Innovation Lab For Small Scale Irrigation

Innovation Lab For Small Scale Irrigation

capacity building

Student interview: Breaking boundaries in scientific modeling for better, more sustainable water management

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Fati Aziz currently works as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Texas A&M University in College Station, USA. She completed a PhD in Climate Change and Water Resources in November 2017 at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin, based on modeling work completed under the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI). The PhD was sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research through the West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land use (WASCAL).

What was the focus of your work with ILSSI and what were your most important findings?

In June 2015, during my PhD, I joined the Integrated Decision Support System (IDSS) team at the Texas A&M University as a visiting scientist for five months. I received training in the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) tool, which can be used to simulate the quality and quantity of surface and groundwater and to predict the environmental impact of land use, land management practices, and climate change.

Then, in February 2016, I participated in an IDSS training organized by ILSSI in Accra, Ghana, and that’s when I finished the calibration and validation of the SWAT model for river discharge and sediment loads in the Black Volta River Basin.

Fati Aziz, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Texas A&M University.

The Black Volta River Basin is the biggest sub-basin of the Volta River Basin, and it is shared by Burkina Faso, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mali. Although its waters support significant economic activities, such as agriculture and energy production, the availability and use of water is threatened by population growth, changes in land use and land cover, and climate change.

Because I wanted to study the impact of climate change, land use and land cover change on the flow and sediment yield of the Black Volta, calibrating and validating the model was a critical step in my research. Proper model calibration and validation reduces errors in simulations and increases users’ confidence in the tool’s ability to make future projections.

When reviewing how well the SWAT model performed in terms of simulating the historical flow and sediment yield of the Black Volta, based on quantitative statistics during monthly calibration and validation, I found that the model simulated the two variables well during most of the calibration and validation periods.

Finally, when using the calibrated and validated model for projections, I found that all the model scenarios I used projected an increase in flow and sediment yield in the basin during the late (2051–2075) and end of the 21st century (2076–2100) periods, relative to the historical period (1981–2010). This was true for both seasonal and annual projections.

For example, the end-of-the-century projections under the RCP 8.5 scenario (the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 scenario, which represents one of several greenhouse gas concentration trajectories) showed an increase in flow ranging between +69% and +243% across models. The sediment load increase ranged between +358% and +412%. An increase in streamflow may result in floods in the basin region, while higher sediment load may increase the turbidity of the river and cause loss of reservoir storage. Since most of the population in the basin depend on agriculture for their livelihood, measures to cope with increasing floods and droughts, such as enlarging existing reservoirs to take up extra water for storage and for irrigation purposes, should be explored and developed well ahead of time.

Fati Aziz measures flows in the Black Volta River Basin with an OTT Qliner 2
Fati Aziz measures flows in the Black Volta River Basin with an OTT Qliner 2.

Why did you choose the discipline you work in? What pulled you toward this as a scientist?

Given the rapid increase in global population, urbanization, and climate change, among other challenges, optimum management of natural resources presents one of the most critical challenges of our time. Wanting to contribute to better and sustainable water resource management policies, which are based on sound scientific evidence, made me focus on this field.

What are your experiences as a woman scientist in modeling, which tends to be dominated by men, and would you encourage other women to work in this discipline?

My experience in this field is mostly positive. The male-dominated nature of the field is a great source of inspiration to me as it pushes me to work harder. Fortunately, my male colleagues are very receptive and respect my perspectives. Currently, as the only woman in my IDSS research group at Texas A&M University, I receive enormous support and encouragement from my male colleagues.

My dear woman, if scientific modeling is something you’re interested in, I strongly encourage you to go for it. Trust me, there’s real joy in “breaking boundaries” doing what you love.

What is your current focus of study and what changes do you hope will come from it?

I am currently assessing land suitability for cocoa cultivation in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire using a multi-criteria evaluation technique based on geographical information systems (GIS). My study is part of a bigger research effort that aims to assess the use of supplemental irrigation to improve the production of cocoa and other cash crops in West African countries. My findings may assist stakeholders in developing better crop management strategies that improve yield and environmental sustainability. We hope that using supplementary irrigation for vegetables and cocoa seedlings will lead to increased food production, household income, and nutrition in the West African region.

