Publications

Gaining insight into the food sourcing practices of cities is important to understand their resilience to climate change, economic crisis, as well as pandemics affecting food supply and security. To fill existing knowledge gaps in this area food flow data were collected in four West African cities - Bamako (Mali), Bamenda (Cameroon), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), and Tamale (Ghana). The data cover, depending on the city, road, rail, boat, and air traffic. Surveys were conducted for one week on average during the peak harvest, lean, and rainy seasons, resulting in a dataset of over 100,000 entries for 46 unprocessed food commodities. The data collected includes information on the key types of transportation used, quantity, source, and destination of the food flows. The data were used to delineate urban foodsheds and to identify city-specific factors constraining rural-urban linkages. The data can also be employed to inform academic and policy discussions on urban food system sustainability, to validate other datasets, and to plan humanitarian aid and food security interventions.

Economic crises take different forms and occur for various reasons, such as political conflicts and pandemics. What all these crises have in common is that they cause disruption to rural-urban food supply chains, resulting in food shortages for the urban poor, with the most direct impact being an increase in food prices. It is within this challenging context that we present empirical examples of the role of urban agriculture.

In human, economic, and environmental terms, the total cost of disaster and crisis response is extremely high, and the disastrous combination of the food price crises coming on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic and natural calamities is straining public budgets and squeezing financial options. In 2020, private and public losses from weather-related disasters alone exceeded a total of US$258 billion globally — 29 percent above the 2001–2020 average — making it the fifth costliest year on record, and rising temperatures are expected to bring even more frequent and severe extreme weather events. At the same time, conflict has become a leading contributor to humanitarian crisis situations — as seen most recently with the food and energy crises precipitated by the Russia-Ukraine war and refugee flows driven by the Syrian civil war.

Climate variability and insufficient irrigation are primary constraints to stable and higher agricultural productivity and food security in Nepal. Agriculture is the largest global freshwater user, and integration of surface- and ground-water use is frequently presented as an strategy for increasing efficiency as well as climate change adaptation. However, conjunctive management (CM) planning often ignores demand-side requirements and a broader set of sustainable development considerations, including ecosystem health and economics of different development strategies. While there is generic understanding of conjunctive use, detailed technical knowhow to realize the CM is lacking in Nepal. This article presents a holistic framework through literature reviews, stakeholders consultations and expert interviews for assessing CM and implementation prospects from a systems-level perspective. We demonstrate the framework through a case study in Western Nepal, where climatic variability and a lack of irrigation are key impediments to increased agricultural productivity and sustainable development. Results show that knowledge of water resources availability is good and that of water demand low in the Western Terai. Additional and coordinated investments are required to improve knowledge gaps as well as access to irrigation. There is therefore a need to assess water resources availability, water access, use and productivity, to fill the knowledge gaps in order to pave pathways for CM. This paper also discusses some strategies to translate prospects of conjunctive management into implementation.

The recent Russia–Ukraine conflict has raised significant concerns about global food security, leaving many countries with restricted access to imported staple food crops, particularly wheat and sunflower oil, sending food prices soaring with other adverse consequences in the food supply chain. This detrimental effect is particularly prominent for low-income countries relying on grain imports, with record-high food prices and inflation affecting their livelihoods. This review discusses the role of Russia and Ukraine in the global food system and the impact of the Russia–Ukraine conflict on food security. It also highlights how diversifying four areas of agrifood systems—markets, production, crops, and technology can contribute to achieving food supply chain resilience for future food security and sustainability.

One of the most significant issues faced by many low- and middle-income nations, including South Africa, is ensuring access to healthy, affordable, and sustainable food. South Africa is renowned worldwide for its rich biodiversity and a vast body of traditional knowledge among those who consume forest foods. However, despite ecological diversity, frequent barriers remain to getting diversified household diets. This study sought to investigate the contribution of trees and green spaces to household food security in eThekwini. A total of 280 households met the inclusion criteria and consented to participate in this study by responding to questionnaires. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics, the computation of the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), and the Instrumental Variable Poisson model. The study’s results revealed that only 29% of the respondents were food secure, 36% were mildly food insecure, 27% were moderately food insecure, and 8% were severely food insecure. The Instrumental Variable Poisson model results revealed that cultivated green spaces, wealth index, gender, education level of the head of households, and grants had a negative correlation with household food insecurity. On the other hand, non-cultivated green spaces, local trees, age, marital status, number of dependents, and monthly income positively correlated with food insecurity. Given the existence of trees and green spaces in eThekwini, there is potential for food security solutions to be formed around both cultivated and uncultivated green spaces to promote sustainable access to food and nutritious diets in low-income households. Policy interventions should adopt an approach that encourages the incorporation of foods from both cultivated and uncultivated trees and green spaces in people’s diets.

In this study, we conducted a scoping review and bibliometric analysis to evaluate the state-of-the-art regarding actual applications of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies to guide precision agriculture (PA) practices within smallholder farms. UAVs have emerged as one of the most promising tools to monitor crops and guide PA practices to improve agricultural productivity and promote the sustainable and optimal use of critical resources. However, there is a need to understand how and for what purposes these technologies are being applied within smallholder farms. Using Biblioshiny and VOSviewer, 23 peer-reviewed articles from Scopus and Web of Science were analyzed to acquire a greater perspective on this emerging topical research focus area. The results of these investigations revealed that UAVs have largely been used for monitoring crop growth and development, guiding fertilizer management, and crop mapping but also have the potential to facilitate other PA practices. Several factors may moderate the potential of these technologies. However, due to continuous technological advancements and reductions in ownership and operational costs, there remains much cause for optimism regarding future applications of UAVs and associated technologies to inform policy, planning, and operational decision-making.

Labor migration is a complex phenomenon, yet while much attention has been paid to understanding the drivers of migration, there is a huge knowledge and policy gap regarding the effects of migration on people and communities left behind. We sought to explore the impacts of rural outmigration on migrant-sending communities in Ethiopia. This remains an understudied topic when it comes to research on migration in Ethiopia. Our investigation is based on a critical review of the migration literature pertaining to Ethiopia and, more broadly. We pursued a holistic analysis of the multidimensional aspects of migration. There are indications that rural outmigration impacts involve issues related to remittances, household food security, agricultural labor use, farmland management, and rural infrastructure development. Our analysis revealed that there had been few systematic studies and limited analyses regarding the impacts of outmigration on agriculture and the livelihoods of rural people and households left behind. Instead, Ethiopia’s migration literature largely deals with migration’s causes, including environmental factors, climate variability, agricultural pressures, livelihood stresses, and changing aspirations.

Agriculture is the largest single source of environmental degradation, responsible for over 30% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 70% of freshwater use and 80% of land conversion: it is the single largest driver of biodiversity loss (Foley JA, Science 309:570–574, 2005, Nature 478:337–342, 2011; IPBES. Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. IPBES Secretariat, Bonn, 2019; Willett W et al. The Lancet 393:447–492, 2019). Agriculture also underpins poor human health, contributing to 11 million premature deaths annually. While too many still struggle from acute hunger, a growing number of individuals, including in low to middle-income countries (LMICs), struggle to access healthy foods. Greater consideration for, and integration of, biodiversity in agriculture is a key solution space for improving health, eliminating hunger and achieving nature-positive development objectives. This rapid evidence review documents the best available evidence of agriculture’s relationships with biodiversity, drawing on the contributions of leading biodiversity experts, and recommends actions that can be taken to move towards more biodiversity/nature-positive production through the delivery of integrated agricultural solutions for climate, biodiversity, nutrition and livelihoods. The analysis, which takes a whole-of-food-system approach, brings together a large body of evidence. It accounts for aspects not typically captured in a stand-alone primary piece of research and indicates where there are critical gaps.

