD: Brief on ILSSI’s completed fieldwork in Tanzania

Challenges

Transitioning from subsistence, rainfed systems to commercial irrigation requires upscaling best-bet technologies and efficient water management. Small scale irrigation technologies must be profitable for farmers and investors. Technologies must fit the context of the farm, the biophysical environment, and the market, without compromising access to water resources in the environment or for marginalized parts of the population, particularly women.

Contributing to solutions

Fieldwork with farmers

ILSSI has collaborated with farmers in field trials to study the suitability and profitability of different irrigation technologies and practices. The trials in two study sites indicated that using diesel or petrol irrigation pumps in vegetable production was financially feasible.

Modeling scenarios

ILSSI is developing scenarios to identify opportunities and constraints at landscape and watershed levels for upscaling irrigation technologies and practices with high potential. The scenarios are intended to support decision makers looking to expand small scale irrigation in a sustainable way.

Publications and additional resources

Project partners

ILSSI is led by Texas A&M University, with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

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Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, upwards of 6 million smallholders could directly benefit from expanding small scale irrigation. ILSSI investigates how it can be done in ways that are inclusive, financially viable, and environmentally sustainable.

Opportunities

The potential for expanding small scale irrigation in Ethiopia is high. Around 1 million hectares are economically and biophysically suitable for small scale irrigation, particularly in areas near Lake Tana, the Great Rift Valley as well as the Amhara, Oromia, and SNNPR regions. When it comes to solar irrigation, between 155,103 and 204,103 hectares of land could be suitable, depending on technical pump capacity.

More than 5.8 million smallholder farmers could directly benefit from expanding small scale irrigation. Advantages include greater economic access to food, better nutrition for women and children, and increased incomes thanks to the potential of irrigated livestock fodder and high-value crops. The net profit potentially available directly to farmers is $2.6 billion each year.

DOWNLOAD: Fact sheet on ILSSI activities in Ethiopia

Challenges

Expansion of small scale irrigation has to be inclusive and environmentally sustainable to mitigate potential risks. Notably, the growing threat of water scarcity, including groundwater depletion, demands careful irrigation planning and suitability mapping. Better evidence on how to sustainably irrigate and farm the land can also decrease the risks of adverse effects such as nutrient leaching, soil degradation, and water contamination.

Ensuring that as many smallholders as possible can benefit from irrigation requires reducing the labor requirements, increasing their access to affordable credit, and improving women’s access to both technologies and benefits.

Contributing to solutions

Technology supply

To pave the way for greater use of solar-powered and other forms of mechanized irrigation, ILSSI will work with private sector actors to identify challenges and opportunities in the supply chain, and to develop attractive business models.

Irrigated livestock fodder

Cultivating irrigated livestock fodder can boost smallholders’ incomes and nutritional status, while boosting the health of their livestock. Ethiopia has potential for growing this practice. ILSSI will partner with small- and medium enterprises in the irrigated fodder value chain to pinpoint opportunities for investments and new business models.

Environmental and social resilience

If poorly planned, small scale irrigation could threaten smallholders’ resilience. In response to the growing climate change risks, ILSSI will study the links between agricultural intensification, climate variability, and resilience. ILSSI will also work with targeted communities to improve participatory groundwater governance to better manage social and environmental risks.

Inclusive irrigation

To empower women and increase their access to irrigation, ILSSI will adapt its small scale irrigation gender guidance and toolkit and share it with private sector actors and other decision makers. ILSSI will also test and scale business models that can increase young entrepreneurs’ access to irrigation-related businesses.

Publications and additional resources

Project partners

More about ILSSI

A member of the Muungano Makaror Farming group in Wajir feed their livestock with fodder harvested from their farm. Photo: Dorine Odongo/ILRI.

Ghana

In Ghana, ILSSI works to break down barriers that hamper the expansion of small scale irrigation, including labor-intensive practices, lack of affordable credit, and underdeveloped technology supply chains.

Opportunities

The potential for expanding the use of small scale irrigation in Ghana is high. Around 211,000 hectares are economically and biophysically suitable for small scale irrigation, and the available water resources can meet irrigation water requirement in most (~68 percent) of the suitable areas.

Almost 700,000 smallholder farmers can directly benefit from smallholder irrigation, with advantages including higher dietary diversity for irrigating households and increased incomes. The net profit potentially available directly to farmers is $285,000,000 per year.

DOWNLOAD: Fact sheet on ILSSI activities in Ghana

Challenges

Irrigation already plays a role in agriculture in Ghana, but it is not sufficiently used to dramatically improve nutrition or livelihoods. To achieve the full potential of irrigation, practices must become less labor intensive, farmers need access to affordable credit, and women, youth, and resource-poor farmers must gain greater access to irrigation benefits and technologies.

Farmer working with newly installed PEG Solar pump. Volta Region Ghana. Photo credit: PEG Ghana

Contributing to solutions

Technology supply

To boost the supply of irrigation technologies, such as motorized and solar-powered pumps, ILSSI collaborates with private sector partners, particularly those with an interest in frontier markets in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa. The goal is to chart out paths that link technology supply to commercialized irrigated value chains.

Inclusive irrigation

Publications and additional resources

Project partners

ILSSI is led by Texas A&M University, with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST), and the University of Ghana.

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Gideon and Steven are brothers who farm maize, onions and other vegetables. The use a petrol pump to pump groundwater for watering their plants. Photo: Nana Kofi Acquah/IWMI.

Solar irrigation in Mali: Potential to increase food security amid climate vulnerability

July 8, 2019 by matt.stellbauer

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.

With the growing urgency to expand irrigation expansion for smallholders in the region, suitability mapping can help to target the right people, in the right places and with the right technologies. ILSSI supported research to identify areas in Mali where there is a high potential for scaling solar water pumps for developing irrigation: Suitability for farmer-led solar irrigation development in Mali.

Results from the mapping show the total area suitable for solar-based irrigation varies between 0.69 and 4.44 million hectares (Mha), representing 11% and up to 69% of Mali’s agricultural lands. Groundwater up to depths of 7 m can be found near the river network in south-western Mali and the central Niger Delta making Kayes, Mopti and Koulikoro are the most suitable regions.

The mapping utilizes data including: solar irradiation, groundwater levels, aquifer productivity, groundwater storage, proximity to rivers, proximity to small dams, crop, and land suitability, and travel time to markets. Areas that are unsuitable for agricultural production, such as natural parks, forests, permanent meadows and pastures, are excluded. Suitability was assessed for five different available water sources, considering two different types of pumps.

Suitable areas could be expanded through investments in infrastructure to increase access to markets for produce. This mapping considered existing infrastructure, such as road networks and markets, so expanding that infrastructure could create greater potential in more areas.

More information, including the maps, is available in a Technical Brief. This research was carried out by the International Water Management Institute under the Water, Land, and Ecosystems Research Program. Additional funding was provided by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).