Water, Land and Ecosystems - 1.1 Volta/Niger region

V9: Giving ‘latecomers’ a head start: Reorienting irrigation investments in the White Volta Basin to improve ecosystem services and the livelihoods of women and youth

wle_admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 21:26:00 +0000

The project will evaluate the impacts of selected irrigation systems on the White Volta Basin in Northern Ghana at three scales (small, medium and large). Firstly, the study will examine the contribution of each irrigation system to enhanced rural livelihoods and gender and generational equity; and how ecosystem services underpin this development and are affected by it. Secondly, a comparative analysis of systems at the three scales will be undertaken to assess and explain relative differences in their contributions to livelihoods, equity and healthy ecosystems. Finally, based on this comparison, the project will examine the potential for up- and out-scaling of irrigation investments that give women and youth a ‘head start’ and the changes in policy and skills needed to provide them with positive incentives for the sustainable management of ecosystems and their services. The rationale for this study lies on the overall paucity of information that decision- makers, farmers, public agencies, development partners and other investors face to make irrigation investment decisions at different scales in the Volta Basin. The direct effects of irrigation on productivity, employment and incomes are well documented. Irrigation programs and investments have focused solely on increased food production despite the large potential of irrigation to reduce poverty as a broader concept of well- being. Given the potentially high rewards, but also high possibility of failure, the assessment of irrigation investments must go beyond scale to integrate concerns regarding ecosystem services, livelihood impacts, and youth and women’s empowerment. There is need to generate new knowledge on the feedback mechanisms and indirect effects that link irrigation, livelihoods and ecosystem services, as well as the effects on gender and generational equity. The project’s activities will be divided into three work packages: (i) Understanding processes of irrigation impacts on livelihoods, gender & generational equity and how these processes are underpinned by ecosystem services; (ii) Identifying policy and institutional changes and developing women and youth’s capacities to improve irrigation design and implementation to maximize gender, livelihood and ecosystem outcomes; and (iii) Examining opportunities for out-scaling promising irrigation investments to other areas in Northern Ghana. The study will deliver a combination of different types of outputs targeted to specific next-user groups. Research outputs will include reports and publications based on the results of the work packages and gendered and generational maps. Outputs targeted to next-users will consist of investment briefs on promising irrigation technologies and practices suitable for women and youth, training materials targeted to extension and NGO officers and actors along the irrigated agriculture value chain and several web- stories. Finally, the project will facilitate the creation of an innovation platform from its inception that will conduct deep analysis of opportunities and constraints that women and youth face in deriving direct and indirect benefits from irrigation development and generate knowledge that enhances out-scaling of technological and institutional innovations. As a result of the project, we expect agricultural productivity to increase by exploiting the positive linkages between livelihoods and ecosystem services in various irrigation systems and providing guidelines for productive and sustainable investments. In addition, the capacities of women and youth will be enhanced to more effectively manage their resources and reduce degradation of natural capital by analysing current irrigation systems and identifying best practices and innovations through a holistic assessment.

Contact Person

Ben Nyamadi (benvay@yahoo.com)

Partners

International Water Management Institute, University for Development Studies, Women in Agricultural Development Directorate

Completed

Start/End dateDecember 01, 2014 — December 01, 2016

Research ThemeEnhancing Sustainable Agriculture

Cluster

1.1 Volta/Niger region

Regions

Western Africa

V6: Supporting investment decisions in water and land management across the rural-urban continuum in the Volta - Niger focal region

