CGIAR to get more than $650 Million to accelerate efforts to help 300 million smallholder farmers adapt to climate change.
This is great news for IWMI as water is a central component in adaptation, and we are focused on producing innovative water solutions for sustainable development. Within this overall sum, we already know that Sweden is giving WLE $2 million for work in 2019.
The donors include The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The World Bank, the UK, the Netherlands, the European Commission, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany and they have committed $650 million to CGIAR to accelerate its efforts to help 300 million farmers adapt to climate change.
Welcoming this news, Elwyn Grainger-Jones. Executive Director of CGIAR System Organization added, “The Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) made a solemn promise to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty by 2030 and that simply cannot be achieved unless the worlds’ smallholder farmers can adapt to climate change. Farmers need a host of new innovations to overcome a growing array of climate threats”.
“We’ve also been working closely with smallholder farmers across the developing world for almost 50 years,” said Grainger-Jones. “We know a lot about the crops they grow, the livestock they keep and the challenges and opportunities they currently face. We are ready to put the full force of our insights and activities behind a major effort to confront the climate emergency they now face.”
As one of the CGIAR Research Centers, IWMI is deeply involved in climate adaptation, for example our experts work on ensuring that the solar powered irrigation revolution, which is taking place in many countries where we work, does not lead to over-exploitation of groundwater resources and benefits all, by developing sustainable and inclusive business models and advanced information systems to monitor and guide water extraction.
Watch a video on IWMI’s work on solar powered irrigation in India:
Related Tweet:
.@BillGates discusses new commitments for research dedicated to reducing rural poverty, increasing food security, improving human health and nutrition, and ensuring sustainable management of natural resources@CGIAR @UN @gatesfoundation pic.twitter.com/hmZ1YwR7Y8
— IISDRS (@IISDRS) September 23, 2019
Population pressure and increasing water competition in a changing climate require us to take stock of the availability and use of water across scales. Water availability not only influences farmers’ commercial prospects but also irrigation-related enterprises and agri-businesses. Greater water scarcity could jeopardize irrigation and agricultural markets while excessive water use can lead to declining ecosystems, water quality and soil health. IWMI advises development partners and the public and private sectors on all aspects of water resource availability and use through a variety of advanced modeling and remote-sensing products and tools, including 
The ability of farmers to engage in or expand irrigation depends on the prevailing socioeconomic, ecological and political contexts, which are often complex, non-linear and changeable. Overcoming systemic barriers to farmer-led irrigation development while taking advantage of existing opportunities 
A lack of affordable credit, particularly for women and resource-poor farmers, is one of the main barriers to expanding farmer-led irrigation in low- and middle-income countries. But 
Scaling farmer-led irrigation requires strengthening human capacity and knowledge exchange among all actors and stakeholders involved. IWMI takes an action research approach, working with national and international research institutions, governments, extension agents and public and private organizations to co-develop the scaling ecosystem and strengthen capacity to drive scaling networks and collective action. We support the