Small-scale irrigation has gained momentum in recent years as one of the development priorities in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, farmer-led irrigation is often informal with little support from extension services and a paucity of data on land suitability for irrigation. To map the spatial explicit suitability for dry season small-scale irrigation, we developed a method using an ensemble of boosted regression trees, random forest, and maximum entropy machine learning models for the Upper East Region of Ghana. Both biophysical predictors including surface and groundwater availability, climate, topography and soil properties, and socio-economic predictors which represent demography and infrastructure development such as accessibility to cities and proximity to roads were considered. We assessed that 179,584 49,853 ha is suitable for dry-season small-scale irrigation development when only biophysical variables are considered, and 158,470 27,222 ha when socio-economic variables are included alongside the biophysical predictors, representing 77-89% of the current rainfed-croplands. Travel time to cities, accessibility to small reservoirs, exchangeable sodium percentage, surface runoff that can be potentially stored in reservoirs, population density, proximity to roads, and elevation percentile were the top predictors of small-scale irrigation suitability. These results suggested that the availability of water alone is not a sufficient indicator for area suitability for small-scale irrigation. This calls for strategic road infrastructure development and an improvement in the support to farmers for market accessibility. The suitability for small-scale irrigation should be put in the local context of market availability, demographic indicators, and infrastructure development.

The sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) debate, partly rooted in discussions over the Green Revolution, was developed in the 1990s in the context of smallholder agriculture in Africa. In many Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, production is still largely rainfed, with the prevalence of significant yield gaps and rapid environmental degradation. Projections indicate that climate and demographic changes will further intensify the competition for freshwater resources. Currently, SAI is centered around predominantly rain-fed agricultural systems, often at a farm and plot scales. There has been increased attention to the improved role of agricultural water management (AWM) to address the daunting challenges of climate change, land degradation and food and nutritional insecurity in SSA. Nonetheless, the supporting frameworks and tools remain limited and do not connect the sustainability assessment and the development of intensification pathways (SIP) along multiple scales of the rainfed irrigation continuum. This paper reviews the gaps in concepts and practices of SAI and suggests a methodological framework to design context-specific and water-centered SIP for the SSA region. Accordingly, the proposed methodological framework demonstrates: (a) how to couple sustainability assessment methods to participatory SIPs design and adaptive management approach; (b) how contextualized sustainability domains and indicators can help in AWM centered SIP development; (c) the approaches to handle multiple scales and water-related indicators, the heterogeneity of biophysical and social settings when tailoring technology options to local contexts; and (d) the principles which enable the SIP designs to enable synergies and complementarities of SAI measures to reinforce the rainfed-irrigation continuum. This methodological framework allows researchers to integrate the sustainability assessment and SIP design, and guides policymakers and practitioners in planning, implementing and monitoring SAI initiatives (e.g., Framework for Irrigation Development and Agricultural Water Management in Africa) across multiple scales.

Knowing the spatial and temporal suitability of neglected and underutilised crop species (NUS) is important for fitting them into marginal production areas and cropping systems under climate change. The current study used climate change scenarios to map the future distribution of selected NUS, namely, sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), amaranth (Amaranthus) and taro (Colocasia esculenta) in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, South Africa. The future distribution of NUS was simulated using a maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model using regional circulation models (RCMs) from the CORDEX archive, each driven by a different global circulation model (GCM), for the years 2030 to 2070. The study showed an increase of 0.1–11.8% under highly suitable (S1), moderately suitable (S2), and marginally suitable (S3) for sorghum, cowpea, and amaranth growing areas from 2030 to 2070 across all RCPs. In contrast, the total highly suitable area for taro production is projected to decrease by 0.3–9.78% across all RCPs. The jack-knife tests of the MaxEnt model performed efficiently, with areas under the curve being more significant than 0.8. The study identified annual precipitation, length of the growing period, and minimum and maximum temperature as variables contributing significantly to model predictions. The developed maps indicate possible changes in the future suitability of NUS within the KZN province. Understanding the future distribution of NUS is useful for developing transformative climate change adaptation strategies that consider future crop distribution. It is recommended to develop regionally differentiated climate-smart agriculture production guidelines matched to spatial and temporal variability in crop suitability.

Food demand in Africa continues to outstrip local supply, and the continent currently spends over US$35 billion annually on food imports to supplement local deficits. With the advances in agronomy and breeding, commercial crops like maize (Zea mays) and soybean (Glycine max) in the region are under threat from climate change, decreasing rainfall and degraded lands. Unlike commercial crops that are generally adapted from other regions, underutilized indigenous crops are uniquely suited to local environments and are more resilient to climatic variations and tolerant to local pests and diseases. This study, done in Limpopo Province, South Africa, identifies optimal areas for cultivating Bambara groundnuts (Vigna subterannea), an indigenous crop suitable for arid and semi-arid regions. The aim is to promote the production of underutilized indigenous crops at a large scale with fewer resources, while still meeting local demand and reducing the food import budget. Suitability maps are delineated using a multicriteria decision method in a Geographic Information System (GIS). The procedure is important for diversifying farming systems, making them more resilient (to biotic and abiotic stresses and climate change) and more successful at enhancing water, food and nutritional security. With the province’s limited water and land resources for agriculture expansion, promoting indigenous underutilized crops is a pathway to reduce water allocated to agriculture, thereby enhancing drought resilience and ensuring water, food and nutritional security. Large tracts of degraded agricultural land deemed unsuitable for adapted crops, and which may require costly land reclamation practices, can be used to cultivate underutilized crops that are adapted to extreme local conditions.

Despite the progress made in conceptualizing and advocating for secure community-based land and forest tenure rights, there is a critical lacuna in advocacy and policymaking processes pertaining to community-based freshwater tenure rights. Moreover, water tenure as a concept has only recently gained significant traction in global policy circles. This report analyzes national and international legal pathways for recognizing customary forms of community-based freshwater tenure rights held by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) in sub-Saharan Africa. It employs a methodological framework and builds on an analysis of community-based water tenure systems that was developed and applied by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) and the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) in the publication Whose Water? A Comparative Analysis of National Laws and Regulations Recognizing Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendants’, and Local Communities’ Water Tenure. Based on the key findings of this analysis, in particular the frequent dependence of IPLCs’ legally recognized customary water tenure rights on their legally recognized land and/or forest rights, this report further analyzes national constitutions, national legislation governing water, land, forests, environmental protection and other related matters, international and national case law, and international and regional human rights laws, to explore how legal frameworks are recognizing and protecting customary water tenure rights across sub-Saharan Africa. The findings and recommendations provide a basis for analyzing the comparative effectiveness and potential drawbacks of these legal pathways for the recognition and protection of customary water tenure and ultimately for future work refining and improving legislation and assessing progress in its implementation and enforcement.

As urbanization increases, meeting the challenges of urban food supply and food security requires coherent and holistic strategies. Attention too often focuses solely on best practices without addressing the required behavior change. This policy brief highlights the importance of minimizing food loss and waste, which accounts for some 30% of current global production, in order to link and achieve SDGs 2, 11 and 12. The strategy comprises four interrelated elements, namely adopting holistic and circular planning perspectives; facilitating urban and peri-urban farming; integrating innovative behavioral interventions; and providing enabling environments. The G20 has the capacity to act rapidly, without the need for major capital investment, thereby also providing leadership to the entire international community.

Agricultural production in arid and semi-arid regions is particularly vulnerable to climate change, which, combined with projected food requirements, makes the sustainable management of water resources critical to ensure national and global food security. Using South Africa as an example, we map the spatial distribution of water use by seventeen major crops under current and future climate scenarios, and assess their sustainability in terms of water resources, using the water debt repayment time indicator. We find high water debts, indicating unsustainable production, for potatoes, pulses, grapes, cotton, rice, and wheat due to irrigation in arid areas. Climate change scenarios suggest an intensification of such pressure on water resources, especially in regions already vulnerable, with a country-scale increase in irrigation demand of between 6.5% and 32% by 2090. Future land use planning and management should carefully consider the spatial distribution and local sustainability of crop water requirements to reduce water consumption in water risk hotspots and guarantee long-term food security.

