Ethiopia

Solar-powered irrigation could boost climate resilience for millions

March 10, 2020 by Marianne Gadeberg

Sewagegn, a local smallholder farmer, and Gebeyaw, a data collector, set up Sewagegn's solar powered pump to irrigate her backyard garden in Danghesta, Amhara region of Ethiopia. Photo by Mulugeta Ayene/WLE. — Sewagegn, a local smallholder farmer, and Gebeyaw, a data collector, set up Sewagegn’s solar powered pump to irrigate her backyard garden in Danghesta, Amhara region of Ethiopia. Photo by Mulugeta Ayene/WLE.

The impacts of climate change in sub-Saharan Africa are severe and have far-reaching consequences for millions of smallholder farmers. Rising temperatures, destructive locust swarms, and increasingly erratic rainfall make it difficult for farmers to grow food and meet basic needs.

Expanding small scale irrigation is emerging as part of the solution. When farmers take irrigation into their own hands, they are able to increase production, both by supplementing their rainfed crops with irrigation and by growing an additional harvest during the dry season. Small scale irrigation brings immense benefits, including better nutrition, higher incomes, and greater climate resilience.

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.

Putting solar-powered irrigation to the (field) test

During the past few years, ILSSI and its partners, namely the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), have worked with farmers to test a number of small scale irrigation technologies. The researchers looked at how to support farmers to improve agricultural production, water use efficiency, and water productivity, and they addressed challenges related to gender inequality, lack of access to credit, and the technology supply chain.

One thing has become clear: solar-powered pumps can offer an affordable and effective irrigation solution when shallow groundwater or surface water resources are available.

Solar-powered pumps offer opportunities for farmers who are in rural areas without access to electricity. Using solar irrigation lowers costs compared to running petrol-powered pumps, and addresses other constraints related to fuels.

According to a recent report from Dalberg, “These solar water pumps have the potential to reach up to 1.6 million households in sub-Saharan Africa by 2025 and as many as 2.8 million households by 2030—a value of approximately USD 1.6 billion by 2030”. To get the best results for farmers, investments in solar-powered irrigation should be coupled with strengthening agricultural value chains, so that equipment is easily accessible in the market and produce can be off-loaded at attractive prices.

To give guidance on where solar-powered irrigation investments might best be made, IWMI researchers – partially funded by ILSSI and working as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) – developed a methodology for mapping the suitability of solar irrigation. They have now generated maps for Ethiopia, Mali, and Ghana.

During roundtable meetings organized by ILSSI, private companies have shown interest in using these maps to assess where they could grow the market, based on available resources and infrastructure. Technology supply companies have noted that they have a stake in water resource sustainability, and welcomed maps that considered agro-ecological zones, water resource availability and sustainability, as well as market factors, such as demographics and infrastructure. Companies have an interest in both economic and natural resource sustainability, but often lack the resources to individually develop such complex maps.

Mequanent Tena, 20, works as a data collector at the Qoga site near Bahirdar in Ethiopia. More than 1,068 farmers benefit from the use of Chameleon sensor, an irrigation scheduling tool, which primarily uses color to indicate when farmers have irrigated just the right amount. Maheder Haileselassie/IWMI.

In addition to the solar suitability mapping, IWMI – through ILSSI and the Africa RISING project – have tested irrigation scheduling tools. Introduction of irrigation scheduling has enabled farmers to achieve higher water productivity. Farmers were also able to reduce their labor input by knowing when to use how much water, and that in turn meant they produced more and better crops. While the impact of using the tools varied by country, depending on capacity and information access, evidence suggested that irrigation scheduling tools have the potential to improve farmers’ income and enhance water resource management.

Expanding with the help of private sector and development partners

Two main avenues exist for expanding the use of small scale irrigation. A market-based approach seeks to strengthen the equipment supply chain and connect irrigating farmers to produce markets. Where markets are less developed, or there is a need to support resource-poor farmers, development partners and public institutions are making investments in this field.

