irrigation

Ethiopian dairy cooperatives use irrigation for forage production, increasing farmers’ incomes and resilience

June 22, 2021 by Marianne Gadeberg

by Aberra Adie, Research Officer, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

“Our collaboration with the ILSSI project has enabled us to increase our milk production and sales considerably,” said Alemu Demoze, the chairman of the Genet Lerobit Dairy Cooperative in Bahir Dar Zuria district, Ethiopia.

Alemu Demoze, chairman of Genet Lerobit Dairy Cooperative. (Photo credit: ILRI/Fikadu Tessema).

Irrigated fodder production is a recent development in Ethiopia. But now, after years of collaboration with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI), both individual farmers and dairy cooperatives have started using small scale irrigation techniques and new forage varieties to produce fodder year-round for livestock feeding. ILSSI has provided technical support to the dairy cooperatives in its project sites, which has helped these entities to establish a new milk-collection center, a forage seed store, and sales shops.

A new milk-collection center and forage seed sales shop, constructed by the Genet Lerobit Dairy Cooperative (Photo credit: ILRI/Fikadu Tessema).

Cooperatives boost incomes and value chains

Alemu explained that membership numbers in the Genet Lerobit Dairy Cooperative have increased from 57 members 3 years ago to 180 now, due to the growing interest in irrigated fodder production and the market opportunities created for fluid milk:

“Currently, we are supplying about 300 liters of milk daily at a price of 22 birr (US$0.50) per liter to a milk processor in Bahir Dar town. This volume of milk is up by more than 50 percent from what we used to supply few years back.”

The cooperative’s engagement in forage seed multiplication and marketing is expected to provide an additional source of income for its members, while also strengthening the fodder value chain in the communities.

“We have allocated 1.5 hectares of dedicated land for forage seed multiplication and also formed farmer interest groups, which showed interest in multiplying forage seeds and planting materials on their own land and supply to the cooperative,” said Alemu.

According to him, the cooperative is planning to use both individual farms and the land secured through the cooperative as a source of forage seed and planting materials.

Alemu Demoze (right) standing in front of the newly constructed milk-collection center and feed shops (Photo Credit: ILRI/Fikadu Tessema).

Explaining further the cooperative’s preparations to strengthen the irrigated fodder value chain, he added:

“With the support we received from ILSSI, we have constructed a forage seed store, milk-collection and processing rooms, as well as sales shops. These facilities will considerably increase our market share and incomes in the near future.”

The cooperative’s management believes they are now in a good position to increase dairy production in the community, using irrigated fodder technologies and new market opportunities created through the collaboration with ILSSI and other development actors.

“We are in discussion with the local extension office so that they can support us in certifying the forage seeds that we plan to produce this season. We are also in discussion with the livestock and fisheries sector development project to create market linkages for forage seeds,” Alemu explained.

Providing protection against COVID-19 disruptions

Habebo Dairy Cooperative, located in the Lemo district of Ethiopia’s Southern region, is another entity engaged in irrigated fodder development. The cooperative provides services to its members by collecting fluid milk and processing it into butter and cheese, which allows the cooperative members to sell these higher-value products to consumers. Over the past three years, the support the cooperative members received from ILSSI enabled them to grow their capacity and become more resilient to market fluctuations.

Aberash Tamre, chairman of Habebo Dairy Cooperative (Photo credit: ILRI/Tigist German).

“Our collaboration with ILSSI came at a critical time for us,” said Aberash Tamire, the chairwomen of the cooperative. “When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted market chains, we were able to cope with problem by processing our milk into shelf-stable and easily transportable products, such as butter and cheese. Other farmers who didn’t have the capacity to process milk were seriously affected by the movement restrictions and market disruptions for fluid milk.”

This cooperative has managed to construct a well-designed milk processing room, a forage seed store, and sales shops in their compound with a grant received from ILSSI.

Habebo Dairy Cooperative management members in their newly set up milk-collection and shop center (Photo Credit: ILRI/Tigist German).

