Innovation Lab For Small Scale Irrigation

Innovation Lab For Small Scale Irrigation

nutrition

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

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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.

Partner news: Benefits of farmer-led irrigation are “immense”

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The following update on the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation was originally published by agrilinks.org.

Why small-scale irrigation?

In sub-Saharan Africa, scarce and increasingly variable rainfall represents a major risk. It severely impedes agricultural growth, hampers productivity and makes it difficult for farming households to meet basic needs. Investing in sustainable, profitable, and gender-sensitive irrigation can help alleviate these threats, create greater climate resilience, and put millions of farmers on the path toward food and nutrition security.

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small-Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) has become a global leader in generating evidence that can inform investments in support of the U.S. global food security goals. Our focus on small-scale, farmer-led irrigation is a shift from earlier trends in research and investments that focused on public, communal schemes. The performance of such larger irrigation schemes has often been disappointing – partly due to water governance challenges – but when farmers take matters into their own hands and make their own, smaller investments, the benefits of irrigation prove to be immense.

ILSSI has demonstrated that farmers’ own investments hold high potential to increase incomes both for farmers and actors in irrigated value chains, while contributing to agriculture-led economic growth. Research also suggests that households that invest in farmer-led irrigation have better nutritional security. There are multiple pathways between irrigation and nutrition, but farmers often use their increased income to purchase food for a more diverse, and nutritious, diet. Irrigated production also generally increases the availability of vegetables and leafy greens on the local and regional market, thus supporting more nutritious diets not only for farmers themselves, but communities in general. Achieving greater gender equality through irrigation production is also possible, but requires support for empowering women farmers. ILSSI has focused on the value chain for irrigated fodder, which is showing promise, particularly in Ethiopia, to provide animal feed at critical times.

More food and better lives

As men and women farmers make the transition from rainfed to supplemental and dry season irrigated production, ILSSI has tested new tools, technologies and practices to enhance water productivity, boost agricultural yields, improve health and nutrition, strengthen farmers’ resilience and promote gender equality.

  • Conservation agriculture practices and small-scale irrigation can reduce the risks of water scarcity and meet growing food demand. These methods also improve quality and yields of produce at the same time.
  • Solar pumps for water lifting can bring down costs of irrigation for farmers living in rural areas and are a preferred technology for agriculture and domestic uses. ILSSI has supported the development of an open access, interactive tool for solar suitability mapping throughout sub-Saharan Africa, which is now enabling companies to know where solar pumping would be suitable, reducing the risks of investing in frontier markets, and helping NGOs and donors target solar irrigation interventions.
  • Irrigation scheduling tools can enable farmers to achieve higher water productivity and reduce their labor input by showing when to irrigate and how much water to use. Such tools can also increase farmers’ yields and boost the quality of produce. The use of these water-scheduling tools is being taken forward by donors, including in an FAO-funded project with water user associations in Ethiopia, reaching more than 600 farmers.
  • Fodder for livestock can be supported by small-scale irrigation, and it can help farmers diversify their incomes while securing adequate animal-sourced foods, such as milk, for their families. Promising results are drawing the attention of farmers and government officials in Ethiopia.
  • Irrigation can improve nutrition through multiple pathways. ILSSI partners and researchers have been working with the World Bank to support nutrition-sensitive irrigation investments.
  • Improving access to credit would allow even more farmers to benefit from small-scale irrigation. Microfinance options that could support smallholders to access pumps and other equipment do exist, including new ideas such as “Uber for the farm”, but need to be brought to scale.
  • Realizing the full potential of small-scale irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa requires improving gender equality in agriculture. Not only in terms of access to technologies and equipment; it also means ensuring that women can reap the benefits of irrigation.

Taking solutions forward

Building on research from its first phase (2014–2018), ILSSI is now investigating how to feasibly and sustainably expand small-scale irrigation and is directing more resources to improving access and adoption through market systems. ILSSI is partnering with private companies in Ghana and Ethiopia to test ways to build input and output markets around irrigated value chains to establish affordable, reliable supply for example pumps and to foster a viable, healthy market for irrigated crops such as vegetables and seeds. Solar pumps will be a central technology, along with the critical component of appropriate credit and finance – all part of effective and sustainable business models. We are also partnering with small and medium enterprises and cooperatives in Ethiopia to strengthen irrigated fodder production and markets, and examining irrigated seed production for vegetables. Business models that promote gender equity and opportunities for youth are also being sharpened.

Small-scale irrigation technology and water resources may be primarily used for agriculture, but also provide water for consumptive and non-consumptive uses. ILSSI is working with the Household Water Insecurity Experiences network on the effects of water access for productive uses, on domestic and other uses, toward reducing water insecurity. Our focus continues to be farmers’ own irrigation investments, while also deepening our analysis of the changing climate and water-related risks from household to watershed and basin level to increase both environmental and social resilience.

Fighting malnutrition with irrigation

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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.
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.
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.
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.

Water-smart investment benefits ripple beyond food security

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By Meredith Giordano on April 23, 2016

Nearly four years ago, researchers documented for the first time how farmer-led irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia is transforming food security at an astonishing scale. They also showed that smallholder water management innovations hold potential to boost crop yields and household revenue by tens of billions of US dollars.

Since then, however, new research for development has revealed how small-scale irrigation may have benefits that reach far beyond food security alone.

Four ways to invest in smallholder irrigation

The research was initially carried out by the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) and its partners under the AgWater Solutions project. At its conclusion, the project recommended four key areas that investments should focus on in order to unlock the potential of small-scale irrigation:

  1. increasing access to water resources, including sustainable groundwater, small reservoirs and rainwater harvesting;
  2. catalyzing smallholder value chains, removing information and marketing constraints;
  3. creating policy synergies, such as aligned energy policies; and
  4. taking a watershed perspective to reduce adverse environmental impacts.