Currently, with support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), IWMI with Futurepump and partners are scaling out the use of solar suitability maps through an online interactive tool for sub-Saharan Africa. This open access tool, currently in a test phase, can help companies determine where solar pumping would be suitable, thereby reducing the risks they might otherwise face when investing in frontier markets. The tool is currently being evaluated by private sector partners in Ghana, Ethiopia, and Mali.

The tool can also be used by development partners and NGOs to target their interventions and activities in solar-powered irrigation, and it is already in high demand. For example, GIZ found the mapping tool to be a good investment, and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is requesting national suitability analysis in West Africa to inform their regional programs.

The irrigation scheduling tools have also drawn the attention of development partners. Research under ILSSI and Africa RISING in Ethiopia suggested that farmers learn from these tools – and from each other – influencing when and how much they irrigate. These promising results have spurred other efforts. For example, a larger assessment in Ethiopia to build local communication networks for water user associations (WUA) around ICT and non-ICT based scheduling tools is funded by FAO. Along the same lines, a low-cost irrigation scheduling sensor is currently being considered for scaling in other African countries through the Water Enabler Compact under the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation program funded by the African Development Bank.

Future efforts toward outcomes

A better understanding of barriers to and opportunities for expanding small scale irrigation is one important outcome of this ongoing research by ILSSI and its partners. These insights have informed private sector companies, donors, and development partners, which are now using ILSSI’s evidence and related tools to guide their investments in irrigation. IWMI, with the support of ILSSI and GIZ, has developed a private sector survey to further identify systemic barriers in irrigation supply chains.

Over the coming years, ILSSI will continue to help along investments in farmer-led irrigation – enabling irrigation investors to scale and expand – thus contributing to greater food production and climate resilience in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ethiopian cuisine’s star ingredient provides clues on how to farm in a climate-change era

February 3, 2020 by matt.stellbauer

Using conservation agriculture practices can increase food production while safeguarding water and soil on farms and across drier, hotter landscapes.

This post was first published on agrilinks.org.

Farmers in Danghesta village, Amhara region, Ethiopia, rely on solar-powered small scale irrigation and conservation agriculture techniques to grow onions and other vegetables. Photo by Mulugeta Ayene/WLE.

In Ethiopian cuisine, onion rules. Stews, sauces, and salads all rely on onions as a star ingredient, and market stalls are stacked high with fragrant bulbs. Across the country, onions contribute significantly to food security, adding taste and nutrients to diets otherwise mainly made up of cereals.

Despite their popularity, onion crops yield much less in Ethiopia than in other African countries. Farmers here, like elsewhere, use irrigation to cultivate onions. In fact, farmers prefer to irrigate onion more than other crops, thanks to the high demand and high prices for onions. But yields remain low.

Finding out how to increase the yield and quality of onion and other irrigated crops — such as cabbage, tomatoes, and potatoes — is an urgent priority amid a rise in droughts and dry spells. In the past, most Ethiopian farmers have relied on rain to water their crops, but because rainfall has become less reliable, pumping water from shallow groundwater reserves, reservoirs, or streams to water crops is emerging as a necessary alternative.

However, irrigation must be done without reducing water for downstream users or ecosystem services and without causing environmental harm, such as water pollution or excessive soil erosion. Done right, irrigation can enable farmers to grow more nutritious food all year round and provide water for other purposes, such as household and sanitation uses.

To test how to increase onion yield, and at the same time use water and soil most productively, we set up a trial with 34 farmers growing Red Bombay onions in the Dangela administrative district of the Amhara region during the dry season from December 2016 to March 2017. We wanted to find out how using a set of practices known as “conservation agriculture” could improve not only productivity, but also environmental sustainability, incomes, and nutrition.

What is conservation agriculture

On the left, farmers have applied mulch around the onions, one of the conservation agriculture techniques that leads to higher yields and improved water productivity. Photo by Mulugeta Ayene/WLE.

