water resources

Enhancing Groundwater Governance through Experimental Games in Ghana

July 7, 2023 by abbey.kunkle

by Emmanuel Obuobie*, Claudia Ringer*, Hagar El Didi*, Wei Zhang*

Thousands of farmers living in the Keta and Anloga districts of Ghana depend on groundwater from the Keta strip for producing vegetables and other food crops for consumption and income generation. The Keta strip lies between a salty lagoon (Keta lagoon) and the sea (Gulf of Guinea), along the East Coast of Ghana. The two districts fall within the dry equatorial climatic region, which is the driest part of Ghana. The main occupation of the people are farming, fishing and trading. Farming is done all year-round, using groundwater from shallow unconfined aquifers within depths of about 15 m. Crops grown include carrots, tomatoes, pepper, okra, onion, lettuce, potatoes, maize and cassava. Farming in the Keta and Anloga districts is impossible without irrigation because of relatively low rainfall (about 800 mm), a long dry season of about six months, long dry spells within the rainfall season, high annual evaporation (about 1800 mm) and sandy soils.

An irrigator drawing water from a well to irrigate her crops at Whuti – Anloga district, Ghana (Photo credit: Emmanuel Obuobie)

Farmers in the two districts abstract groundwater through large diameter open concrete lined wells and small diameter (2-4 inches) piped tube wells, to irrigate farm sizes between 0.05 and 1 hectares. The groundwater is recharged mainly from rainfall. The recharge rate is relatively high (estimated at about 20% of the annual rainfall). Some of the key challenges that groundwater irrigators are dealing with are declining groundwater tables, insufficient freshwater during the peak of the dry season (February/March) due to low groundwater tables and high evaporation, and saltwater intrusion; all of these impede crop productivity. Most farmers cope by reducing the volume of water used for irrigation but others cope by developing multiple wells for abstracting more water and relocating wells with salty water to locations with freshwater. There are no functioning institutions that support farmer collaboration on water resources; instead farmers operate as individuals. This brings into question the sustainability of groundwater irrigation in the Keta and Anloga districts.

Source: Figure 3 in: Duku et al. (2022).

In December 2022, an intervention in the form of an experimental groundwater game, followed by community discussions of lessons learnt from the game was implemented in 10 communities in the two districts, to improve awareness of the importance of resource governance, with the expectation of enhancing collective action toward more sustainable use and management of groundwater resources, and ultimately to sustain the livelihoods of farmers. The activity was funded by USAID through the Feed the Future Innovation Laboratory for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) project and implemented by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), CSIR-Water Research Institute, the University for Development Studies and the University of Ghana.

In each of the communities, three sets of groundwater games were played by groups of men and women irrigators separately. Each group accessed water from a common source, cultivated crops of their choice and farmers made individual decisions on farm size and number of plots cultivated. It was assumed that only the farm size cultivated had an effect on the volume of groundwater used for simplicity. In the first round of the game, farmers made decisions on farm size without discussing with other members of their group (no communication); in the second round, farmers discussed cultivation ideas with their group members but made individual decision on cultivation. In the last round of the game, farmers communicated within their groups and elected to make rules to govern the farm size cultivated by each farmer and by extension the groundwater resources withdrawn, with sanctions for those farmers who did not comply with the rules (communication with group-elected rules). The game was followed with a debriefing session that included the larger community. The group discussion focused on the sharing of lessons from the groundwater game and farmers’ practical experiences on groundwater management.

Three months after implementing the intervention, an endline survey was conducted in the ten communities and the data were compared to that of a baseline survey, which was conducted prior to the game intervention, to evaluate the effects of the intervention on the communities understanding and management of groundwater resources.

In the baseline survey preceding the games, farmers indicated that, there were no rules or arrangements for managing groundwater in their communities. Irrigators could cultivate as many plots as they wanted and have as many groundwater wells as they could afford, with little or no consideration for the long-term sustainability of the groundwater and their livelihoods. Generally, communities held the belief that groundwater could not be permanently depleted and therefore were strongly opposed to making rules to regulate when and how much to abstract.

Community debriefing meeting at Woe – Anloga district, Ghana (Photo credit: Emmanuel Obuobie)

Preliminary results from the endline survey show limited actions in response to the intervention at the community level, such as the establishment of institutions or rules on how much groundwater to abstract and when. However, there was an observed improvement in the attendance of community meetings for discussing community development issues including on water, health and hygiene; and improvement in participation in communal labour for cleaning communal facilities and places such as markets, beaches and drains. In addition, communities recalled learning through the game about the depletable nature of groundwater and the need to manage groundwater use. They understood the importance of adopting practices to help manage water use. Community beliefs shifted away from rejection of rules to govern groundwater use (at baseline) to understanding the need for collective action to manage the shared resource, though some communities still maintained that rules would be difficult to establish and enforce. Comparatively, several changes could be observed at the individual level. Actions reported by individual farmers included a reduction in plot size or number of farm plots cultivated, a reduction in number of wells on individual farms; a reduction in cropping intensity, and a reduction in the number of hours irrigated for every round of irrigation.