wle_admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 21:26:00 +0000

A number of agricultural water management (AWM) and resource recovery & reuse (RRR) solutions for improved agricultural productivity have been proposed and technically verified in the Volta-Niger region, especially in Ghana and Burkina Faso. However, their effectiveness in terms of multiple ecosystem services delivery, environmental health, adoption factors and returns on investment (RoI) are largely unknown and the potential of some interventions might be over- or undervalued. Therefore, this project will assess the effectiveness, adoptability and returns on investment (RoI) of some of these solutions, using ecosystems approach, to draw lessons and recommendations for their scaling up and business feasibility potential. Selected interventions target improvement in water and/or land productivity through agricultural intensification across the rural-urban as well as the rainfed-irrigation continuum. Four specific interventions have been selected for analysis: (1) Small water infrastructure (SWI) for small holder irrigation; (2 Drip irrigation; (3) Safe and productive water reuse; and (4) Nutrient and organic matter recovery from waste. While these interventions have previously been considered independently at IWMI as AWM solutions or RRR solutions, this project undertakes a holistic analysis using ecosystem-based approach. We will analyse the economic and environmental effects of these interventions - alone and in combination - in the landscape by mapping ecosystem services, assessing their benefits and trade-offs as well as addressing gender and equity issues and the potential of these interventions in poverty alleviation and ecosystem health. We will apply three analytical modules which will provide our next users including government agencies, development partners and private sectors some information and evidence that could support their investment decisions. The three analytical modules include: (1) Assessment of the potential changes in the delivery of ecosystem services (2) Assessment of the attitudes and perceptions on constraints/barriers and opportunities of adoption/out-scaling of the interventions by different stakeholders and for selected geographical areas of interest to government and regional donor community. (3) Analysis and proposition of ‘business models’ for up- or out-scaling of the selected interventions beyond conventional donor support to ensure sustainability. For module 1, data will be collected from past and ongoing projects and include secondary data (e.g. productivity and livelihood data) and where needed primary data (e.g., ecosystems mapping and valuation). For module 2 gender differentiated qualitative data will be collected. For module 3 we will develop cost-benefit analysis targeting key sectors of intervention (different crops, different places of production (rural, peri urban), different commodity value chain), (incl. secondary impacts or spill-overs) for a business model analysis of the selected technologies for different agricultural systems. Our general approach will be multi-disciplinary and ecosystem-based where multiple ecosystem services will be examined. The project will produce investment guides and policy briefs to be used by the next users listed above. Investment guides help promote efficient and effective interventions that restore the environment, increase agricultural productivity, and food security. Policy briefs focused on gender and equity issues influence policy makers in gender and equity related decision-making process. The project will involve about 12 graduate students from our partner universities thereby contributing to regional capacity building.

Contact Person

Bedru Balana (b.balana@cgiar.org)

Lead Center

International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

Partners

Women in Agricultural Development Directorate, WASCAL, Kwame Nkrumah University Science and Technology, iDE Burkina Faso

Completed

Start/End dateJune 01, 2014 — December 01, 2016

Research ThemeEnhancing Sustainable Agriculture

Cluster

1.1 Volta/Niger region

Regions

Western Africa

Countries

Burkina Faso, Ghana

V8: Realizing the full biomass potential of mixed crop-livestock systems in rapidly changing Sahelian agro-ecological landscapes

wle_admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 21:26:00 +0000

The Sahel is an agriculture-dependent economy facing multiple challenges with growing populations, rapid socio-economic change, climate change impacts, natural resources under increasing stress, and serious environmental degradation. Pressure on biomass resources is a particular concern. Beside meeting the demand for food and fuel by a growing population and feed needs for sustaining livestock production, biomass is also crucial to sustain regulating ecosystem services, e.g. to secure a return flow of organic matter to impoverished soils to improve water holding capacity and soil fertility. The specific objectives of the project are to provide ‘proof of concept’ along two livestock systems value chains to develop co-benefits in agro-ecosystems landscapes and human (men and women) wellbeing: Three key points will be explored: 1) Assessment of the opportunities and effects of promising, adoptable and ecosystem-relevant biomass management practices on agricultural productivity, natural resource sustainability, food security and livelihoods; 2) Analysis of multi-scale trade-offs of interventions to enhance biomass production and utilisation under different biophysical, socio-economic and institutional contexts, and for different farmer types and gender groups; 3) Development of tools for integrated, participatory and gender sensitive assessments of biomass production in mixed crop-livestock systems and potential opportunities for out-scaling. The underpinning hypothesis for this project is that degraded low producing smallholder crop-livestock farming systems have an untapped provisional ecosystem capacity that can be realized, if regulating ecosystem services are enhanced, ultimately a transformation into healthy agro-ecological landscapes. The research questions being addressed are: (i) What are the opportunities and effects of biomass management practices on agricultural productivity, food security, livelihoods and ecosystem services related to soil and water? (ii) What are the trade-offs and socio-economic barriers at different spatial and temporal scales associated with biomass production and utilization under different farmer types and gender groups? (iii) What are the potential opportunities for out-scaling of promising ecosystem-enhancing biomass management practices? Expected outputs from this project include: (i) Research outputs - Protocol for value chain actor analysis; journal articles; (ii) Outputs for next users - Engagements including consultations, training and workshops at site and national levels, skills training /using TAGMI in potential evidence base for policy development change, modelling tools and biomass framework, briefing notes and blogs on key results from the project. Expected outcomes from this project are: (i) Government ministries and departments in Burkina Faso and Niger are using new knowledge of biomass to inform policy and development formulation by 2017; (ii) Integrated crop-livestock farm communities and related biomass value chain actors and supporting development agents (including NGOs) adopt gender and youth sensitive farming practices to enhance biomass productivity. The project’s consortium comprises of 7 institutions: CG centres: ILRI (lead institute) and IWMI; NGOs: SNV Burkina Faso and SNV Niger; Government ministry: Ministry of Animal Resources in both Burkina Faso and Niger; Advanced Research Institute: Wageningen University. Project activities will be conducted in two sites in the semi-arid northern parts of the Volta and Niger River basins. i) Ouahigouya (650 mm annual rainfall) in Yatenga province in northern part of Burkina Faso. ii) Fakara (450 mm annual rainfall) in south-western Niger. Both sites offer existing databases on natural resources and established collaborative actor networks. The project will explicitly investigate the gender gap and assesses how women and youth, when given opportunities, can contribute and benefit from improved biomass production and productivity of mixed crop-livestock systems, for different scenarios. In addition, the project will address the effects of improved biomass production and management on soil and water related ecosystem services.

