Insights and Opportunities from New Field Studies with. Small-scale Irrigation in Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Ghana

Transcription

1 INNOVATION LAB ON SMALL SCALE IRRIGATION Insights and Opportunities from New Field Studies with DOI: /rsta DOI: /rsta Small-scale Irrigation in Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Ghana Jennie BARRON with Nicole LEFORE and Petra SCHMITTER Stockholm World Water Week 28 th August 2016

2 RESURGE IN IRRIGATION INVESTMENTS AND INTEREST IN SSA Manage water security for development and environment Adapt to CC Respond to food, fodder and fibre demand Provide opportunities for rural incl. women and youth

3 TRANSFORMATION THROUGH SMALLHOLDER IRRIGATION: WORKING WITH IDENTIFIED CONSTRAINTS Limited access to high quality seed/ fertilizer Manual water lifting technologies & Gender (labour) Low yield, predominantly rainfed crop production systems Soil fertility: organic matter management, nutrient input Water access: Drilling capabilities, pumps and energy sources Transition Pressure Water availability: climate, surface and groundwater availability, infrastructure Land tenure and pressure: human and livestock population, consumption demand Limited GW recharge & availability Market conditions: access and prices Low market price for produce Land and water tenure Productive use of surface and groundwater for irrigation in sustainable intensification Lack of micro-credit

4 UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL FOR SMALLHOLDER AGRICULTURE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA What technologies, tools and approaches make women and men farmer profit and improve wellbeing? water access, water scheduling How can these be enabled for women and men farmers? revolving funds, opportunistic value chain engagements Can adoption be sustainable in landscape and with other water users? monitoring of water resources use on landscape scale

5 water access, water scheduling

6 GENDER HAS IMPLICATIONS ON ENABLING IRRIGATION WITH MANUAL WATER LIFTING Technical efficiency evaluated based on production (econ. analysis) decreases as irrigation water applied increases R&W efficiency vs. Pulley: strongly site specific Women seem equally efficient with onion and napier but less for tomato (T. Assefa, 2015)

7 FARMERS CHOICE OF TECHNOLOGY PREFERENCE BY SITE % of sample farmers who prefer Site Motor pump R&W Pulley Adami-Tulu Lemo Robit Dangeshita Possible reasons: accessibility of water sources Preliminary results of cost-benefit analysis show that the economic feasibility of irrigation technologies vary by crop, gender and site. (M. Dessie, 2015)

8 WATER MANAGEMENT TOOLS HELP FARMERS INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY

9 revolving funds, opportunistic value chain engagements

10 PROVIDING MEANS TO INVEST Testing different models: revolving funds Tz, micro credits Eth Assessment of financial institutions lending capacity for irrigation technology Emerging findings: Women disadvantaged because of lack of control (not always utility) of assets such as land Low capacity of MFI to raise capital/ cash Financial literacy of farmers and financial institutions needs capacity development

11 EMERGING COMMODITIES PROVIDES OPPORTUNITIES : FODDER MARKETING Fodder type Wet season Price (TSh) Dry Season Price (TSh) +/- Unit Natural grass mix 30k 40k +25% pickup Rice straw 35k - Lorry Dry maize stover 30k 40k +25% pickup Napier grass 1.5k 3k +50% load

12 WATER PRODUCTIVITY AND ECONOMIC GAIN DOES NOT ALWAYS TALLY Large variability in irrigation applied without significant increases in yield Most water productive doesnot translate automatically to most economic gain per input of water Oats & Vetch and Desho promising irrigated crops (annual vs. perennial) Tomato seems to give the highest return for the water abstracted assuming water availaiblity is not a constraint

13 monitoring of water resources use on landscape scale

14 Rainfall and recharge depth, mm SHALLOW GROUNDWATER IS AN UNTAPPED POTENTIAL FOR SUSTAINABLE INTESIFICATION Monthly average recharge Monthly Rainfall, mm May, 2014 Jun, 2014 July, 2014 Aug, 2014 Sept, 2014 Oct, 2014 Nov, 2014 Dec., 2014 Jan, 2015 Date Yilak et al in prep. Annual average rainfall: 1450 mm Runoff = 675mm Recharge is 30% of rainfall at watershed scale = 400 mm

15 Total Recharge, m..but SHALLOW GROUNDWATER NEEDS TECHNOLOGIES IN TUNE WITH LANDCSAPE CONTEXT 1.0 a R² = Water storage depth of the well, m Yilak et al. (in prep)

16 EMERGING MESSAGES What technologies, tools and approaches make women and men farmer profit and improve wellbeing? Water lifting can make profit for men and women Motorized pump and rope & washer more promising How can these be enabled for women and men farmers? Provide solutions addressing labour and gender Models for access to micro finance Promising opportunities in emerging markets such as fodder Can adoption be sustainable in landscape and with other water users? Shallow groundwater has great scope for residual moisture and dry season sustainable intensification Economic productivity may be more important than water productivity to scale

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18 U.S. GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

19 CONCLUSIONS ETH Constraints for male and female irrigators in relation to water lifting and water management is different ETH Variability between farmers in the same site, same technology and same water management is high => continuation needed to confirm preliminary findings ETH Need for site specific irrigation recommendations: water - labor and land availability whilst making a good economic decision on what to grow GHA Opportunity for rainwater harvesting and water storage in northern Ghana: for households with rooftops with corrugated iron. GHA Shallow wells provide reliable water source for SSI-start planting in September/October each year to meet periods of peak water requirement GHA There are serious water deficits at watershed scale: need for 1100 to 1300 mm to meet irrigation water needs throughout the dry season GHA Challenges with use of WFD - farmers and AEAs require additional training TZ Farmers should receive adequate training on how to operate, repair and maintain the Water lifting and water use technologies TZ Develop and proactively enforce policies, regulations and by-laws to protect water use structures TZ Farmers must have access to credit tailored to their conditions. TZ The local government must devise strategic means of availing financial resources to in invest in water lifting and water use technologies TZ Strengthening the local water governance institutions such as WUAs is important for sustainable up-scaling of WUTs.

20 MAIN ACTIVITIES GW/SW use: manual/& motorized water lifting devices (pulley, rope and washer, petrol & solar pump) Gender: female & male irrigators Irrigation management (Soil moisture based, CWR (ET), WFD, Drip & conservation agriculture - NCAT) Crops (vegetables, fruit trees & fodder) Improving groundwater recharge Credit constraints and opportunities (survey & interviews, revolving fund)

21 SITES OF ACTIVITIES

22 WATER APPLIED Length Growing period % GW recharge <Irrigation depth applied >< 40 % GW recharge (except for supplementary irrigation of Desho and O&V) Variation in irrigation water applied, influenced rather by manual water lifting than water management and gender (Source data: M. Tesema, T. Ewnetie, H. Mulugeta and D. Tegegne, 2015)

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