Targeting Agricultural Water Management Interventions

Targeting AGwater Management Interventions (TAGMI) is a decision-support tool that predicts the probability of success for scaling out agricultural water management technologies for smallholder farmers.

In the prototype now available, three technologies are mapped for the Limpopo and Volta river basins in Africa.  The intervention options considered by the tool are soil and water conservation (conservation agriculture), small-scale irrigation and small reservoirs.

For customized results, the Bayesian network model enables users to define how highly they value certain water resources and forms of human, social, financial, physical and natural capital.

For example, a user may choose small-scale irrigation as an intervention and define as “very important” suitable soil conditions, access to credit, and labor availability, with other factors valued as less important.

The tool runs a scenario based on how the factors have been valued, and then predicts, with a measure of certainty, a high, medium or low probability of success. The tool thus can help suggest a way forward for scaling out agricultural water management interventions, tailored to the country level.

TAGMI is intended for a non-technical user, including development practitioners, policy makers and investors who want to know which parts of the Volta and Limpopo river basins have conditions suitable for interventions. The TAGMI tool is open source and available online. Use the tool.