Contact Person

Augustine Ayantunde (a.ayantunde@cgiar.or)

Lead Center

International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Partners

International Water Management Institute, Wageningen University, Ministry of Animal Resources, Netherlands Development Organization, Ministry of Animal Resources and Fishery

Completed

Start/End dateJune 15, 2014 — December 31, 2016

Research ThemeEnhancing Sustainable Agriculture

Cluster

1.1 Volta/Niger region

Regions

Western Africa

Countries

Burkina Faso, Niger

V7: Enhancing ecosystem services for smallholder women farmers in the northern region of Ghana through an integrated BHUNGROO based research

wle_admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 21:26:00 +0000

The research project seeks to test Bhungroo Irrigation Technology (BIT) among smallholder women farmers in the Northern region of Ghana. Waterlogging and flooding are major factors impeding agricultural productivity in the Northern regions of Ghana particularly the NorthernNorthern region. The situation is due to the erratic rainfall patterns resulting from climate change and the overflowing of the Volta due to the opening of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso. Flooding and waterlogging negatively affects agriculture productivity particularly for women and youth farmers, by limiting their ability to access farmlands, destroying farm crops and also leading to the prevalence of crop diseases. Unfortunately, during the dry season, most of these waterlogged farmlands get totally dry, with limited access to irrigation facilities for the farmers. Hence these farmers suffer excess water during the wet season, and also limited water during the dry season. Bhungroo is technology that frees waterlogged/flooded farmlands of excess water during the rainy season, stores water underground naturally in unsaturated layers of soil, and pumps water for farming during the dry season. A single Bhungroo has the potential to free five acres of flooded farmland, and store at least 2-4 million liters of water in unsaturated layers of soils. The stored water is extracted from underground using a pump machine. Bhungroo is drilled at the lowest point of a target area between depths of 60- 110 ft. This research seek to investigate the potential to use Bhungroo as a tool to conserve water for farmers to use. The research will further explore how the Bhungroo can contribute to enhancing ecosystem services. This is due to Bhungroo providing water at the door step of farmers. The research seeks to answer a number of questions regarding the introduction of the Bhungroo to the project area. They include identifying the extent to which the soils in the project area can hold and retain water for farming particularly in the dry season. Additionally, the research will seek to identify and measure crop production under Bhungroo compared to traditional irrigation system, and lastly the research will find out the perception of the various rural riparian communities on natural resource and governance. In this research, the following outputs are anticipated; three Bhungroo demonstration plots established within three communities for water storage, information regarding the level of performance of the Bhungroo, comparative information of production trends of Bhungroo against traditional systems, and lastly the perceptions of rural communities on natural resource and governance. On the other hand, the expected outcomes include; Bhungroo demonstration plots will offer opportunity for three farming communities, GIDA and the district assembly to compare the performance of the Bhungroo scheme against the traditional system of irrigation on water management, dry season agricultural production and natural resource management within two years of project implementation. Additionally, at least 50% of participating farmers are knowledgeable about the adverse effect of farming within riparian buffers during the dry season and within the 2-year project implementation period The gender approach of the project lies in the fact that it target primarily resource poor farmers in the area. The simplicity and labour saving nature of the technology, makes it user friendly and highly accepted by women as in the case of India. The gender approach in the research is also the focus on vegetable farming in the area, which over 75 percent of farmers in the area are women. The project seeks to enhance the belief that a gender based approach in irrigation development will achieve greater results, than an intervention solely focused on men. The research will generate various relevant information on irrigations systems, production systems, farmer perceptions, riparian buffers and socio-ecological data, which could help inform policy makers in designing appropriate strategies on irrigation and ecosystem services. The communal management of the Bhungroo in accordance with the traditional protocols on natural resource management will further deepen the bonds among individuals in the communities. This will promote community ownership of the project. Lastly, building and improving knowledge among communities on ecosystem services will contribute to reducing pressure of buffer zones.