What we call conservation agriculture is a certain way of farming that is based on three main principles: farmers plough the soil with minimum disturbance, mulch is used to cover the soil between crops, and the kinds of crops grown on a certain plot change every season.

In general, conservation agriculture is expected to increase the yield of vegetable crops. In addition, the practices improve soil quality, including by increasing soil moisture and minimizing the loss of valuable topsoil. Rotating crops between seasons also helps boost soil nutrients. Because moisture is better stored in the soil, the crop’s water use efficiency increases and less irrigation is needed. Finally, because the applied mulch impedes weeds, farmers’ labor burden decreases.

We collaborated with the farmers in the Dangela administrative district of the Amhara region to grow onions using conservation agriculture practices. While we provided seeds, irrigation equipment, and training, the farmers contributed their own land and saw the potential benefits as they emerged. The results were as promising as expected.

A multitude of benefits

Our field data showed that water productivity did indeed improve when farmers started practicing conservation agriculture; they were able to “grow more crop per drop of water”. Also, on average, the new practices increased yields by 35 percent, improved the quality of crops, and boosted farmers’ profitability.

“The conventional tillage practice needs water every day since the soil dries out quickly, and plants wilt. But plants under conservation agriculture can be irrigated once in two days and do not need lots of work for hoeing and weeding,” said Mr. Girma Yihune, one of the farmers particpating in the trial. “The onion yield, and also the bulb size, is better under conservation agriculture than with conventional tillage. The amount of money made from a small 10 m by 10 m plot was higher than that of rainfed crops like teff and maize. This practice should be promoted to help the community in the area.”

In addition to observing these immediate benefits, we ran a biophysical simulation using our suite of integrated decision support system models to investigate additional effects on water and soil that we could not directly observe.

The results indicated that conservation agriculture also increased soil water availability at the onions’ roots. In cases when the farmers applied excess irrigation water, that water helped to replenish the shallow groundwater aquifer. In addition, the mulch applied by farmers protected the soil from erosion and gradually grew the top layer of organic matter in the soil.

The findings from our study indicate the importance and role of conservation agriculture for sustainable intensification of food production, while maintaining and restoring soil health, using water sustainably, providing weed control, and increasing farmers’ profitability. Conservation agriculture may also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by enabling farmers’ plots to serve as carbon sinks. Furthermore, our modeling indicated that farmers’ increased profit can be used to purchase supplemental foods, mainly animal products such as eggs, meat, and milk products, thus improving the nutritional security of their households.

From farm plots to larger landscapes

The benefits of conservation agriculture are evident and well demonstrated at the field level. What’s more, these benefits can potentially accumulate and expand to the watershed or basin scale. These practices have the potential to both contribute to soil and water conservation and to strengthen the socio-economic well-being of the entire Amhara region and across the Ethiopian Highlands.

Particularly during a time of climate variability and change, conservation agriculture can play an important role in supporting communities who are facing negative effects, such as less rain, higher temperature, and more pests, which are impeding their food production. In this context, conservation agriculture practices in combination with small scale irrigation can offer farmers a viable option for greater, better, and more sustainable production.

To reach the full potential of conservation agriculture in Ethiopia, a shift in mindsets and practices is needed. Encouraging farmers, for example, through stronger extension programs that showcase the benefits of conservation agriculture and explain how to put it into practice is a first step. Continuing collaboration between scientists and farmers can help shed light on what incentives can drive greater adoption of conservation agriculture, eventually informing enabling policies and programs. Working together to explore and fulfill the promises of conservation agriculture, we can enable sustainable food production, not only for individuals farmers, but across entire landscapes.