“Our members are highly indebted to the support provided to grow our capacity. This collaboration with ILSSI has also motivated other farmers to apply for cooperative membership, and currently the total membership has reached 220 households, which is up by 40 percent compared to two years ago. Some of the newcomers recently bought crossbred cows and joined us,” explained Aberash.

Tackling land and water challenges

In the areas where these two dairy cooperatives are located, land remains a major constraint to agricultural productivity. There is a lot of competition for land to produce food crops and fodder. However, adoption of irrigated fodder production has helped ease the competition for land, as farmers are now able to produce fodder year-round on a small plot of land.

In addition, ILSSI is working with national partners to provide alternative forage varieties that can be grown with minimum water and nutrient input and at the same time supply the needed fodder for farmers’ livestock. Adoption of such new varieties would further ease the pressure on natural resources, and cooperative members are currently participating in the evaluation of the new forage varieties for wider scaling.

Finally, ILSSI has planned a series of training programs to build the capacity of the cooperatives in forage seed multiplication and marketing businesses. The impact of the ILSSI intervention is now visible in the project sites:

“We are very happy at the moment because we are making tangible progress in improving our income and livelihoods,” concluded Aberash.

Student interview: Investigating how gender matters for irrigation and nutrition

March 20, 2020 by Marianne Gadeberg

In 2014, Elizabeth Bryan joined ILSSI’s capacity development program for graduate students, and she investigated gender and small scale irrigation, as well as the linkage between 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.

What issues were you studying, while you were working with ILSSI?

With respect to gender and irrigation, we explored the barriers that women face to adopting, using, and benefitting from technologies for small scale irrigation. We also looked at how adopting small scale irrigation may influence various aspects of women’s empowerment, such as their level of participation in agricultural decisions, control over income and productive assets, and time burden.

The results across the countries we have worked in (Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania) are varied, given different gender roles in agriculture, social norms, and available systems, technologies, and practices for small scale irrigation.

Our findings on irrigation and nutrition highlight two main pathways through which irrigation can improve diets and nutrition outcomes: through changes in production and increased income. Irrigation enables greater production and consumption of more nutrient-dense crops, such as vegetables, that improve diet quality. Being able to irrigate also enables production during the dry season, increasing availability of food during these times. Farmers use the income from selling irrigated crops to purchase foods that improve household diets, such as milk and eggs. Irrigating farmers appear to be more resilient to drought, thanks to their improved nutritional status. Findings on the links between irrigation and nutrition were summarized in a guidance note by The World Bank to support more nutrition-sensitive approaches to irrigation investments.

Gender matters for these linkages between irrigation and nutrition because women have different preferences for which crops are grown under irrigation, how these crops are used – whether for sale or consumption – and how income from the sale of irrigated crops is spent.

What was the most surprising thing you found?

The gender sensitivity of many irrigation interventions is low, meaning that they fail to consider the linkages between gender and irrigation. This is due to limited capacity on gender in many implementing organizations and agencies. However, there is interest, including from the private sector, in utilizing strategies to better reach and benefit women through irrigation.

Another surprising finding is that when households adopt modern irrigation technologies in northern Ghana, men tend to take over irrigation activities. Rather than feeling excluded, many women were relieved not have to participate in manual irrigation, which they considered a burdensome task, and to have more time to devote to other income-earning activities.

How did the work you did with ILSSI inform the next steps in your career?

After I finish the remaining research papers on my plate, I hope to develop some guidance for implementing partners to adopt more gender-sensitive strategies. New modalities are emerging for how to expand small scale irrigation technologies, such as through group-based or rental arrangements, and the gender implications of these also need to be examined so that these interventions are inclusive and benefit women.

What is your advice to other students looking to work with ILSSI or other Feed the Future innovations labs?

The Feed the Future Innovation Labs are a great way to engage different partners, including cross-disciplinary researchers, development practitioners, policy-makers, and donors. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to collaborate with so many inspiring people, who are dedicated to tackling some of the greatest development challenges.

From the field: Understanding what is holding back irrigated food production in Mali

March 20, 2020 by Marianne Gadeberg

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.