Learn more: Water for wealth and food security: Supporting farmer-driven investments in agricultural water management.  

Building on this work, WLE and USAID have supported research and development of business models that can operationalize these recommendations, while also exploring new solutions and creating a better understanding of potential additional impacts and benefits from investments in smallholder irrigation.

New technologies produce new opportunities and remove constraints

One new opportunity is solar pumps, which has only recently become a financially viable option for smallholder farmers. Solar power irrigation has taken off in India and is starting to take hold in sub-Saharan Africa, where solar powered pumps can serve as a more versatile, green alternative to motor pumps. The Africa Rising project, in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), has begun demonstrating solar powered pumps in two regions of Ethiopia.

Another new technology is wetting front detectors – essentially a device that makes it easy for farmers to see when the soil has been sufficiently watered. WLE researchers are introducing this tool in Ethiopia and Ghana, through the USAID-supported Innovation Lab on Small Scale irrigation (ILSSI), to help farmers manage their water resources more effectively.  The technology has proven successful in reducing irrigation frequency, consequently saving time and labor costs as well as conserving precious water resources.  

Similarly, on request of the Government of Nigeria, researchers are developing new information and communication technology applications in flood-prone regions, such as in Nigeria’s Benue River Basin, to support flood early warning systems, reduce risks posed by flooding, and to put floodwaters to productive agricultural use.

Finally, WLE researchers are also exploring options to improve farmers’ access to financial information and credit, which has been a key constraint in the past. Activities include training to improve financial literacy of both farmers and financial institutions, improving access to loans for irrigation technologies, and assessing the potential for private-public partnerships in irrigation

Small-Scale Irrigation: Present & Future from Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE)

Potential impacts and benefits

The AgWater Solutions project provided estimates of the potential reach (millions of people) and additional household net revenue (billions of US dollars annually) for a number of different on-farm and local community water solutions across sub-Saharan Africa. Now, new research provides insights into other potential impacts and benefits, including nutrition, health and climate resilience.   

For example, the potential for small-scale irrigation to improve gender equity and nutrition security has been an understudied component of agricultural water management research in the past. Now, as part of the ILSSI program, WLE researchers are unpacking the complex relationships among water, nutrition, health and gender. Also farmers’ resilience may be strengthened through irrigation solutions, especially through water-smart agriculture that considers water variability and climate uncertainties.

Small-scale irrigation continues to grow in sub-Saharan Africa, and the potential for huge, beneficial impacts remain. While the investment pathways originally identified are still valid, new technologies and insights open doors for even greater impacts. Innovative solutions for small-scale irrigation hold the promise of large-scale benefits beyond yields and income, including gender equality, nutrition security and climate resilience.

New tech tested

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Drip irrigation tech, conservation agriculture show promise for farmers of Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana

New experiments with drip irrigation and conservation agriculture aim to help smallholder women farmers transform their home gardens into viable sources of income and family nutrition.  

Trials now being conducted in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation are looking into how the technologies can benefit vegetable production in the “commercial home gardens.” The research specifically targets women farmers growing vegetables in plots of no more than 200 square meters.   

Innovation Lab researchers hope drip irrigation systems will reduce watering labor while conservation agriculture techniques – which aim to sustainably preserve fertile soil attributes –reduce the labor needs of tilling, plant bed preparation and weeding.

In the long term, similar technologies could be adopted across larger regions to help boost produce yields for market sale and family meals, building livelihoods, food security and nutrition into the future.   

Research in the three African countries includes some experiments that combine drip irrigation with conservation agriculture and others that employ drip irrigation alongside traditional tilled agriculture systems.

Groups of 15, 20 and 15 women have volunteered to participate in the study in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana respectively. Water storage tanks, drip irrigation implements and pipes for tapping water are provided to each volunteer farmer by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab along with inputs like seed and extension service.

Used in tandem, drip irrigation and conservation agriculture technologies are known to boost water use efficiency while decreasing soil evaporation.

Edralin (2015) in a study conducted in Siem Reap, Cambodia reported higher vegetable yields by the fourth harvest from conservation agriculture compared with traditional tilled systems. Weeding was reduced by 30 percent. Soil respiration and moisture contents were higher in conservation agriculture approaches than in traditional ones. Additionally, soil temperature was lower and organic carbon and nitrogen levels increased – all indicators of improved soil quality. Irrigation labor was also reduced by 65 percent with drip and pump irrigation set-ups compared with manual sprinklers.

Edralin et al. (2014) reported that women operating commercial home gardens earned an average of $300 per year, per 100 square meters of garden space.

Participants of Ethiopia have been provided with drip irrigation hardware and 500 liter water storage tanks; some participants in Tanzania have received tanks and have begun growing vegetables using both conservation agriculture and traditional tilled systems; volunteers have been chosen to begin the study in Ghana. 

Labor savings from drip irrigation and conservation agriculture systems, as well as produce yielded by the experiments, will be measured in the coming months.

References:

  • Edralin, D.I. 2015. Efficacy of Conservation Agriculture in Enhancing Yield of Vegetables and Soil Quality in Cambodia.  Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.
  • Edralin, D.I., S. Ry, and M. Reyes. 2014. Vegetable Production in Drip Irrigation and Conservation Agriculture for the Disadvantaged Women in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Poster presented the 2014 annual horticulture innovation lab meeting, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, March 2014.
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