Addressing the disproportionate burden of food insecurity in South Africa requires targeted efforts to help smallholder farmers to access markets. The purpose of this study was to assess determinants of market participation and its contribution to household food security. The secondary data used in this study were collected from 1520 respondents; however, 389 smallholder farmers participated in the market. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale revealed that out of the total sample size, 85% of the households were food insecure while 15% were food secure. Gender of household head, receiving social grants and higher wealth index positively impacted market participation. Having a family member with HIV had a negative impact on market participation among smallholder farmers. The results from the extended ordered probit regression model showed that household size, having a family member with HIV and agricultural assistance had a positive and significant contribution to the household food insecurity situation of the smallholder farmers. On the other hand, the educational level of household head, ownership of livestock, age of household head, gender of household head, and having access to social grants had a negative and significant effect on the food insecurity status. Access to education and the market can improve household food security. Linking smallholder farmers, particularly women and aged farmers, to markets should form an intrinsic part of the government’s efforts to improve farming and food security and increase access to diversified food.

Global broiler production and consumption levels continue to rise. South Africa’s broiler system is dominated by commercial production and formal retail trade, with competition from cheap imports. Local broiler policies have narrow, production-driven, short-term aims for industry growth and national food security. However, these have unintended consequences that undermine the system’s future sustainability. Using a food systems approach, this study developed a qualitative system dynamics model of the South African commercial broiler system and used it to engage stakeholders in policy discussions within the boundaries of health, nutrition, and environmental sustainability. A problem statement and key system elements were drawn from a previously published qualitative study and were validated by 15 stakeholders via an online questionnaire. From this, a seed model was developed, expanded into a larger model, and shared in a modular format with stakeholders in virtual meetings, on an individual or institutional basis, for feedback and validation, and for discussion of areas for policy consideration. Refinements were incorporated into the modules, policy considerations were summarised, and crosscutting issues were identified. The model demonstrated the system’s complexity, interlinkages, feedbacks, reinforcing and balancing loops, and behaviour archetypes. The modular presentation format created a suitable platform for stakeholder engagement. Current policies focus on local commercial production, formal markets, and affordability without cognisance of the broader system represented by the model. Inequality pervades throughout the system. Commercial producers, linked to large supermarkets and fast-food chains, dominate the system, presenting barriers to entry. Affordability is unintentionally traded off against non-communicable disease risks through brining of most frozen products, and ultra-processing of fast-food items. Foodborne disease control is critical, given the proportion of vulnerable individuals, and greater coherence of food safety policy is urgently needed. The environmental footprint of broilers, whilst less than that of ruminants, deserves closer scrutiny based on its dependence on intensive cereal production for feed. This study’s food systems approach provides a system-wide perspective and a foundation for policymakers to develop more integrated and transformative policies.

Land and water are vital resources for sustaining rural livelihoods and are critical for rural development as they form the basis of agriculture, the main economic activity for rural communities. Nevertheless, in most developing countries, land and water resources are unevenly distributed due to historical and socio-economic imbalances, hence the need for land reform policies to address these disparities. However, redistributing land without considering the interconnectedness of land and socio-ecological systems can compound existing food and water insecurity challenges. This study used a mixed research method, integrating both quantitative and qualitative data, to develop a framework to guide policy and decision-makers to formulate coherent strategies towards sustainable land redistribution programmes and achieve the desired outcomes. The approach was vital for integrating the broad and intricate interlinkages between water, land, and environmental resources. Therefore, the framework is based on transformative and circular models for informing strategic policy decisions towards sustainable land redistribution. The focus was on South Africa’s land redistribution plans and the implications on water and food security and rural development. The developed framework is designed to ensure the sustainability of agrarian reform and rural economic development. It is framed to address land and water accessibility inequalities, promote water and food security, and enhance rural development. A sustainable land redistribution increases the adaptive capacity of rural communities to climate change, enhances their resilience, and provides pathways towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Rapid climate change is causing weather extremes in every region of the world. The global water cycle is now experiencing a structural change not seen since the last Ice Age, leaving human systems struggling to adapt and respond. Some events will have noticeable consequences in the short term, such as increased flooding from changing precipitation patterns. Others will be more long term, such as the desertification of cropland. All will have major implications for future human security. We can view climate security as climatic stressors that amplify existing risks in society and influence the security of humans, ecosystems, economies, infrastructure and societies. In that sense, climate security is directly connected to water security defined as the ability of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water.

Producing more food for a growing population requires sustainable crop intensification and diversification, particularly in high-potential areas such as the seasonal floodplain wetlands of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). With emerging water shortages and concerns for conserving these multi-functional wetlands, a further expansion of the cropland area must be avoided as it would entail increased use of blue water for irrigation and infringe on valuable protected areas. We advocate an efficient use of the prevailing green water on the existing cropland areas, where small-scale farmers grow a single crop of rainfed lowland rice during the wet season. However, soil moisture at the onset of the rains (pre-rice niche) and residual soil moisture after rice harvest (post-rice niche) may suffice to cultivate short-cycled crops. We developed a methodological approach to analyze the potential for green water cultivation in the pre- and post-rice niches in the Kilombero Valley Floodplain in Tanzania, as a representative case for seasonal floodplain wetlands in SSA. The three-step approach used open-access remote sensing datasets to: (i) extract cropland areas; (ii) analyze soil moisture conditions using evaporative stress indices to identify the pre- and post-rice niches; and (iii) quantify the green water availability in the identified niches through actual evapotranspiration (AET). We identified distinct patterns of green water being available both before and after the rice-growing period. Based on the analyses of evaporative stress indices, the pre-rice niche tends to be longer (~70 days with average AET of 20–40 mm/10-day) but also more variable (inter-annual variability gt;30%) than the post-rice niche (~65 days with average AET of 10–30 mm/10-day, inter-annual variability lt;15%). These findings show the large potential for cultivating short-cycled crops beyond the rice-growing period, such as green manure, vegetables, maize, and forage legumes, by shifting a portion of the nonproductive AET flows (i.e., soil evaporation) to productive flows in form of crop transpiration. A cropland area of 1452 to 1637 km2 (53–60% of the total cropland area identified of 2730 km2) could be cultivated using available green water in the dry season, which shows the significance of such change for food security, livelihoods, and resilience of the agricultural community in Kilombero. A wider application of the developed approach in this study can help identifying opportunities and guiding interventions and investments towards establishing sustainable intensification and diversification practices in floodplain wetlands in SSA.

The currently used water–energy–food (WEF) nexus philosophy and frameworks integrate the interconnections across the water, energy, food-agricultural sectors using a systems perspective. There are many challenges to model the interdependencies and trade-offs using a WEF nexus approach. Many tools and indices have been developed and used at the regional and national levels. However, there are few attempts to apply tools at a local and/or catchment level as described in this chapter for the Inkomati-Usuthu catchment in South Africa. The available tools were described according to inputs required and outputs produced together with both spatial and temporal scales and potential users. The data requirements for each sector were unpacked, and potential sources for local information are listed despite the wide set of data necessary. The way forward to applying these tools in the Crocodile and lower Komati river basins was considered in light of the facilitated stakeholder engagement to promote understanding of the scope of the WEF nexus and economic and policy implications.

The water–food–energy (WEF) nexus narratives is a collection of expert inputs on the concepts, analytical tools and case studies, and key developments on the importance and applicability of the WEF nexus as a transformative and circular approach. This chapter provides a detailed summary of each chapter, providing the reader with what has been achieved through the WEF nexus application. The chapters provide practical applications of integrated resource management and the pathways toward sustainable development. The main subjects of discussion include data availability, modeling tools, indices development, and metrics and their application across multiple spatiotemporal scales.