While Mali shows potential for solar irrigation in some areas, it also differs from other countries in which the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) works. Much of the country falls within arid and hyper-arid agro-ecological zones, meaning that it is very hot and dry. As the U.S. Government’s Global Food Security Strategy for Mali highlights, the people of Mali are also highly vulnerable to climate change and variability.

One ILSSI scientist, Ephraim Nkonya, who is a fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), met with key irrigation stakeholders in Mali in December 2019 and again in January 2020. His field visits provided insights on challenges to expanding the use of small scale irrigation in the country.

Demand exceeds supply

Nkonya visited the IPRO IRRIGAR project in the city of Sikasso in southern Mali, which has constructed 50 micro dams over the past couple years. The dams create small reservoirs, which can provide water for irrigation, and are part of the project’s efforts to strengthen food security and nutritional status among local communities by increasing and diversifying agricultural production.

Once a dam is in place, a development project funded by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) – the Programme d’Appui aux Sous-secteurs de l’Irrigation de Proximité (PASSIP) – provides farmers with agricultural extension services and technical support, alongside public agencies. While a sought-after solution to the general lack of water for irrigation, the demand for new dams far outpaces the ability of the project to build more, according to local stakeholders.

Slow adoption of new technology

A farmer irrigates his field using a calabash bowl. This time intensive practice makes it difficult to expand the irrigated area. Tingju Zhu/IFPRI. — A farmer irrigates his field using a calabash bowl. This time-intensive practice makes it difficult to expand the area under irrigation. Tingju Zhu/IFPRI.

In addition, bucket irrigation remains a key water lifting and application technology in this part of Mali, despite investments in irrigation by various donors and partners. Nkonya saw farmers irrigating using buckets and calabash bowls to lift water.

However, as past ILSSI and other research has shown, this form of irrigation, which is also widely practiced in northern Ghana, is highly time intensive. Manual approaches to lifting and applying water on fields limit the potential for expanding irrigation. Nkonya also observed incipient adoption of motor pumps, which require much less labor, but only by men. Women dominate rice production in the area, but only irrigate manually, such as with buckets.

Further research needed

To get a better sense of what is holding back the expansion of small scale irrigation in Mali, Nkonya met with a wide range of stakeholders. These included USAID, partners from the Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER), the Deputy National Director of Rural Engineering, who oversees Mali’s small scale irrigation program (PNIP), and the Projet Initiative de Renforcement de la Résilience par l’Irrigation et la Gestion Appropriée des Ressources (IPRO IRRIGAR) based in Sikasso.

Future field research by ILSSI and its partners will further probe why a gender gap exists when it comes to adoption of various irrigation practices in Mali as well as investigate the linkages between household water security and water availability for food production.

Scientists and entrepreneurs battle climate change and water scarcity in the Ethiopian Highlands

March 18, 2020 by Marianne Gadeberg

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.

It is no surprise that millions of farmers are facing increasing water scarcity under the current climate crisis. In the Ethiopian Highlands, this reality strikes especially hard when the dry season begins every year in October. As the rain stops, farmers rely on shallow wells to supply them with water for basic household needs, livestock, and irrigation.

Each year, many of these farmers eventually – say, around December – come to discover that their well has run dry. Groundwater reserves have become exhausted before the end of the dry season. These water shortages have serious consequences for the health and welfare of farmers, and reducing water use has been considered the obvious answer. What’s often overlooked is that groundwater availability during the dry season can be boosted if only water and soil are used and managed right during the previous season.

Scientists from the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) are looking at rainfall and groundwater as one interconnected system. This shift in thinking opens the door to a new kind of solution, namely to increase the supply of groundwater, in addition to limiting its use when viable. A new plow, developed by an Ethiopian entrepreneur, provides part of the answer.

Plowing at the same depth for centuries creates a hard crust in some soils, hindering groundwater recharge. Petterik Wiggers/IWMI.