Internship with PEG Africa: Trialing solar pumps on cocoa farms

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Irrigation equipment markets: Potential finance and business models in the cocoa value chain

Background and focus

Irrigation systems provide farmers with an opportunity to improve crop and water productivity, maximizing crop yields and quality, while carefully managing scarce water resources. However, most small-scale irrigators lack information on technologies and practices for improved water management. These irrigators are also located in remote areas with under-developed irrigation equipment supply chains. In addition, some value chains have not yet introduced irrigation; some crops continue to be considered rainfed despite increasing dry spells and changing weather patterns. Overall, farmers lack easy access to irrigation equipment, services and information, and these conditions are further exacerbated by high transaction costs in accessing other agriculture input markets (e.g. seeds, fertilizers, post-harvest processing) and output distribution channels. Such on-farm and off-farm agronomic and market challenges ultimately hinder adoption of environmentally suitable and sustainable agricultural production. Across Ghana, many gaps will need to be addressed to contribute to improvements in agriculturally-based livelihoods and agriculture-based economic growth.

One value chain that could benefit from supplemental irrigation is cocoa. While cocoa has been and continues to be important to Ghana’s economy, production is being negatively affected by climate change. Predictions suggest that cocoa will become increasingly less viable over the next couple of decades if production methods do not change. Irrigation provides one climate mitigation strategy for cocoa production, in both replacing cocoa seedlings on farms and in improving yields and quality, particularly in secondary seasons. In addition, irrigation can be used to inter-crop cocoa with high value vegetables. Through these approaches, irrigation could improve cocoa farmers’ income. Moreover, through an income pathway, there is potential to strengthen nutritional security for members of cocoa producing households.

Cocoa producers in Ghana rely almost entirely on rainfed production across all seasons. Therefore, very little information is available to assess the economic and environmental viability of irrigated cocoa at multiple scales. More data is needed to conduct cost-benefit assessments and to develop irrigated cocoa business models at farm level.

This internship would focus on assessing the farm level, financial feasibility for irrigated cocoa production. Under supervision of an irrigation equipment supplier, the intern would collect data on Solar Powered Irrigation System (SPIS) pilot farms and contribute to analysis of the data from a marketing perspective. The resulting information would help to identify potential business models and/or finance models for a strategy to market irrigation equipment in the cocoa value chain.

Supervision arrangements and resources: The intern would work directly with PEG Africa (interface of marketing and water) and in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), under the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation. The intern will be based with PEG Africa Ghana and hold periodic meetings with IWMI regarding the data collection and analysis, as well as participate in occasional workshops and related mentoring activities. The position offers an intern the opportunity to develop data collection and real-world business skills, while also gaining access to professional networks and mentorship. A small stipend and field costs are covered to enable the intern to carry out expected tasks. The period of the internship is expected to be for one year.

Intern roles and activities

  • Support identification of cocoa farm(s) to trial solar pumps.
  • Collect baseline and seasonal data from experimental and control farms including yields, farm characteristics (e.g. soil composition, production activities etc.) and socio-economic indicators (including revenue and income) to help with ex-ante analysis; Data includes cocoa and inter- cropped high value crops.
  • Contribute to analysis of data toward designing financial products and payment plans for SPIS.
  • Contribute to data collection and analysis of farmer payment trends for SPIS noting on- and off-farm factors impacting farmers’ ability to pay.
  • Contribute to cost-benefit analysis and marketing analysis as an input to development of workable business and finance models that will enable development of irrigation supply chains in the cocoa sector.

Requirements

  • Relevant degree in business, agricultural economics, crop science, sociology or related social science, and/or marketing. Degree level should be MSc, MPhil or MBA. Preference will be given to those having recently completed the degree (within the past 24 months).
  • Academic or work experience with agriculture, cocoa agronomy, agro-value chains, agri- business is preferred, but not required. Applicants without a related degree or work experience must have evidence of a strong desire to transfer skills into the agriculture sector.
  • Work experience in the cocoa sector post-bachelor degree may be substituted for MSc or MBA degree.

How to apply

Your application must include one A4 page cover letter that explains why you are interested in applying and what you can offer, a copy of your curriculum vitae and a list of two professional referees and their contact information who may be contacted if you are shortlisted for the position.

The application materials must be submitted in one PDF file to Ms. Abena Ofosu (IWMI Ghana) via email: A.Ofosu@cgiar.org

The deadline for submission is 17:00 GMT on April 10, 2021. Please indicate in the subject of the email: ‘Application for internship with PEG Africa – Cocoa value chain’’.

This is a nationally recruited intern position, and only candidates who are eligible to work in Ghana will be considered. Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Student interview: New technologies could help farmers boost traditional crops in Tanzania

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Paul Reuben Mwinuka is currently working as senior technologist at the Department of Engineering Sciences and Technology at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania. His research interests include agricultural water and nutrients management, rainwater harvesting, and precision agriculture. He joined the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) capacity development program as a PhD student in 2017, when he was researching precision agriculture and in particular how remote sensing technology can be used to optimize water and nitrogen for neglected horticultural species, such as African eggplant.