Contact Person

Yaw Osei-Owusu (yosei-owusu@conservealliance.org)

Partners

Ghana Irrigation Development Authority, University of Ghana, Rural Support Network

Completed

Start/End dateDecember 01, 2014 — December 01, 2016

Research ThemeEnhancing Sustainable Agriculture

Cluster

1.1 Volta/Niger region

Regions

Western Africa

Countries

Ghana

V11: Managing Bagré for equity and the environment

wle_admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 21:26:00 +0000

The project aims at providing practical answers to a complex question: how to manage large water infrastructures for social and environmental benefits? More specifically the project will discuss options to tailor irrigation investments processes so that the positive impacts of large water infrastructures on equity and the environment are enhanced and their negative externalities limited. In West Africa, notably in the sub-Saharan region, agriculture is dependent on low and erratic rainfall and irrigated areas remain little developed. National governments and their development partners see irrigation as one of the main options to reduce food insecurity and sustain economic growth and promote large water infrastructure projects. Experiences to date show that such projects can have negative impacts in terms of equity (population displacement, land grabbing, and the flooding of places of worship to name but a few) and the environment (losses in biodiversity, changes in hydrological patterns causing leading to human-induced floods and drought). It is necessary to support changes in the way management and governance decisions around these large water infrastructures are made to prevent potential conflicts. This can be done by developing participatory approaches that allow for better listening and taking into account the viewpoints of natural resources users who are intimately linked to their socio-environmental system. This project will focus on the downstream area commanded by the Bagré dam located on the White Volta (Nakambé) river. The Bagré dam is the biggest multi-purpose water infrastructure in Burkina Faso. As such, it is crucial for food production, hydropower generation, and the regulation of water flows (notably the limitation of floods that can have dramatic impacts, including in north-east Ghana). The Bagré dam is the center point of the World Bank supported Bagré Growth Pole Project that aims at an integrated development of 4 Burkinabe provinces, notably through land allocation to agricultural investors. The area will witness dramatic changes in the near future and it is crucial that planned investments bear fruits for all sections of society in an environmentally sustainable way. Through in-depth research on the dynamics at play around the Bagré dam, the project will provide knowledge and generic tools for a more equitable and environmentally friendly governance of large water infrastructures in West Africa. The project will address gender and environmental services in an integrated way: the most vulnerable sections of society (especially women) are often those who depend the most on the environment and its provisioning services while irrigation benefits often accrue to a local elite of men farmers. The project will discuss dam operation and management scenarios and their differential impacts on food security, the provision of environmental services and the distribution of the costs and benefits of planned investments. Based on a multi-level characterization of the study area, the project will adopt a multi-level participatory approach, called Companion Modeling, based on the co-building of participatory tools such as Role Playing Games to discuss management options –and their impacts- that would have been identified by project’s stakeholders themselves. The project team will produce reports on the process as well as synthesis documents targeting decision makers as well as a Role Playing Game specifically designed to address the equity and environmental dynamics of large water infrastructures for potential transfer to other agricultural water “hot-spots” and decision making arenas. This project is an action research project focused on building the capacity of national decision makers of the Bagré Growth Pole project and of the Nakambé Water Agency (AEN) in relation to natural resources users. Both set of actors will have enhanced interactions and gain in capability to voice their specific concerns while respecting the viewpoints of others so as to adjust the direction and governances of planned investments. Decision makers will be in a position to use the tools developed in the project to inform their activities in other sites.