A lifeline during the dry season

Households in Ethiopia’s Highlands rely primarily on shallow wells, up to 25 meters deep, to access groundwater for all uses, according to a survey carried out by graduate students at Bahir Dar University, in partnership with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Being able to rely on wells for year-round access to water is a main coping mechanism for farmers living in a changing climate. This means that communities are left with difficult choices when wells are depleted in the middle of the dry season. What little water might be left in the wells, plus whatever can be carried in from other better-supplied wells, ponds, or rivers, must be used wisely.

When it comes to prioritizing water uses – drinking, washing, watering livestock, and farming – it is often irrigation that loses out, as households have to choose. But, without enough water for irrigation during the dry season, fewer nutritious crops will be available, leaving families hungry and undernourished. Restocking shallow groundwater reserves therefore becomes central to ensuring healthy, viable livelihoods.

A new plow could help

Groundwater reserves are replenished when rainfall infiltrates into the deeper soils. But this natural cycle has been disrupted in the Ethiopian Highlands, where much of the otherwise ample rainfall runs off the sloping hills sides, causing soil erosion and destruction.

For centuries, Ethiopian farmers have used the traditional Maresha plow to till their lands. The problem is that plowing at the same depth for so many years has in some soils formed a hard crust – a hardpan – below the surface. It prevents infiltration of rainwater into the deeper layers of the ground, thus hindering much-needed recharge of groundwater reserves.

The Berken plow, invented by private sector entrepreneur Aybar, is tested. Rudi Schmitter.

Manually breaking up this hard crust can reduce rainwater runoff by more than half, but the work is cumbersome, and without access to suitable machinery, farmers are unlikely to do it. That’s one reason why ILSSI researchers – at IWMI and Bahir Dar University – have collaborated with private entrepreneur Aybar to test a new kind of plow. The Berken plow cuts deeper than the traditional plow, breaking up the hard crust formed in previous years. Emerging research results indicate that the plow conserves soil and water by reducing rainwater runoff and that reduced soil disturbance increases soil moisture.

In other words, using the new Berken plow might increase water stored in soils, helping to recharge groundwater reserves. This would mean that more water would be available for dry season irrigation, and for supplementary irrigation in the rainy season, thanks in part to a private sector innovation.

Limited groundwater on the slopes of the highlands

Restocking groundwater reserves where possible, using tools such as the Berken plow, is not in and of itself sufficient to ensure that farmers have enough water to irrigate their fields. In the Ethiopian Highlands, sloping hills represent a particular challenge.

ILSSI researchers, with partners, have discovered that groundwater reserves are rapidly diminishing in the highlands throughout the dry season because it migrates away from the hillside through the soil. Because gravity pulls groundwater away from the hillsides, sloping lands can only provide significant irrigation inputs during the first three months out of the eight months long dry season, their research showed. In the remaining part of the dry season period, only wells located at the bottom of the slopes, close to faults, contained water.

These results were obtained in a study of the Robit Bata watershed in Ethiopia’s Lake Tana basin, where almost half the area is made up of slopes above 10 percent, which is representative of watersheds in the highlands of Ethiopia. This limited availability of groundwater on the slopes highlight that when planning for small scale irrigation, it is not enough to consider the groundwater recharge only and ignore the lateral movement of water. If the lateral flow of groundwater away from hillsides is not considered, any estimated irrigation potential will be unrealistic in actual practice.

Therefore, introducing conservation agriculture and best farming practices could help farmers grow more crops, even as shallow groundwater travels downhill. Researchers from Bahir Dar University have shown that the combination of best irrigation practices and conservation agriculture helps limit the amount of moisture that evaporates from the soil, thus increasing soil moisture and crop productivity.

Mulching between crops is one characteristic of conservation agriculture. Mulugeta Ayene/WLE.

Better water management for climate resilience

The biggest lesson for farmers and decision-makers alike is that groundwater and rainfall are closely interlinked. Private sector innovations and improved farming practices can help farmers manage water as one system – recharging groundwater as much as possible, in addition to using available water as best as possible. Improving management of rain- and groundwater, by understanding that the two make up one interlinked resource, is a critical climate adaptation strategy.

Four papers on water and climate change impacts in Ethiopia and Ghana

March 17, 2020 by Marianne Gadeberg

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.