Over the past decade, the water, energy, and food (WEF) nexus approach has evolved to become a focus of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) development strategies. However, a lack of empirical evidence, appropriate methods, and qualitative and quantitative tools to implement the WEF nexus approach has been highlighted. This chapter describes the application of the WEF nexus approach in the Songwe River Basin (SRB) located on the border between Malawi and Tanzania as a demonstration of how this lack of evidence and tools is starting to be addressed. The basin is currently facing rapid population growth, which is leading to a considerable increase in resource demand and environmental issues and has been identified as a priority basin for SADC. The SRB Development Programme (SRBDP) includes several projects that collectively aim to improve the environmental and socioeconomic status of the basin. The integrated approach proposed to assess the SRBDPapos;s expected outcomes through a WEF nexus lens is based on the development and application of qualitative and quantitative tools that support decision-makers to assess feasible sustainable development pathways in the basin, and more broadly in the SADC region. This chapter focuses on the qualitative analysis of the WEF nexus system and explains the process of identifying the major sectors and subsectors involved in the SRBDP, the main interlinkages between them, and potential synergies and trade-offs assessing how decisions made in a sector may influence others. The qualitative analysis of the SRB shows that although the projects included in the SRBDP are expected to have positive impacts on the environment and the socioeconomic system of the basin, downsides that may have an impact on human and ecosystem health are also possible. Early identification of such issues can help to limit detrimental impacts in the future. In the analysis, potential Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), objectives, and indicators that may be addressed in the SRB are identified, highlighting the importance of applying the holistic approach to enhance and boost the achievement of SDGs in the basin.

WEF (water–energy–food) nexus analyses have become a rapidly growing field since the Conference on Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus–Solutions for the Green Economy in Bonn in 2011. They have the potential to help stakeholders and policymakers to better understand the interlinkages between the different components of a nexus system and lead to solutions that are socially and environmentally beneficial. However, assembling wide-scope nexus has been challenged by issues such as proprietary considerations and data evolution over time, among others. Earth observations (EOs) have a huge offering of data sets that can provide data for most of the components of a nexus at a relatively low cost and various temporal and spatial resolutions. Furthermore, the advent of cloud computing has made possible the processing of massive information. This chapter introduces the Earth Observation for WEF nexus (EO-WEF), a multisectorial information system to visualize customizable data and generate time series data at any location. Google Earth Engine, a cloud computing platform that includes data archives of regularly updated EO and scientific data sets for a period of more than 40 years, powers this application. The capability of EO-WEF in generating spatial data was tested in the Songwe River Basin case study. Overall, the EO-WEF application provides data for key variables of a nexus that can be supplemented by other kinds of data that cannot be captured by EOs.

Water, energy, and food are vital resources for human wellbeing. Yet, they are under increased pressure to meet demand from a growing population at a time of worsening insecurity due to depletion and degradation of reserves. These challenges prompted the formulation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. All the 17 SDGs are connected. They recognize that developments in one sector will impact other sectors and that any proposed development must balance socioeconomic and environmental sustainability. Also, as the three resources are the most impacted by climate change, they provide a close link between adaptation, climate system, human society, and the environment. The intricate interlinkages between water, energy, and food resources with the related relationships with socioeconomic development, healthy ecosystems, human development, and sustainable development caused the rapid growth of the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus concept since the United Nations General Assembly of September 2015. Although the concept existed before 2015, its progression increased after the World Economic Forum of 2011 after a presentation by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in anticipation of the SDGs. This chapter discusses the evolution of the WEF nexus before and after 2015. The emphasis is on the importance of the concept in establishing the interconnectedness of resources and as a guide for coherent policy decisions that lead to sustainable development.

Globally, the energy sector accounts for almost three-quarters of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is thus responsible for the majority of adverse climate change impacts on rural livelihoods, including growing water, energy, and food insecurity and environmental degradation. According to a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, annual investments of US$2.4 trillion (2010 dollars) in energy systems are needed to limit global warming to 1.5C. Such investments would support decarbonizing the largest polluters and improving energy efficiency. More and cheaper clean energy technologies and greater energy efficiency are equally critical for accelerating access to energy in underserved rural areas in ways that promote ecosystem health and inclusivity.

The United Nations Food Systems Summit aimed to chart a path toward transforming food systems toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the essentiality of water for food systems, however, the Summit has not sufficiently considered the role of water for food systems transformation. This focus is even more important due to rapidly worsening climate change and its pervasive impacts on food systems that are mediated through water. To avoid that water “breaks” food systems, key food systems actors should 1) Strengthen efforts to retain water-dependent ecosystems, their functions and services; 2) Improve agricultural water management; 3) Reduce water and food losses beyond the farmgate; 4) Coordinate water with nutrition and health interventions; 5) Increase the environmental sustainability of food systems; 6) Explicitly address social inequities; and 7) Improve data quality and monitoring for water-food system linkages.

There are growing calls to adopt more sustainable forms of agriculture that balance the need to increase production with environmental, human health, and wellbeing concerns. Part of this conversation has included a debate on promoting and mainstreaming neglected and underutilized crop species (NUS) because they represent a more ecologically friendly type of agriculture. We conducted a systematic review to determine the ecosystem services derived from NUS and assess their potential to promote functional ecological diversity, food and nutritional security, and transition to more equitable, inclusive, sustainable and resilient agricultural landscapes and food systems in Africa. Our literature search yielded 35 articles for further analysis. The review showed that NUS provide various provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting ecosystem services and several environmental and health co-benefits, dietary diversity, income, sustainable livelihood outcomes, and economic empowerment, especially for women. Importantly, NUS address the three pillars of sustainable development- ecological, social, and economic. Thus, NUS may provide a sustainable, fit-for-purpose transformative ecosystem-based adaptation solution for Africa to transition to more sustainable, healthy, equitable, and resilient agricultural landscapes and food systems.

The food self-sufficiency policy has always featured as an unquestionable policy objective for Egypt. This is understandable when one considers both the high population growth and the social and political vulnerability associated with a dependence on food imports and world market food prices such as wheat. Intensive agriculture has led to a growing subsidy burden for the Egyptian government. In addition, the agricultural fields in Egypt are commonly distributed with relatively small sizes parcels that usually reduce the reliability of the agricultural sector, particularly in the delta region, to meet the national food policy. On top of that, climate change, through changing weather patterns and increased temperatures, is affecting agricultural yields and thus farmers’ livelihoods. A water profitability analysis was conducted for three governorates in the Nile Delta in Egypt to establish a baseline and assess the net return per unit of water of the main crops in each of these governorates; this can act as a reference of the water profitability of different crops before they are affected by climate change and other internal and external factors. The analysis was based on extensive in-person surveys in each governorate in addition to workshop discussions with farmers. The study has highlighted the impact of a lack of extension services, which limits farmers’ ability to increase their land and water productivity. Farmers with more access to subsidized production inputs managed to achieve higher levels of water profitability even on smaller lands. Finally, we drew from our findings key policy actions to improve water profitability and land productivity for farmers in the Nile Delta to achieve higher levels of food security. This will help build resilient food production systems that are reliable in the face of climate change and other drivers. In addition, an integrated nexus strategy and plan for the inter- and intra-country is recommended to address the challenges related to food and climate security.

Using farm animals for their natural capability of “recycling” food waste (FW) that is unfit for direct human consumption can support a circular economy as shown in the case of Sri Lanka’s Western Province. The reuse of organic residues including FW as animal feed is a traditional agricultural practice in Sri Lanka but is less studied within an urban FW context. A survey of piggeries using FW in and around the rapidly urbanizing city of Colombo showed that FW is a major feed source in the farms accounting for on average 82% of total feed. About 40% of the farms collected the FW mainly from hotels, restaurants, and institutional canteens. Urban FW is supplied to farmers free of charge when collected directly from the sources, although 26% of the farmers collected FW via intermediaries against a fee. As FW is collected daily, the restaurants appreciate the reliable service, the farmers the low-cost feed, and the municipality the reduced FW volumes to be collected. However, this triple-win situation encounters challenges such as (tourist related) seasonal low supply, which was exacerbated under the Covid-19 lockdown of food services. Another area of concern refers to biosafety. Although the large majority of interviewed farmers boil FW which contains raw meat or fish, there is a paucity of related guidelines and control. Given the benefits of FW use, it is worthwhile to explore how far these informal partnerships could be scaled without increasing transport costs for farmers, while introducing biosafety monitoring. For now, the regulatory environment is highly siloed and does not support material transitions across sector boundaries towards a circular economy.