What are the most important findings from your research on how to optimize use of water and nutrients for growing African eggplant?

To find out the best combinations of water and nitrogen for this specific crop, I investigated whether it was possible to use mobile phone thermal imaging and multispectral imaging from drones to assess plants’ nutrient status. I also studied whether the ratios of different channels of light reflected from the plant canopy (multispectral vegetation indices) can help us assess the interaction between water and nitrogen in irrigated African eggplant. This is possible because the absorption and reflection of solar radiation within the plant differs depending on each plant’s condition.

Paul Reuben Mwinuka performing fieldwork in Tanzania.

The study observed that the optimum application of water and nitrogen in irrigated African eggplant production under tropical sub-humid conditions was lower than what had been recommended in previous studies, by 20% and 25% respectively. This means that farmers can invest in less fertilizer and use less water, but still get an optimum yield.

What is your view on the challenges farmers will face when trying to apply exactly the right amount of irrigation water and nutrients for maximum yields?

I would advise farmers in Tanzania to follow these research results when they grow African eggplant, as this will help them to cut down fertilizer and pumping costs as well as improve their productivity.

The challenge is often that current recommendations are based on either water trials or nitrogen trials, but hardly ever the two in tandem. This means that the recommendations maximize the quantity of both water and nitrogen. Our findings showed that in areas with fertilizer scarcity, optimal yield could still be achieved by using just 79% of recommended nitrogen, whereas in water-limiting conditions, optimal yields would require 187 kg/ha nitrogen per season. This allows farmers, depending on their resources, to define optimum water and nutrient strategies as they may not always have access to both in abundance. In other words, if farmers are short on for example water, they can adjust their application of fertilizer to get optimum yields and vice versa. The main challenges in managing the water and fertilizer inputs in this way is related to the costs and availability of these inputs in the farmer’s area.

New technologies, such as drones and mobile phone thermal imaging, can help identify the best combination of water and nitrogen when growing African eggplant. Photos provided by Paul Reuben Mwinuka.

 What is the role of small scale irrigation in Tanzania? Could you imagine a particular potential for neglected horticultural species, such as African eggplant?

Small scale irrigation in Tanzania plays an important role in ensuring food security and nutrition. Small scale irrigators supply a significant amount of vegetables in the market during dry seasons. African eggplant, though neglected in terms of improvements, is one of the highly produced and consumed vegetables due to its nutritional benefits. The crop also has a long shelf life and can be transported to the market with minimum losses, which is something that makes it particularly popular with many small scale irrigators. Farmers could increase the yield of African eggplant by more than 40% if they put my findings into use.

What did you learn from doing work with ILSSI on agriculture and smallholder farmers? 

Under the ILSSI project, I collaborated with researchers from different countries, which helped me build a bigger network and taught me the importance of collaborating with researchers with different expertise. The experience improved my understanding of existing opportunities and challenges facing small scale farmers. The ILSSI project has also exposed me to different water and nitrogen management technologies, such as motorized water pumps, drip systems design and installation, moisture sensors, thermal imagers, and drones, and helped show how these technologies can boost small scale farming.

What will be your next step in your career in water and agriculture research?

My next step in agricultural research is to address the challenge of low water and nitrogen use efficiency in African eggplant in areas with different climates. I expect my research to result in guidelines on how to grow more and better African eggplant in different places and under different climatic conditions.

Related reading:

Boosting small scale irrigation in Mali by training vegetable seed producers

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by Jean-baptiste Tignegre and Pepijn Schreinemachers

Gaining access to more and better vegetable seeds represents an opportunity for smallholder farmers in Mali to grow high-value crops and improve their diets, incomes, and ability to adopt small scale irrigation technologies.

Small scale irrigation is expensive for many farmers in Mali and elsewhere. Smallholder farmers who produce staple food crops may not easily be able to make such an investment. Cultivating more profitable crops, such as vegetables, offers better prospects for eventually being able to invest in irrigation and improve farm incomes.

However, Malian farmers have limited opportunity to take up production of vegetables due to an under-developed seed sector in the country. Currently, vegetable seed production is often restricted to the wet season due to a lack of irrigation technologies, which is not the only constraint. Seed companies and cooperatives have low technical capacity in variety development and quality seed production, face difficulties in accessing finance, and lack suitable equipment for seed processing and packing. As a result, many vegetable farmers are using costly imported seed.