Gebrekidan Worku, Ermias Teferi, Amare Bantider, Yihun T. Dile. 2019. Observed changes in extremes of daily rainfall and temperature in Jemma subbasin, Upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia

ILSSI scientists have been supervising a graduate student from Addis Ababa University who analyzed observed extreme rainfall and temperature in the Jemma subbasin of the Upper Blue Nile basin in Ethiopia. The analysis used data for the period 1981 to 2014. Results showed an increasing trend of annual and summer rainfall and a decreasing trend of spring rainfall in most parts of the subbasin. An increase in rainfall and extreme temperature events was also observed. The study recommends appropriate water management interventions to adapt to and mitigate risks associated with the observed changes in rainfall and temperature.

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Gebrekidan Worku, Ermias Teferi, Amare Bantider, Yihun T. Dile. 2020. Statistical bias correction of regional climate model simulations for climate change projection in the Jemma subbasin, Upper Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia

One of the challenges in climate change studies is selecting the right type of bias correction methods. Biases are systematic errors, either decreases or increases, in actual observations or estimates in climate data. This study, applying several statistical matrices, found that the distribution mapping technique was better for correcting biases than other methods. Distribution mapping is a distribution-based approach that corrects the mean, standard deviation, and extremes and distribution of rainfall and temperature events of climate model outputs. The distribution mapping was applied to bias correct the future (2021–2100) simulation of Regional Climate Models, which showed a decline of rainfall and an increase of temperature as well as of extreme rainfall and temperature events in each of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC)’s three scenarios for plausible future greenhouse gas emissions trajectories.

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Abeyou Wale Worqlul, Yihun Taddele Dile, Essayas Kaba Ayana, Jaehak Jeong, Anwar Assefa Adem, Thomas Gerik. 2018. Impact of climate change on streamflow hydrology in headwater catchments of the Upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia.

In this study, ILSSI researchers assessed the impact of climate change on water availability and variability in two subbasins in the Upper Blue Nile basin of Ethiopia. An emission scenario representing the baseline period (1961–1990) was used to predict future climate and as input to a hydrologic model to estimate the impact of future climate on the flow of water in the two rivers in three future time horizons: 2020–2045, 2045–2070, and 2070–2100. Daily maximum/minimum temperatures are expected to increase throughout the future time horizons. The minimum and maximum temperature will increase by 3.6 °C and 2.4 °C, respectively, toward the end of the 21st century. Consequently, potential evapotranspiration is also expected to increase by 7.8%. The increase in evapotranspiration suggests increased crop water requirement in future crop production, which must be taken into account when planning future irrigation infrastructure. A notable seasonality was found in the rainfall pattern, such that dry season rainfall amounts are likely to increase and wet season rainfall to decrease. The hydrological model indicated that the local hydrology of the study watersheds will be significantly influenced by climate change. Overall, at the end of the century, water flow will increase in both rivers by up to 64% in dry seasons and decrease by 19% in wet seasons.

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Abeyou W. Worqlul, Yihun T. Dile, Jaehak Jeong, Zenebe Adimassu, Nicole Lefore, Thomas Gerik, Raghavan Srinivasan, Neville Clarke. 2019. Effect of climate change on land suitability for surface irrigation and irrigation potential of the shallow groundwater in Ghana.

ILSSI researchers applied a GIS-based Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) technique to evaluate the suitability of land for irrigation in Ghana for a baseline period (1990–2010) and future time horizons, namely the 2050s (2041 to 2060) and the 2070s (2061 to 2080). Model results suggest that due to climate change, on average, rainfall will increase by 15 mm in the 2050s and 20 mm in 2070s, compared to the baseline period. Results on average temperature show a consistent increase across most of Ghana, which will increase potential evapotranspiration by 6.0% and 7.6% in the 2050s and 2070s, respectively. As a result of these changes to rainfall and temperatures, 9.5% of the current land area that is suitable for irrigation will become unfavorable for irrigation in 2050s, and may continue to become unfavorable in the 2070s, reducing land suitable for irrigation by 17%.

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