This paper follows the transition from ethnobotany to a deeper scientific understanding of the food and medicinal properties of African agroforestry tree products as inputs into the start of domestication activities. It progresses on to the integration of these indigenous trees as new crops within diversified farming systems for multiple social, economic and environmental benefits. From its advent in the 1990s, the domestication of indigenous food and non-food tree species has become a global programme with a strong African focus. This review of progress in the third decade is restricted to progress in Africa, where multi-disciplinary research on over 59 species has been reported in 759 research papers in 318 science publications by scientists from over 833 research teams in 70 countries around the world (532 in Africa). The review spans 23 research topics presenting the recent research literature for tree species of high priority across the continent, as well as that in each of the four main ecological regions: the humid zone of West and Central Africa; the Sahel and North Africa; the East African highlands and drylands; and the woody savannas of Southern Africa. The main areas of growth have been the nutritional/medicinal value of non-timber forest products; the evaluation of the state of natural resources and their importance to local people; and the characterization of useful traits. However, the testing of putative cultivars; the implementation of participatory principles; the protection of traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights; and the selection of elite trees and ideotypes remain under-researched. To the probable detriment of the upscaling and impact in tropical agriculture, there has been, at the international level, a move away from decentralized, community-based tree domestication towards a laboratory-based, centralized approach. However, the rapid uptake of research by university departments and national agricultural research centres in Africa indicates a recognition of the importance of the indigenous crops for both the livelihoods of rural communities and the revitalization and enhanced outputs from agriculture in Africa, especially in West Africa. Thus, on a continental scale, there has been an uptake of research with policy relevance for the integration of indigenous trees in agroecosystems and their importance for the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To progress this in the fourth decade, there will need to be a dedicated Centre in Africa to test and develop cultivars of indigenous crops. Finally, this review underpins a holistic approach to mitigating climate change, as well as other big global issues such as hunger, poverty and loss of wildlife habitat by reaping the benefits, or ‘profits’, from investment in the five forms of Capital, described as ‘land maxing’. However, policy and decision makers are not yet recognizing the potential for holistic and transformational adoption of these new in

This paper aims to provide an overview of Zambian policies related to agriculture and climate adaptation in preparation for the Zambia National Policy Dialogue, scheduled for 18 August 2022 in Lusaka, Zambia. The dialogue is a joint programme with CGIAR Initiative on Diversification of East and Southern Africa led by International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Southern Africa, the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) South Africa, and Agricultural Consultative Forum (ACF) Zambia. The paper includes an overview of the economic and administrative profile of the country and a descriptive overview of the agricultural and climate policies that are expected to be critically debated at the Dialogue.

This paper aims to provide an overview of Kenyan policies related to agriculture and climate change adaptation and mitigation in preparation for the Kenya National Policy Dialogue on 12 November 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya. The Dialogue is a joint programme with CGIAR Initiative on Diversification of East and Southern Africa led by International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Southern Africa, the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) South Africa, and the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) Kenya. The paper provides an overview of the economic and administrative profile of the country and general overview of the country’s economic status and agricultural and climate change policies that will be critically debated during the Dialogue.

The Constitution of Nepal 2015 enshrines everyone’s right of access to clean water for drinking and the right to food. The common operationalization of the right to water for drinking is providing access to infrastructure that brings water for drinking and other basic domestic uses near and at homesteads. Challenges to achieving this goal in rural areas include: low functionality of water systems; expansion of informal self supply for multiple uses; widespread de facto productive uses of water systems designed for domestic uses; growing competition for finite water resources; and male elite capture in polycentric decision-making. This paper traces how the Nepali government and nongovernmental organizations in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), irrigation and other sectors have joined forces since the early 2000s to address these challenges by innovating community-led multiple use water services (MUS). The present literature review of these processes complemented by field research supported by the Water for Women Fund focuses on women in vulnerable households. Overcoming sectoral silos, these organizations support what is often seen as the sole responsibility of the WASH sector: targeting infrastructure development to bring sufficient water near and at homesteads of those left behind. Women’s priorities for using this water are respected and supported, which often includes productive uses, also at basic volumes. In line with decentralized federalism, inclusive community-led MUS planning processes build on vulnerable households’ self supply, commonly for multiple uses, and follow their priorities for local incremental infrastructure improvements. Further, community-led MUS builds on community-based arrangements for ‘sharing in’ and ‘sharing out’ the finite water resources in and under communities’ social territories. This realizes the constitutional right to food in line with the Nepal Water Resources Act, 1992, which prioritizes core minimum volumes of water for everyone’s domestic uses and many households’ irrigation. Evidence shows how the alleviation of domestic chores, women’s stronger control over food production for nutrition and income, and more sustainable infrastructure mutually reinforce each other in virtuous circles out of gendered poverty. However, the main challenge remains the inclusion of women and vulnerable households in participatory processes.

This is a report on the survey of WEF Nexus teaching in selected higher education and tertiary institutions in South Africa, outcomes of the WEF Nexus short training programmes, and the development of WEF Nexus teaching material. The report presents the survey results on WEF Nexus teaching in South African higher and tertiary education institutions. The main findings of the survey are that; there is general knowledge of the WEF Nexus in the country, some of the institutions have been involved in WEF Nexus apos;trainingapos; for a while now, WEF Nexus activities are found mainly in water-related departments at most institutions, WEF Nexus related work is mainly embedded in MSc and PhD research programmes, the WEF Nexus covered are wide but focused mainly on concepts, frameworks and application of models and tools. Most believed WEF Nexus should be focused on postgraduate students, and their institutions would welcome WEF Nexus-related teaching and learning. The deliverable also reports two WEF Nexus short course training undertaken in 2021 and 2022, initially virtually (due to Covid-19 restrictions) and then in person in 2022. The short courses were very well received, attracting more than 80 participants worldwide for the virtual versions and some 50 students for the in-person training. Details of the course contents of the training are presented in the report.

Background: Climate change has perverse efects on the natural resource base and agricultural productivity, negatively afecting the well-being of households and communities. There are various attempts by the government and NGOs to promote climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices to help farmers adapt to and mitigate these negative impacts. This study aimed to identify CSA practices widely adopted in the study area and examined their impacts on rural farm households’ food security and multidimensional poverty. A three-stage proportional to size sampling procedure was followed to select four districts out of nine districts, and 278 households were randomly selected from two kebeles from each district. A cross-sectional data of the 2020–2021 cropping season were collected using a structured and pretested survey questionnaire. The food consumption score, dietary diversity score, food insecurity experience scale, and multidimensional poverty index, constructed out of 9 indicators, were used to assess households’ food security and poverty status, respectively. A multinomial endogenous switching regression model was used to assess average treatment efects on these outcome indicators. Results: Widely adopted CSA practices are conservation agriculture, soil fertility management, crop diversifcation, and small-scale irrigation. The results illustrated that adopter households on average showed more food consumption score, dietary diversity score, and less food insecurity experience scale than non-adopters. The results also showed that CSA adopter households, on average, have a low deprivation score in multidimensional poverty than non-adopter households. Accelerating wider adoption of CSA through up-scaling incentives is quite important. Conclusion: This study showed that CSA adoption improves households’ food security and reduces multidimensional poverty. We conclude that up-scaling of CSA practices is important for contributing to the achievement of SDG1, SDG2 and SDG13 targets.

The African continent harbours many native species with nutraceutical and pharmaceutical potential. This study reviewed underutilised crops in South Africa to determine their potential as food and herbal medicinal crops. Over 5,000 species have been identified and earmarked for their medical attributes in formal and informal setups. Researchers, plant breeders and policymakers have mostly ignored the development potential of these crops. Consequently, their value chains are poorly developed. In South Africa, there is a wide range of neglected and underutilised crops, which were historically popular and used by communities; however, over the years, they have lost their status within farming systems and been relegated to the status of neglected and underutilised. Recently, driven by the need to transition to more sustainable and resilient food systems, there has been renewed interest in their potential as food and herbal medicinal crops to establish new value chains that include vulnerable groups. They are now gaining global attention, and their conservation and sustainable utilisation are now being prioritized. The review confirmed that several of these crops possess nutraceutical and pharmaceutical properties, highlighting their potential for development as food and herbal medicines. However, current production levels are too low to meet the requirements for industrial development; research and development should focus on all aspects of their value chain, from crop improvement to utilisation. A transdisciplinary approach involving a wide range of actors is needed to develop the identified neglected and underutilised crops’ potential as food and herbal medicinal crops and support the development of new and inclusive value chains.