To strengthen local vegetable seed production, the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) and World Vegetable Center in Mali recently trained staff of vegetable seed companies and seed cooperatives on how to strengthen seed production.

The training was held at the World Vegetable Center Regional Office for West and Central Africa – Dry Regions in Samanko near Bamako on November 16–20, 2020. Twenty staff of fourteen different seed companies and cooperatives participated in the workshop. Participants came from diverse regions of Mali including Kayes, Sikasso, Koutiala, Koro, and Bamako.

World Vegetable Center’s Regional Director Dr. Mamadou Kabirou Ndiaye welcomed participants and described the opportunities and challenges of vegetable producers in Mali and West Africa, including limitations in accessing water for irrigation and an under-developed market.

The five-day training combined classroom teaching with hands-on sessions. Resource persons came from the World Vegetable Center and the Institute or Rural Economy. Topics included vegetable breeding, including different crossing methods, seed legislation, seed production methods, crop management, soil fertility management, pest management, and irrigated water management, including the pros and cons of different irrigation methods.

Participants said that they were very satisfied with the course and hoped for a future opportunity to receive follow-on training. Given the high interest among vegetable seed producers, a second course has been scheduled for March 22–26, 2021.

Student interview: Identifying the best water management practices and technologies for sustainable irrigation in Ethiopia

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Desalegn Tegegne is a research officer at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and based in the Nile Basin and East Africa Office, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He joined the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) capacity development program as a graduate student in 2015, while he completing his MSc degree at Arba Minch University. ILSSI supported his MSc thesis, “Assessment of water demand, water and crop productivity of the selected fodder varieties under small scale irrigation using wetting front detectors”.

What did you learn from the research you undertook on the use of technologies to improve water productivity on selected fodder crops?

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. Most of the time, farmers face a problem of not having enough fodder to feed their cattle. At the end of dry season, when it is time for farmers to plow their fields, draft animals are weak due to feed shortages. However, feed shortages occur not only during the dry season, but all year. At the same time, the potential irrigable land is underutilized due to a scarcity of surface water, but despite the presence of shallow groundwater.

Desalegn Tegegne joined ILSSI’s capacity development program in 2015. He now works with the International Water Management Institute in Ethiopia.

To overcome these challenges, IWMI—under the ILSSI project—has identified and piloted water-lifting technologies for small scale irrigators as well as irrigation-scheduling technologies for irrigated fodder production in accordance with the available water sources. Farmers who used the on-farm water management technologies, such as wetting-front detectors, saved on water for irrigation, while improving their fodder crop and water productivity. According to my research findings, providing appropriate water management advice needs to be combined with information on appropriate water-lifting devices, as a function of the available water resources.

How, in your view, can innovative technologies such as wetting-front detectors, support farmers to irrigate more and more efficiently?

Proper on-farm irrigation practices improve the yield per unit area of land and per unit of water applied, because they facilitate equal water distribution and uniform crop growth, while preventing drainage and nutrient leaching and loss. In this way, technologies such as wetting-front detectors can guide farmers’ irrigation and in that way improve crop and water productivity.

  • Installation.
  • Wetting-front detector.
  • Irrigating fodder crops.
  • Farmer training.
  • Harvested fodder crops, ready for livestock.

How have you applied this learning and how does it influence your current work?

Given that my educational background is in water resources, irrigation management, and engineering, working on irrigation technologies is interesting for me. The technologies we used for field experiments were simple to use and they helped farmers to manage their irrigation. That’s why the field experiments were successful. My current work in IWMI focuses on analyzing soil moisture and nutrients as well as evaluating crop and water productivity of different on-farm water management tools. In that way, all the practical lessons I got while I did my MSc under the ILSSI’s capacity development program were very useful for my current work. 

What is your view on the role of irrigation—especially small scale—as climate change impacts intensify?

Irrigation is one way to improve farmers’ resilience under changing climatic conditions, through increasing food production. Using available surface water and groundwater resources, small scale irrigation can positively contribute to intensifying crop–livestock mixed farming systems. It is also a means of income generation for the smallholders.

What do you hope to achieve as a result of your current work?

In my current work from IWMI, I am planning to scale out the on-farm water management technologies, such as wetting-front detectors and chameleon sensors. These technologies are essential for smallholder farmers to improve their irrigation efficiency and increase crop and water productivity. For effective scaling of best on-farm water management practices, I will train farmers and extension agents.

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