This post is written by Abeyou W. Worqlul, Manoj K Jha, and Yihun Dile, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation

Student interview: Raising the alarm on farming-related water pollution in the Ethiopian Highlands

December 10, 2019 by matt.stellbauer

In 2017-2018, Feleke Kuraz Sishu joined ILSSI’s capacity development program for graduate students, and he investigated the impacts of agricultural intensification on surface and groundwater in the Ethiopian Highlands. He is a student at the Bahir Dar Institute of Technology, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia, and he is currently at the university in Calgary, British Columbia, for a three-month study experience.

Feleke Kuraz Sishu conducted fieldwork in the Robit and Dangila watersheds in the Ethiopian Highlands between 2017 and 2018. Photo: Feleke Kuraz Sishu/Bahir Dar University.

What were you studying while you were working with ILSSI?

I studied how agricultural intensification impacts nutrient and pesticide fluxes in streams and shallow groundwater systems in the Ethiopian Highlands. I monitored two agricultural watersheds, Robit and Dangila, between 2017 and 2018. We sampled water from streams during storms and dry periods, and we collected groundwater samples from more than 30 wells located either in rainfed or irrigated fields. Then we analyzed the level of agro-chemicals in the water.

Feleke Kuraz Sishu is a student at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia.

What’s the most surprising thing you found?

We found nitrate in the shallow groundwater samples, with a higher concentration in samples taken on upper and mid-level slopes, than in those taken at the bottom of slopes. Having a high concentration of nitrate in groundwater poses a risk to human health, especially if the water is used for drinking.

The presence of nitrate can be explained by different things: first, farmers are beginning to fertilize their rainfed and irrigated fields on the upper and mid-level slopes, meaning that they add nitrogen, which is a critical plant nutrient. However, when crops are not able to use up all the nitrogen, it leaches into the groundwater and causes high concentrations of nitrate. We discovered that in some areas, the level of nitrate exceeded the permissible 10mg/l limit for drinking water. It is likely that intensified farming and fertilizer application are among the causes for high levels of nitrate in the groundwater.

When we looked at streams, we found both nitrate and dissolved phosphorus, which is another common component of fertilizer. In both watersheds, the level of nitrate and phosphorus in streams exceeded the threshold limit more than fivefold. When the streams empty out into Lake Tana, which is the largest freshwater body in Ethiopia, the result is an explosive growth of algae and other plants. This threatens the lake’s ability to provide water, fish and other benefits.

Our results indicate that degraded landscapes with poor watershed management activities, combined with high rainfall during the rainfed farming season, contributed to nitrogen leaching and likely caused the increased levels of nitrate and dissolved phosphorus.

Finally, we also detected pesticides used by farmers in streams and shallow wells. The concentration exceeded the threshold limits set by the World Health Organization of 0.1 μg/l for each kind of pesticide and 0.5 μg/l in total.

Installing water sampling instruments over a stream. Photo: Feleke Kuraz Sishu/Bahir Dar University.

What changes do you hope your work will help achieve?

Our findings from these two watersheds point to poor watershed management, intensive farming and the threat from increasing use of fertilizer in the uplands. Based on our observations of Lake Tana, which is suffering from a water hyacinth invasion brought on by the excessive nutrients delivered by streams, these issues exist across the northern Ethiopian Highlands.

The health and environmental risks stemming from these issues should be a major cause of alarm, and therefore we have worked to raise these issues and share recommendations with government officers, non-government actors, community watershed managers and communities themselves in the area.

For example, we have informed these stakeholders about which wells hold groundwater that is so polluted by nitrate that it should not be used for drinking. We have also started discussions about what changes communities can make to limit pesticide use, and we have raised the issue at the policy level, since Ethiopia currently has no regulations on pesticides for agricultural use.

We hope that our recommendations and engagement with stakeholders will lead to changes that can safeguard the clean water supply and support environmentally sustainable agricultural intensification.

What do you think is the biggest challenge for scaling farmer-led irrigation?