The diverse political influences and agrarian histories in Odisha have played a major role in determining the heterogenous regional contexts of agricultural development in the region. Several important political-economic developments like land tenure systems, feudal and semi-feudal structures, and their alliance with colonial extraction of revenue and taxation regimes historically have determined the agrarian pathways manifested in present inequalities in access to land, resources, and capital. There is a historical path dependence in agrarian systems, agrarian relations and the policies that aim to bring about changes. Thus “solutions” to a sustainable and resilient agrifood system needs to be contextualized within the historical and socio-political context. This research brief discusses the major drivers of food production and food security in Odisha charting the evolution of agrifood systems in the state. It traces the major political, economic, and social developments in Odisha that have taken place since 1850 that have determined the agrarian relations and agrifood outcomes for the region. It also discusses the major climatic events, particularly droughts and floods, that have influenced food production and livelihoods of rural communities. It brings out the temporal continuities and discontinuities in agrarian relations and technological transformations in agriculture.

The mitigation benefits of solar irrigation pumps (SIPs), when those SIPs replace diesel pumps, are well understood. What is not equally known are the adaptation co-benefits of SIPs. This brief evaluates the co-benefits of using SIPs instead of widely used diesel pumps for farmers in Bangladesh. It estimates the impact of access to SIP on household and crop levels outcomes for improving farmer livelihoods and food security. In doing so, it explores the potential pathways of these impacts.

The challenges to agroecological transitions are not the same for all farmers and implementation of agroecological practices in different locations could yield different results. With this consideration, this study was conducted in Aba-Garima watershed in northwestern Ethiopia to characterize the structure and activities of farming households and assess factors influencing the implementation and sustainability of agroecological practices. Data were collected from 218 households, 16 key informants, and 12 focus group discussions. The Multivariate Probit model and descriptive statistics were employed to analyze factors influencing farmers’ choices of different agroecological practices and describe the characteristics of farming households. The qualitative data analysis was processed through topic coding and building categories, themes, and patterns of relationships. Farmers realize the importance of both farm and landscape level agroecological practices to enhance income earning capacity, achieve food security and protect the environment. However, most of the agroecological practices are very difficult to start using for various constraining factors including limited access to water, and shortages of money, land and labor. The results suggest that depending on different socioeconomic characteristics of farming households, agroecological practices that appear common practices can be very difficult to use for some farmers, while it would be possible for other farmers. The constraining factors are also differently associated with different practices, involving diverse perspectives of different socioeconomic groups. The paper discussed the existing agroecological practices, the perspectives of different socio-economic groups on these practices and the factors influencing the implementation as well as the conditions that can facilitate the wider adoption of agroecological practices in the study area.

Sustainable and resilient food systems depend on sustainable and resilient water management. Resilience is characterised by overlapping decision spaces and scales and interdependencies among water users and competing sectors. Increasing water scarcity, due to climate change and other environmental and societal changes, makes putting caps on the consumption of water resources indispensable. Implementation requires an understanding of different domains, actors, and their objectives, and drivers and barriers to transformational change. We suggest a scale-specific approach, in which agricultural water use is embedded in a larger systems approach (including natural and human systems). This approach is the basis for policy coherence and the design of effective incentive schemes to change agricultural water use behaviour and, therefore, optimise the water we eat.

Access to sufficient and clean freshwater is essential for all life. Water is also essential for food system functioning: as a key input into food production, but also in processing and preparation, and as a food itself. Water scarcity and pollution are growing, affecting poorer populations, particularly food producers. Malnutrition levels are also on the rise, and this is closely linked to water scarcity. The achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 and SDG 6 are co-dependent. Solutions to jointly improve food systems and water security outcomes that the United Nations Food Security Summit (UNFSS) should consider include: 1) strengthening efforts to retain water-based ecosystems and their functions; 2) improving agricultural water management for better diets for all; 3) reducing water and food losses beyond the farmgate; 4) coordinating water with nutrition and health interventions; 5) increasing the environmental sustainability of food systems; 6) explicitly addressing social inequities in water-nutrition linkages; and 7) improving data quality and monitoring for water-food system linkages, drawing on innovations in information and communications technology (ICT).

Existing climate projections and impact assessments in Nepal only consider a limited number of generic climate indices such as means. Few studies have explored climate extremes and their sectoral implications. This study evaluates future scenarios of extreme climate indices from the list of the Expert Team on Sector-specific Climate Indices (ET-SCI) and their sectoral implications in the Karnali Basin in western Nepal. First, future projections of 26 climate indices relevant to six climate-sensitive sectors in Karnali are made for the near (2021–2045), mid (2046–2070), and far (2071–2095) future for low-and high-emission scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively) using bias-corrected ensembles of 19 regional climate models from the COordinated Regional Downscaling EXperiment for South Asia (CORDEX-SA). Second, a qualitative analysis based on expert interviews and a literature review on the impact of the projected climate extremes on the climate-sensitive sectors is undertaken. Both the temperature and precipitation patterns are projected to deviate significantly from the historical reference already from the near future with increased occurrences of extreme events. Winter in the highlands is expected to become warmer and dryer. The hot and wet tropical summer in the lowlands will become hotter with longer warm spells and fewer cold days. Low-intensity precipitation events will decline, but the magnitude and frequency of extreme precipitation events will increase. The compounding effects of the increase in extreme temperature and precipitation events will have largely negative implications for the six climate-sensitive sectors considered here.

Reversing the alarming trend of rising food insecurity requires transformations towards just, sustainable and healthy food systems with an explicit focus on the most vulnerable and fragile regions.

Relying on published literature, we reviewed water-energy-food issues in Lao PDR in the context of a policy shift to more sustainable ‘green growth’ and significantly increased infrastructure investment resulting from China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The BRI provides the prospect for the country to address its infrastructure deficit and transform from a ‘land-locked’ to a ‘land-linked’ country. However, great care is needed to ensure that future investments do not result in further environmental degradation and harm to communities. An integrated ‘nexus’ approach, in which enhanced water management is central, is a prerequisite for more inclusive and sustainable development.

Irrigation represents a long-standing water sector investment in South East Asia. However, despite the undeniable benefits of food production, an irrigation/rice-centric strategy is insufficient in a multi-dimensional conceptualisation of development. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) challenge us to re-think traditional ways of achieving food security. Central to this challenge is how we can retain multi-functionality within landscapes. We explore the often negatively correlated relationship between irrigation and inland fisheries through a literature review and interviews with key informants, focusing on examples from Myanmar and Cambodia. We found that whilst technical options exist for minimizing irrigation impacts on fisheries, there is a fundamental disconnect between the technical application of such ‘solutions’, and distribution of benefits to the marginal groups that SDGs 1, 2, 3 and more target. We found that insufficient recognition of the social contexts in which solutions are applied underpins this disconnect. This means that technical infrastructure design needs to be organised around the question, ‘Who do we want to benefit?’, if investments are to go beyond rice/fish production and deliver more on socially inclusive food security and livelihood opportunities. This paper is a call to extend the framing and financing of irrigation investments beyond technical parameters to include investing in the social processes that enable both multi-functionality and inclusive growth, to enhance the role of irrigation in adapting to a changing climate, while maintaining landscape integrity and multi-functionality so necessary for a sustainable future.