Contact Person

Daré William’s (william's.dare@cirad.fr)

Partners

Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Bagrépole, Laboratoire Citoyenneté, The Agence de l’Eau du Nakambé, International Water Management Institute

Completed

Start/End dateDecember 01, 2014 — December 01, 2016

Research ThemeEnhancing Sustainable Agriculture

Cluster

1.1 Volta/Niger region

Regions

Western Africa

Countries

Burkina Faso

V10: Improving livelihoods in landscapes in the Volta Basin through strengthening farmer-led approaches to ecosystem-based management

wle_admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 21:26:00 +0000

The livelihoods and agro-ecosystems on which farmers, agro-pastoralists and pastoralists in the Volta Basin depend are under considerable pressure from poverty, inadequate access to income-earning opportunities, inequity, environmental degradation, conflict and increased competition over resources as well as lack of access to information, inputs, technologies and services. This project focuses on the issue of environmental degradation and livelihoods through four components: 1) an analysis of the economics of land degradation which brings together cost and benefit valuation with the design of concrete tools and instruments to actually create incentives for land-use change. Most ecosystem valuation models are concerned only with “making the case” for sustainable land management and Ecosystem Based Management (EBM), and stop short of identifying concrete tools for effecting these changes; by a similar token, the design of economic and financial incentives (PES, microfinance, etc.) is rarely informed explicitly by analysis of costs, benefits and values; 2) trade-off analysis to focus on costs and benefits of specific interventions to multiple land-users (women, men, youth, farmers, pastoralists) and on landscape resources themselves will allow both evidence-based targeting but also the design of different incentive mechanisms for different stakeholders. Proposing changes to current practices requires not only evidence, but also incentives to adopt in order to bear the risk that change often involves; 3) a multi-scale analysis which will work with new and existing tools to capture multiple perspectives but also differentiated change and interrelationships across the physical and social landscape. Such a differentiated and participatory understanding of landscapes is critical for avoiding negative impacts on women and youth who use resources differently from senior men for example. It also provides a better understanding of how to address the different needs of farmers and pastoralists; 4) inclusion of attention to off-farm activities as a critical part of our analysis of costs and benefits and of the design of potential interventions for SLM/EBM as very few people are able to rely on agriculture, pastoralism or other land uses to meet their food and income needs; 4) design and testing of monitoring and evaluation tools for specific investments together with stakeholders. Evidence from these components will be fed into participatory platforms for planning and implementing selected interventions that address specific challenges to women’s, youth and men’s livelihoods and obstacles to increasing landscape productivity. Thus, we will introduce relevant scientific knowledge to complement existing knowledge systems and to provide new approaches, tools and understanding of system changes for better planning and targeting of interventions. Our approach to landscape productivity is holistic and thus includes livestock production, non-timber forest products, soil and water management, crop production and marketing. The project will take place in Upper East Region in Nabdam and Bawku-West districts and Upper West Region in Lawra and Jirapa districts. These sites have been selected to build on knowledge and engagement formed through previous projects, one which was funded by WLE (gender and policy in Ghana) and also because they have high population densities and sizeable areas identified as degraded. Methods and ES and Gender: Our multidisciplinary approach to research activities and intervention design will begin with baseline activities to generate essential biophysical and social-economic data and perceptions of ecosystem services provision, change and impact on livelihoods. Methods will include some or all of the following for both baseline and intervention/incentive design: focus groups, household surveys, participatory landscape mapping, ranking exercises, transect walks and historical timelines. These methods will be aimed at generating an understanding of differentiated local perceptions on the contribution of ecosystem services to broader (on/off-farm) production, effects of environmental change and impact of change, and constraints to adoption of SLM practices. Ecosystem services assessment will include attention to off- site/downstream producers and consumers to get a wider picture of benefits, dependencies and impacts of ES and any changes in land use. All activities, intervention design and incentives will be designed either in collaboration with different community members (by gender, age and livelihood strategy) or aimed at understanding their different perspectives, constraints and opportunities.

Contact Person

Katherine Snyder (k.snyder@cgiar.org)

Lead Center

International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)

Partners

NGOs, University for Development Studies, International Union for the Conservation of Nature - headquarters

Completed

Start/End dateDecember 01, 2014 — December 01, 2016

Research ThemeEnhancing Sustainable Agriculture

Cluster

1.1 Volta/Niger region

Regions

Western Africa

Countries

Ghana