From a water quality perspective, the fact that both surface and groundwater is so vulnerable to contamination from pesticide and fertilizer use is the biggest challenge. That’s one reason we need to identify areas that are suitable for irrigation – and thus agricultural intensification – but at the same time less vulnerable to pollution from agro-chemicals. This is a pressing challenge for local farmers, and therefore an opportunity to collaborate with them on research for development activities.

What is your advice to other students looking to work with Feed the Future innovation labs?

I am very thankful to ILSSI for funding and providing all requested facilities during my research. I got an opportunity to work with students from different countries, with researchers and with different institutions – this helped me gain skills, share experiences and develop future collaborations. Therefore, I would like to advice the students interested in working with ILSSI that it is a great chance to conduct research and network with scholars from around the world. Thank you!

On an ongoing basis, ILSSI supports a number of graduate and honor’s undergraduate students from academic institutions in Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania. We pair them with experienced scientists from our partner organizations, who mentor the students through proposal, research design, field work, data collection, analysis and presentation of results. These capacity development efforts underpin the long-term scaling and sustainability of small scale irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa. In this case, Feleke Kuraz Sishu’s work was co-supported by the Feed the Future Sustainable Intensification Lab.

Fighting malnutrition with irrigation

December 9, 2019 by matt.stellbauer

Malnutrition remains a major global challenge, despite concerted efforts to improve the diets and health of especially women and children. Globally, 822 million people are chronically undernourished, 49.5 million children under five years of age are wasted, and 149 million children are still stunted. What’s more, girls who are undernourished before they are born and as children risk having low–birth weight babies later in life. As it stands, we are not on track to achieve the nutrition targets set under the Sustainable Development Goals.

Now, 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.

A woman inspects vegetables for sale in Accra, Ghana. Photo: Felix Antonio/IWMI.

Irrigation can boost nutrition in ways both expected and surprising. This new knowledge has the potential to shape future irrigation initiatives and bring us one step closer to nutrition security for all, not least because it underpins a recently published World Bank guidance note on nutrition-sensitive irrigation and water management.

Irrigating for nutrition

ILSSI partners, notably the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), have found that irrigation has a strong, positive effect on a household’s economic access to food and dietary diversity. For example, irrigation allows smallholders to fill dietary gaps during the dry season and to consume more nutritious foods, such as vegetables and eggs, which are key for child growth and overall health.

“This research is important because it finally establishes that irrigation can contribute to improving nutrition, and it also shows precisely how it happens,” said ILSSI Director Nicole Lefore. “Being able to provide evidence on how irrigation leads to improved nutrition has important implications because it broadens the toolbox available to policy makers and investors working to improve nutrition in smallholder communities, while achieving climate resilience and water security.”

Understanding the pathways from irrigation to nutrition is of particular importance because while irrigation can improve nutritional status, pathways vary by location and context. In addition, various pathways can reinforce or cancel out each other. For example, irrigation could risk undermining nutrition and health goals by causing water pollution and water-related diseases, if not carefully designed.

In fact, until recently, the only link between water and nutrition that received interest and support was ‘WASH’, that is, water, sanitation, and hygiene, explained Claudia Ringler, deputy director of environment and production technology at IFPRI.

“There has been a sense that irrigation wasn’t really contributing to nutrition or to health, but rather that it was competing with and polluting water resources for domestic use,” said Ringler. “That’s the origin of this work – I wanted to really explore the role that irrigation can play for nutrition.”

Four pathways

Ringler and her colleagues identified four different pathways from irrigation to nutrition: through increasing farmers’ agricultural production, through increasing their income, through empowering women, and through providing water for domestic and sanitation purposes.

“Empowerment of women through irrigation, that’s probably something people don’t really think about as leading to better nutrition,” said Ringler. That irrigation can provide water for sanitation and hygiene, and thus improve nutrition, is also seldom recognized, she explained.

Empowering women to influence decision making may lead to greater spending on health care and nutritious foods. Photo: Apollo Habtamu/ILRI.