It might well take several more months or even years to see the full impact of the groundwater intervention. This is not surprising given how long it takes to change long-held understandings and beliefs of how groundwater systems operate. One thing is clear however: we cannot ensure sustainable groundwater-supported livelihoods without changing mental models and the way we develop and manage groundwater in this part of Ghana or anywhere else in the world.

Senior Research Scientist, Water Research Institute – Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ghana ↩︎
Director, Natural Resources and Resilience – International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), USA ↩︎
Senior Research Analyst; Natural Resources and Resilience – International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), USA ↩︎
Senior Research Fellow; Natural Resources and Resilience – International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), USA ↩︎

Upcoming study on the impact of solar-powered pumps in vegetable production in Mali

July 20, 2022 by abbey.kunkle

by Rosaine Yegbemey, World Vegetable Center

Vegetable production in Mali has increased rapidly over the past decades. A lot of vegetable producers continue to irrigate their fields using watering cans and buckets, which is hard work and limits the scale of the operation. Nowadays, motorized water pumps including solar-powered pumps are increasingly available to Malian farmers, although adoption is still low. These pumps offer great potential to produce more, reduce drudgery, and reduce risk. However, scientific evidence is lacking on the potential benefits and costs, particularly among vegetable farmers. Such information is important to guide the scaling of the technology.

Photo credit: Jean-baptiste Tignegre, WorldVeg

Against this backdrop and within the framework of the USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI), the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) started an evaluation study to assess the multiple impacts of solar-powered pumps in irrigated vegetable production in Mali. The study will focus on aspects of gender, cost of production, risk, household income and quality of diets.

The study will use a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods. Qualitative methods such as focus group discussions and in-depth personal interviews will be used to collect information from local irrigation suppliers and farmers and understand what type of farmers are adopting solar-powered pumps, as well as their experiences with the technology. Quantitative methods will rely on a farm survey of adopters and non-adopters and apply a quasi-experimental evaluation design using Propensity Score Matching (PSM). The data collection is scheduled to start in late July or early August 2022 and first results should be available toward the end of the year.

Small scale irrigated forage production: Abate Wale’s pathway out of poverty and malnutrition

July 19, 2022 by abbey.kunkle

by Melkamu Derseh, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Abate Wale is one of the early adopters of irrigated fodder production practices promoted by the USAID supported Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation in the Robit Bata Kebele of Bahir Dar Zuria district. Like any other farmer in the mixed farming system, Abate’s livelihood depends on crop production and livestock rearing. His engagement in small scale irrigation and improved livestock production has helped him to diversify his income. “I am now in a better position to lead my family than few years back,” he says.

**Senait Abate, daughter of Abate Wale**
**(Photo credit: Apollo Habtamu/ILRI)**

Change in family nutrition

Abate has five children, all of whom are attending school in their locality. Senait was a little girl four years ago (Fig 1, left) when a documentary of early adopters of irrigated fodder was produced (https://www.ilri.org/news/irrigated-forages-improve-livestock-productivity-and-livelihoods-ethiopia). Now, well grown and with a smiling face (Fig 1, right), she said that the family has more cows now than before. “My mother gives me milk every day, before and after school. I am now in grade 2 and am happy with my school time,” she said. The way Abate’s children are growing and sent to school are testimonies to an improved life for his family.

Abate’s children in their fodder farm (right, Senait Abate) (Photo credit: Apollo Habtamu)

Increased feed biomass and quality of feed

Abate recalls his first experience several years back, “When researchers from the International Livestock Research Institute and Andassa Research Center approached us and explained the benefits of growing fodder for livestock using supplemental irrigation, many of us were skeptical of the benefits, but I decided to try it on a small plot.” He added, “After I tried it, I was surprised to harvest fodder every 4 weeks and get good quality feed from a small plot. As a result, my interest to expand my fodder plot has increased.”

Abate Wale, carrying milk he has just milked from his cows

Change of attitude

When the ILSSI project started experimenting with irrigated fodder in the Robit kebele, farmers in the kebele had no prior experience cultivating fodder and only just over a dozen (15-17) farmers were willing to collaborate with researchers and allocate a small plot (100m²) for the trial, Abate being one of them. Through a series of on-farm trials and demonstrations, however, the awareness and interest of farmers has increased considerably. Nowadays, close to 300 farmers are producing irrigated fodder on a range of farmland sizes in that village. The demand increases every year and researchers are working with development partners to reach more farmers.

