LA 0128- Innovative, low-cost, water control technologies for smallholder farmer income generation-
(Bob Yoder, IDE International, yoder@ideorg.org)
Most, rural poor have access to some land for farming but frequently their fields are a collection of scattered plots of less than 1000 m2. Even if they had capital for purchasing irrigation and other agricultural inputs, the small plots they farm are not well suited for equipment and supplies available in the market. So the vast majority of small farms are dependent upon rainfed cropping with constant risk of drought wiping out most or all of their production. Smallholder farmers often cannot produce enough food for the entire year under rainfed conditions. With control over water and access to markets is possible for these farmers to use their household labor and management skills to grow crops of higher value than cereals. With higher value and multiple cropping seasons under irrigated conditions, smallholders can generally increase their annual net income.
Over the past 15 years IDE has experimented with various forms of drip irrigation to find a way to make it affordable for small farms. It is the success of low-cost drip irrigation and the new opportunities this brings that will be described in this “local action” presentation.
About the author organisation. Founded in 1981, International Development Enterprises (IDE) is a non-profit organization that employs market principles to strike at the roots of rural poverty in the world's least developed countries. By taking advantage of market forces, IDE is able to have widespread impact using minimal resources. For more : www.ideorg.org
LA-0063-Negociations between users and agencies to rescue lake Chapala in Mexico
(Sergio Vargas, IMTA, svargas@tlaloc.imta.mx)
Lake Chapala and the lerma basin are a good example of search for trade-offs and vertical negociation process/ There is a conflict situation between farmers upstream dependant upon irrigation, cities upstream and downstream for drinking water, environmentalists and citizens willing to preserve the lake -going down. The Lerma Chapala basin council has worked in the past years to find a solution for Lake Chapala. In spite of institutional deficiencies, it could overcome two problems successfully. The first problem was that stakeholders that could be affected by an agreement without compensation did not trust data and the hydrological model. A set of meetings with direct contending party’s advisers reached a consensus, which paves the way for a new stage of negotiations. The second problem was the lack of basic information (social, economic, environmental). A survey was conducted that surprisingly indicated high expectations for environmental conservation and compensations of farmers from the whole populations, including the farmers themselves.
About the project : This project is done in partnership involving Irrigation and Water Engineering Group/Wageningen University, the Netherlands ; the Social Participation Group of the Instituto Mexicano de Technología del Agua (IMTA), Mexico and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), France.
For more about the assessment on the lerma chapala: www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Assessment/Research_Projects/basin_synthesis_study_lerma-chapala.htm
LA 0020 -Indigenous Women and Andean Wetlands Protection and Tourist Exploitation-
(Maria Angelica Alegria, Gender and water alliance Latin America; maria.alegria@moptt.gov.cl)
For centuries, indigenous communities from Northern Chile managed natural resources and environment on sustainable basis. Their holistic understanding and knowledge is noteworthy, specially in regard to the northern wetlands of Chile called Vegas and Bofedales. Due to pressures to get water rights for nonagricultural uses over wetlands located in the Altiplano, outsiders started to drain them with the consequent loss of associated flora and wild fauna as well as reducing the power of ancestral rights of indigenous communities on natural resources (included water), putting at risk the sustainability and survival of both local populations and wetlands on which the communities depend.Change in the water law in 1992 in order to prohibit any groundwater exploration and exploitation of the aquifers associated to these wetlands. As a consequence of that amendment and since 1996, the northern wetlands are legally protected and the local population got security.
To know more about the CA – visit the joint Booth CA- IWMI-CP and the website www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Assessment/index.htm
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