This analysis investigates the potential mechanism and the practical significance of the impacts of agricultural value chain development in a geographically challenging rural area of a developing country. We use data from a carefully designed primary survey administered in the hill and mountainous region in Western Nepal. Using the inverse probability weighted regression adjustment method, we show that linking small-scale producers with regional and local traders can help increase agricultural income. We unpack the potential mechanism of the impact pathway and show that the increase in agricultural income is a consequence of higher agricultural revenues, owing to a higher volume of sales at lower prices. We argue that value chain intervention in rural areas, where land is not fully exploited, can lead to acreage expansion or crop switching, which eventually results in higher supply at lower output prices. The positive impact on household income is practically significant in that it translated into improved food security, dietary diversity and household resilience. These findings are robust to various specifications. Targeted value chain interventions that strengthen and stabilize small-scale producers’ access to markets can contribute to rural poverty reduction via an increase in agricultural income.

We have one Earth and one water resource defining our living space. We are the key custodians for safeguarding these resources, which underpin the healthy and peaceful environment in which we all want to live. We cannot expand the physical boundaries, but we can stretch our perspectives to achieve water sustainability through global solidarity and considering water inside Earth’s crust: groundwater.

Groundwater, the largest available global freshwater resource, plays a crucial role in human sustenance and global food security through drinking water supplies and irrigated agriculture. In recent times, many parts of the world have been experiencing discernable, large-scale groundwater depletion, and pollution. A large groundwater-dependent population, uncertain climate-reliant recharge processes, transboundary water sources, major geogenic-sourced, nonpoint contaminants, inefficient irrigation methods and human practices, and indiscriminate land use change with rising urbanization underscore the urgent need to develop models of sustainability and security for global groundwater, in terms of both quantity and quality. Climate change is expected to exacerbate these issues. We need to understand the main factors that control groundwater availability (quantity and quality) in a changing world, where climate change and human factors (overexploitation, pollution, economics, agro-food aspects and their socioeconomic side, and governance intervention) deeply influence water availability. Because groundwater represents a critical source of water in many areas, especially in developing countries, there is a need to analyze physical (hydrological), chemical (hydrogeochemistry), and human (socioeconomic) aspects within a comprehensive framework to define sustainability. Groundwater, which forms a large component of attaining the sustainable development goals, is difficult to manage (mostly not visible, limited monitoring of groundwater levels, recharge, and abstraction, poorly defined flow boundaries; transboundary issues; poor management of abstraction; uncertainty in groundwater–surface water inter-connections) and hence requires comprehensive scale–dependent governance plans. From an economic and governance point of view, there has been insufficient attention given to groundwater as a resource, which is both hidden but widely considered ubiquitous. Solutions, incorporating emerging and innovative technologies, need to be integrated with traditional knowledge, to develop future groundwater security.

This paper looks at the (re)shaping of local institutional arrangements within the context of land use planning processes in Laos, bringing to light their dynamic and co-constitutive relationship. Taking Pa Khom village in Houaphan province as a case study, it examines how local tenure institutions are (re)produced, (re)assembled and adapted to mirror farmer’s livelihood strategies to meet households’ food security, while also conforming to the defined land use plan. Drawing on examples of changes in swidden agriculture and village grazing land arrangements introduced as part of land use planning, the paper highlights the important role played by local communities – acting autonomously, collectively and in relation to external agents – in reconfiguring the relationship between natural resources and institutional orders. It illustrates how farmers employ institutional bricolage to creatively assemble and reshape their land use arrangements to comply with the defined land use plan, thus ensuring it meets their locally embedded livelihood priorities, albeit with different distributional outcomes for various farm households. Linking farm households’ strategies with inter-household and village level institutional arrangements, the paper shows how institutional bricolage contributes to synergizing the different rationales behind land use planning processes.

South Asiaapos;s heavy reliance on groundwater for irrigated agricultural production supports the livelihoods of tens of millions of smallholder farmers but is being undermined by rampant overexploitation of groundwater. Without major intervention, this is expected to be further exacerbated by growing demand and climate change. Groundwater management, scientific and evidence-based, can make an important contribution to managing unsustainable groundwater use and strengthening the climate resilience of farmers due to groundwaterapos;s unique storage characteristics. This study brings together a set of strategies and solutions to better manage groundwater that cover the augmentation of groundwater recharge through managed aquifer recharge, management of groundwater demand through participatory groundwater management and other methods, and the harnessing synergies of co-dependent sectors. The opportunities, constraints and available evidence for each are analysed and the boundaries, barriers and specificities identified to establish entry points for positive change through policies and implementation programmes.

This GRIPP Case Profile assesses whether the proactive involvement of rural communities in the management of groundwater positively contributes towards sustainable resource use. The assessment uses the long-term (2003-2013) Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems (APFAMGS) project in India as a case study. Implemented across seven districts, the assessment is based on a critical review and synthesis of existing literature and complementary field visits conducted five years after project closure. APFAMGS worked towards creating awareness and bringing about behavioral change to achieve sustainable groundwater use, primarily for irrigation. The approach focused on knowledge transfer and capacity building to set up participatory processes conducive to informal management measures, and technologies supporting participatory hydrological monitoring and crop water budgeting. In addition, awareness creation in relation to demand as well as supply side management options was critical. The analysis suggests that APFAMGS has helped in filling the knowledge and information gaps on groundwater resources among local farming communities. Some degree of long-term reduction in groundwater pumping was observed, but the attribution to the project is not clear, and effects on reducing groundwater level declines may be limited and localized. The APFAMGS approach of participatory groundwater management (PGM) fell short in terms of equity considerations, with implications for the institutional sustainability of the approach. The study provides policy guidance for adopting more inclusive PGM-based institutions on a wider scale.

Wetlands are abundant across the African continent and provide a range of ecosystem services on different scales but are threatened by overuse and degradation. It is essential that national governments enable and ensure the sustainable use of wetland resources to maintain these services in the long run. As informed management decisions require reliable, up-to-date, and large coverage spatial data, we propose a modular Earth observation-based framework for the geo-localisation and characterization of wetlands in East Africa. In this study, we identify four major challenges in spatial data supported wetland management and present a framework to address them. We then apply the framework comprising Wetland Delineation, Surface Water Occurrence, Land Use/Land Cover classification and Wetland Use Intensity for the whole of Rwanda and evaluate the ability of these layers to meet the identified challenges. The layers’ spatial and temporal characteristics make them combinable and the information content, of each layer alone as well as in combination, renders them useful for different wetland management contexts.

This article investigates water security in Nepal from the perspective of the water-energy-agriculture (food) nexus, focusing on pathways to water security that originate in actions and policies related to other sectors. It identifies promoting development of Nepal’s hydropower potential to provide energy for pumping as way to improve water security in agriculture. Renewable groundwater reserves of 1.4 billion cubic meters (BCM), from an estimated available balance of 6.9 BCM, could be pumped to irrigate 613,000 ha of rainfed agricultural land in the Terai plains, with a potential direct economic gain of USD 1.1 billion annually and associated benefits including promotion of energy-based industry, food security and local employment. Governance also plays an important role in addressing water security. We conclude that a nexus-based approach is required for effective water management and governance.

Pragmatic, cost-effective, socially inclusive and scalable solutions that reduce risks from recurrent cycles of floods and droughts would greatly benefit emerging economies. One promising approach known as Underground Transfer of Floods for Irrigation (UTFI) involves recharging depleted aquifers with seasonal high flows to provide additional groundwater for irrigated agriculture during dry periods, while also mitigating floods. It has been identified that there is potential for implementing the UTFI approach across large parts of South Asia. The first pilot-scale implementation of UTFI was carried out in a rural community of the Indo-Gangetic Plain in India, and performance of the approach was assessed over three years from a technical, environmental, socioeconomic and institutional perspective. The results are promising and show that UTFI has the potential to enhance groundwater storage and control flooding, if replicated across larger scales. The challenges and opportunities for more wide-scale implementation of UTFI are identified and discussed in this report. In areas with high potential for implementation, policy makers should consider UTFI as an option when making decisions associated with relevant water-related development challenges.