Abate is also one of the farmers who replaced part of the Khat plant [stimulant] in his farmland with irrigated fodder to be able to produce enough feed for his lactating cows.

Currently, he allocates a total of 1250m² of land (9% of his total land holding) for irrigated fodder production. Compared to Khat production, Abate explains that irrigated fodder is less labor and [agri-chemical] input demanding, and he is happy with the new practice.

Diversified income options

He said, “My income from the sale of milk increased considerably after I started using irrigated fodder to feed my lactating cows, and milk available for my children also doubled.” Prior to the intervention, he had only local cows. Over time, he acquired a crossbred cow – which produce more milk than local breeds – through Andassa Research Center. Now he has two crossbred lactating cows and plans to increase that number in the future.

Formation of a dairy cooperative

“The presence of a functioning dairy cooperative on our doorstep encourages me to engage more in irrigated fodder and dairying,” he said, referring to the new milk collection and processing facility built by the Genet Lerobit farmer dairy cooperative through ILSSI project support.

The first attempt at a cooperative, which was formed before the ILSSI project’s intervention, collapsed as members could not supply sufficient milk for the market due to low volume of milk production because of the feed shortage. However, after the intervention of irrigated forages project, the cooperative was revived.

Market challenges

The successes are, however, not without challenges. Abate says a reliable market for milk remains a constraint for the farmers in the village. “Through our cooperative, we supply milk to collectors and processors. However, the milk collectors and processors sometimes do not respect the contract agreement they entered with us and hold back our money for a long time. We are still hopeful the cooperative would be in a better position to bring our dairy products to the market,” he said.

Explaining this issue, the chairman of the dairy cooperative said that the contract agreement they entered with milk processors was on a post-paid basis. That means they supply milk daily to the processor and payment is made at the end of the month based on the amount of milk supplied. However, recently one processor owed the cooperative more than six hundred thousand birr (approx. USD 12,000), but failed to pay them for more than five months.

Abate participating in field days organized to evaluate different forage options (Photo credit: Apollo Habtamu/ILRI)

Alternative ways to mitigate challenges

The chairman noted that despite such challenges, members including Abate continue to bring their milk to the cooperative and currently it supplies about 500 liters of milk daily to the local market. “The cooperative is now embarking on processing milk into shelf stable products (butter and cheese) in the newly built facility with the financial and technical support of the Innovation Lab, and we hope this will solve some of the market problems we face at the moment,” he said. They also count on the support and commitment of district and zonal level experts and decision makers to further increase their dairy production in the locality. Consumption of nutrient-dense dairy foods is widely understood to improve child nutrition and health.

Newly built milk collection and processing center

Lessons

Small scale irrigated forages production can change livelihoods if supported by research products like improved forage varieties, irrigation technologies, and follow up assistance from public sector and local stakeholders. Moreover, attention to fodder to dairy value chain elements and working with partners to address each element is crucial to sustain the benefits. To decide which technology to adopt, farmers need to see for themselves what works for them. In this respect, the participatory research approach that the ILSSI project followed in the project sites serves as a platform for scaling up lessons.

Coping with climate change: Could irrigation bring relief to Ghana’s parched cocoa sector?

March 11, 2022 by Marianne Gadeberg

In Ghana, the cocoa sector represents 20 to 25 percent of the total export earnings and is an important source of employment and income for about four million households. But in recent decades, dry spells and droughts have challenged cocoa farmers and hampered production.

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) is partnering with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana to investigate how small scale irrigation practices can help protect Ghana’s cocoa production as climate change impacts intensify in the future.

Increased year-round, long-term productivity

Agriculture in Ghana is mainly rainfed and therefore changes in weather conditions greatly affect the productivity of crops. Over the years, Ghana has recorded wavering trends in cocoa yields, which have been attributed to erratic rainfall, including longer dry spells during the rainy seasons. As a result, farmers’ incomes have dwindled. This is the current status in the cocoa sector, as explained by Janet Afia Boadu, a second-year MPhil Environmental Science student at KNUST, who is collecting data to support the investigation.

“Implementation of irrigation systems could help boost cocoa productivity by increasing yield all year round – and it could support young cocoa plants. Increase in productivity will also improve the livelihoods of farmers by raising their incomes. Finally, irrigation systems have added advantages in that they can help nurture other crops that could be used for shade or food,” said Boadu.

Currently, cocoa production is declining for mature trees, and an estimated 40 percent of new cocoa seedlings die before reaching maturity. While there are three cocoa seasons per year, the output across those seasons remains below potential. Government agencies, research institutions, and private sector actors involved in the cocoa sector are therefore advocating for the use of supplementary irrigation and improved soil and water management for cocoa seedlings, mature trees, and inter-cropping.