For example, drawing on data collected through household surveys in Ethiopia and Tanzania, Ringler and her colleagues found that irrigating households in both countries produced more vegetables, fruits and cash crops and had a higher production diversity and dietary diversity than non-irrigating households.

These positive outcomes were thanks in part to an increase in incomes. Farmers could spend more money on more diverse foods and health care. But, results also indicated that dietary diversity was greater in female-headed households, supporting the notion that empowering women translates into greater spending on nutritious diets.

Influencing irrigation investments

The World Bank published a guidance note on nutrition-sensitive irrigation and water management investments in August 2019, drawing on ILSSI’s research results.

“We were contacted by The World Bank, and they told us that our findings had inspired them to think beyond ‘WASH’ when it comes to water-nutrition linkages,” said Ringler.

The guidance note describes the four irrigation-to-nutrition pathways identified by IFPRI researchers, and suggests entry points for improving the nutritional outcomes of irrigation and water management investments, from the beginning of the planning process.

“What’s also very useful are the indicators the guidelines include, which allow projects to monitor, for example, the share of nutrient-dense crops irrigated, the number of food-insecure people served and the extent of women’s participation, and so on,” said Ringler. “Our hope is that other investors will also use these indicators to monitor whether their investments are contributing to nutrition goals.”

Publication of the guidelines in August 2019 coincided with World Water Week, where ILSSI results were presented in several sessions, informing discussions on how water and agricultural strategies can improve nutrition and on how to bridge the water–nutrition divide. Following these discussions, the African Union reported that it would communicate the session results to the Africa Green Revolution Forum in Accra, Ghana, and a project supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said it would further study the concept of dietary water productivity in five countries. Furthermore, The World Bank also committed to testing the new guidelines on nutrition-sensitive irrigation development in Uganda.

Claudia Ringler presents ILSSI research results at World Water Week 2019. Photo: Niroshini Fernando/WLE.

All of these stakeholders are collaborating and sharing evidence through the Water and Nutrition Working Group under FAO’s Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture in a Changing Climate, co-led by Ringler.

Making change in Ethiopia

National partners and policy makers in Ethiopia are also showing significant interest in ILSSI’s recommendations on how irrigation can improve nutritional status.

“When we first started the ILSSI project and began working with Ethiopian public health officials, they believed that irrigation would be bad for nutrition and health because of pollution, although they acknowledged that no data has been collected on this linkage,” explained Ringler.

But as research results emerge, perceptions are changing. After IFPRI researchers first presented their findings to an Ethiopian audience last year, the USAID Mission in Ethiopia and other national stakeholders have expressed interest in learning more.

“This interest demonstrates a potential for shifting to nutrition-sensitive irrigation investments in Ethiopia,” said Lefore. “We are showing that there is an opportunity to increase nutrition security by supporting farmers to invest in small scale irrigation and commercialize their production.”

This approach would not only raise the incomes of farmers – allowing them to boost the nutrition of their household – but also bring more diverse and nutritious foods to local and national markets for broader impact, Lefore explained.

Going forward, ILSSI seeks to respond to the major threat that climate change and weather variability pose to nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers are continuing studies to identify the linkages between nutrition, human resilience and weather extremes to better understand how irrigation might contribute to resilience – particularly food and nutrition security – during extended dry spells and droughts.

ILSSI hosts NET-MAP workshops in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

October 15, 2019 by matt.stellbauer

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 – from equipment suppliers to farm associations, to public officials. One event focused on diffusion of small-scale irrigation (SSI) technologies in Ethiopia at the Oromia regional level and the second on the national situation. 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. Belete Bantero, a Senior Transformation Agenda Specialist with the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency, said the workshop contained “important information” and was “very important and…timely.” The participatory analysis will help to identify entry points to catalyze access to irrigation technologies for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. The activity also supports a new initiative of ILSSI that aims to strengthen the role of private sector actors in small scale irrigation.