To understand how and where irrigation might support the cocoa sector, Boadu’s fieldwork is focused on two aspects:

“I’m using questionnaires to establish baseline conditions, with special emphasis on the livelihoods and agricultural production, in the Ashanti and Western Regions of Ghana. Second, I’m sampling water and soil to analyze the environmental quality that supports their agricultural production to find eco-friendly strategies—for example using recycled agricultural waste—to restore cocoa farms.”

Janet Boadu interviews a cocoa farmer in Ghana’s Western Region. Photo: Prof Tetteh/KNUST.

Challenges abound for cocoa farmers

The first, major challenge cocoa farmers face is the lack of irrigation facilities that could help them adapt to climate change effects, according to Dr Isaac K. Tetteh, Associate Professor of Climate (Atmospheric) and Environmental Science at KNUST, who leads the ILSSI-supported KNUST research on cocoa, irrigation, and climate adaptation.

Boadu elaborated by adding that even with irrigation technologies available in the market, farmers are likely to encounter some challenges in developing irrigation on their cocoa farms. For example, farmers still need access to enough, and clean enough, water for irrigation to be a suitable solution. Unregulated, open-pit gold mining is widespread in Ghana, which causes pollution with sediments and chemicals flowing into nearby water bodies in important cocoa-growing areas.

Another challenge is that the installation, repair, and maintenance of an irrigation system – from boreholes to motorized pumps – is expensive, and farmers have limited access to credit, while financial assistance from cocoa-buying companies, governmental and non-governmental agencies is inadequate.

“The maintenance of irrigation system sometimes requires technical know-how that might not be common with farmers and extension officers. This might stifle daily operation and minor maintenance and would affect the effectiveness and durability of the systems,” said Boadu. High-quality irrigation technologies are needed to minimize risks for farmers’ investments in irrigation.

Dr Tetteh also listed high costs of pesticides to control pests and diseases, limited mechanization, low prices, and decreasing availability of land as significant challenges. The lack of access to water may also worsen some of these factors.

“Until the biggest challenges listed are adequately addressed, the future might look bleak, especially for young cocoa farmers,” said Dr Tetteh.

Innovation and research

Strong research collaborations between the departments of the Colleges of Science and Agriculture and Natural Resources at KNUST, the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, and international research programs such as ILSSI do exist. It is through these partnerships that innovative research could bring practical solutions to some of these challenges, said Dr Tetteh.

“However, this also calls for funding to ensure quality research, the findings of which can be disseminated to the grassroot level for enhancement of cocoa production,” he emphasized.

Dr Tetteh also highlighted the role of young academics, explaining that mentorship is key for graduate students to become research-oriented, critical thinkers, analytical, problem-solvers, and entrepreneurs:

“The outcome of this research path, especially in the area of science and technology, will surely play significant and complementary roles in addressing some of the major challenges unique to cocoa farmers and bring a new lease of hope to many rural folks whose primary occupation is agriculture.”

For Boadu, her fieldwork so far has already had an impact on her thinking about her future research career:

“I have witnessed rivers and lakes polluted with wastes from mining, and that has really emphasized to me the need for high-quality water resources for irrigation. I’ve gained confidence to explore the various remediation technologies for water and sediments, and I would like to explore and design filters to be installed in irrigation systems to remove pollutants,” she said.

In these ways, partnerships for innovation and research could support farmers in Ghana to overcome climate change challenges, restore their cocoa farms, and secure sustainable livelihoods in the future. These advances not only would secure farmers’ livelihoods now and in the long term, but also enable them to maintain and grow the cocoa sector and its contributions to Ghana’s economy.

Games to stimulate groundwater governance: An introduction and example from Ethiopia

December 9, 2021 by Marianne Gadeberg

One of the greatest water management challenges is depletion from overuse, which is a particular challenge for groundwater resources as declines are not directly visible. Also, groundwater management is highly complex, with many users, often unknown to each other, sharing the same resource and not realizing their interconnectedness. Participatory behavioral or experimental games that simulate real-life resource use are a valuable tool for improving users’ knowledge of resources like groundwater.

In this project, the aim is to improve community groundwater governance in Ethiopia through behavioral games. In four districts in SNNPR, community members play different rounds where they each individually choose between planting higher and lower water consumptive crops and learn about the difference in collective outcome (water table levels) and individual gains (income) based on their choices. This is followed by a community-wide debriefing discussion where players and the wider farming community reflect on the game experience and discuss challenges and lessons for real-life governance of water resources. Use of experimental games as an intervention have been shown to increase community understanding of groundwater conditions and the need for coordination and adoption of rules for effective resource management, thus aiding collective action and decision making.