With adverse impacts of climate change growing in number and intensity, there is an urgent need to reduce emissions from food systems to net zero. This can only be achieved if rural areas in low- and middle-income countries gain access to clean energy. A review of the research and capacity building contributions of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) over the last 10 years suggests important contributions in the areas of energy policy and energy investment planning, cost and feasibility frameworks, and business models for clean energy technology uptake. WLE has also conducted successful pilot projects on solar irrigation to provide an evidence base for scaling up innovative energy initiatives. Finally, the program also considered non-agricultural uses of energy where relevant to food systems, and implemented capacity building activities. Going forward, CGIAR has a key role to play in providing information, supporting access and piloting innovative, scalable clean energy interventions to support the achievement of multiple impacts for the poorest and most food-insecure women and men farmers and entrepreneurs.

Depleting groundwater resources and increasing energy demand with the huge dependence of India’s agriculture on groundwater and energy, and especially in water deficit rice-based production systems, are posing a serious threat to sustained food, water, and energy security. Sustainability concerns of water, energy, and input-intensive rice-based crop production systems have increased the realization for developing and scaling up alternative agro-techniques that can significantly reduce the water and energy requirements in crop production without compromising on crop yield. The interconnectedness between water, energy, and food makes the concept of water, energy, and food (WEF) nexus more relevant to explore integrated solutions to efficient use of limited and/or declining water and energy resources. Conservation agriculture (CA) is gaining currency as an alternate system for rice/cereal-based production systems to conserve water and energy, improve soil health, reduce cost of cultivation, and preserve ecology. This paper explores the concept of WEF nexus and how CA addresses the challenge of harmonizing the synergy among water, energy, and food though WEF ‘nexus gains’ especially in the context of groundwater irrigated rice/cereal based cropping systems.

Accurate information on irrigated areas’ spatial distribution and extent are crucial in enhancing agricultural water productivity, water resources management, and formulating strategic policies that enhance water and food security and ecologically sustainable development. However, data are typically limited for smallholder irrigated areas, which is key to achieving social equity and equal distribution of financial resources. This study addressed this gap by delineating disaggregated smallholder and commercial irrigated areas through the random forest algorithm, a non-parametric machine learning classifier. Location within or outside former apartheid “homelands” was taken as a proxy for smallholder, and commercial irrigation. Being in a medium rainfall area, the huge irrigation potential of the Inkomati-Usuthu Water Management Area (UWMA) is already well developed for commercial crop production outside former homelands. However, information about the spatial distribution and extent of irrigated areas within former homelands, which is largely informal, was missing. Therefore, we first classified cultivated lands in 2019 and 2020 as a baseline, from where the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was used to distinguish irrigated from rainfed, focusing on the dry winter period when crops are predominately irrigated. The mapping accuracy of 84.9% improved the efficacy in defining the actual spatial extent of current irrigated areas at both smallholder and commercial spatial scales. The proportion of irrigated areas was high for both commercial (92.5%) and smallholder (96.2%) irrigation. Moreover, smallholder irrigation increased by over 19% between 2019 and 2020, compared to slightly over 7% in the commercial sector. Such information is critical for policy formulation regarding equitable and inclusive water allocation, irrigation expansion, land reform, and food and water security in smallholder farming systems.

This report presents a spatial analysis conducted at global scale to identify areas of high suitability for implementing the Underground Transfer of Floods for Irrigation (UTFI) approach. The study used multiple global spatial datasets, and the related data were arranged under three categories – water supply, water demand and water storage – to assess global UTFI suitability. Among the river basins with high suitability, the Awash in Ethiopia, Ramganga in India (one of the major tributaries of the Ganges River Basin) and Chao Phraya in Thailand were selected for the economic analysis in this study. The results from this study are intended to provide a first step towards identifying the broad areas (at the river basin or country scale) where more detailed investigation would be worthwhile to ascertain the technical and economic feasibility of UTFI, with greater confidence.

Traditional methods based on field campaigns are generally used to assess the performance of irrigation schemes in Burkina Faso, resulting in labor-intensive, time-consuming, and costly processes. Despite their extensive application for such performance assessment, remote sensing (RS)-based approaches remain very much underutilized in Burkina Faso. Using multi-temporal Landsat images within the Python module for the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land model, we investigated the spatiotemporal performance patterns of the Kou Valley irrigation scheme (KVIS) during two consecutive cropping seasons. Four performance indicators (depleted fraction, relative evapotranspiration, uniformity of water consumption, and crop water productivity) for rice, maize, and sweet potato were calculated and compared against standard values. Overall, the performance of the KVIS varied depending on year, crop, and the crop’s geographical position in the irrigation scheme. A gradient of spatially varied relative evapotranspiration was observed across the scheme, with the uniformity of water consumption being fair to good. Although rice was the most cultivated, a shift to more sweet potato farming could be adopted to benefit more from irrigation, given the relatively good performance achieved by this crop. Our findings ascertain the potential of such RS-based cost-effective methodologies to serve as basis for improved irrigation water management in decision support tools.

Many regions in Africa and the Middle East are vulnerable to drought and to water and food insecurity, motivating agency efforts such as the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) to provide early warning of drought events in the region. Each year these warnings guide life-saving assistance that reaches millions of people. A new NASA multimodel, remote sensing–based hydrological forecasting and analysis system, NHyFAS, has been developed to support such efforts by improving the FEWS NET’s current early warning capabilities. NHyFAS derives its skill from two sources: (i) accurate initial conditions, as produced by an offline land modeling system through the application and/or assimilation of various satellite data (precipitation, soil moisture, and terrestrial water storage), and (ii) meteorological forcing data during the forecast period as produced by a state-of-the-art ocean–land–atmosphere forecast system. The land modeling framework used is the Land Information System (LIS), which employs a suite of land surface models, allowing multimodel ensembles and multiple data assimilation strategies to better estimate land surface conditions. An evaluation of NHyFAS shows that its 1–5-month hindcasts successfully capture known historic drought events, and it has improved skill over benchmark-type hindcasts. The system also benefits from strong collaboration with end-user partners in Africa and the Middle East, who provide insights on strategies to formulate and communicate early warning indicators to water and food security communities. The additional lead time provided by this system will increase the speed, accuracy, and efficacy of humanitarian disaster relief, helping to save lives and livelihoods.

Investments in irrigation contribute to poverty reduction and enhance food security. This paper considers irrigation investments more broadly in the context of rural–urban linkages and thus examines rural irrigation schemes and peri-urban and urban agriculture using freshwater, groundwater and wastewater. We present case studies from East, West and Southern Africa, while focusing on the imperative of smallholders and of food security and nutrition. Evidence from Big Data and telecoupling show that, amid global change and sustainability issues, irrigation development strengthens connections between humans and nature with notable benefits to food security. Transforming investments to feed the future generation require priority investments in irrigation, solar energy for groundwater pumping, groundwater development policy, and integration of peri-urban and urban agriculture into food systems. Equally important will be no-regret interventions in wastewater reuse, water storage and groundwater buffer, micro-irrigation, and wholesale reconfiguration of farming systems, through anticipatory investments, to safeguard food security and sustainability into the distant future.

Urbanisation will be one of the 21st centuryapos;s most transformative trends. By 2050, it will increase from 55% to 68%, more than doubling the urban population in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Urbanisation has multifarious (positive as well as negative) impacts on the wellbeing of humans and the environment. The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) form the blueprint to achieve a sustainable future for all. Clean Water and Sanitation is a specific goal (SDG 6) within the suite of 17 interconnected goals. Here we provide an overview of some of the challenges that urbanisation poses in relation to SDG 6, especially in developing economies. Worldwide, several cities are on the verge of water crisis. Water distribution to informal settlements or slums in megacities (e.g. N50% population in the megacities of India) is essentially non-existent and limits access to adequate safe water supply. Besides due to poor sewer connectivity in the emerging economies, there is a heavy reliance on septic tanks, and other on-site sanitation (OSS) system and by 2030, 4.9 billion people are expected to rely on OSS. About 62–93% of the urban population in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia rely on septic tanks, where septage treatment is rare. Globally, over 80% of wastewater is released to the environment without adequate treatment. About 11% of all irrigated croplands is irrigated with such untreated or poorly treated wastewater. In addition to acute and chronic health effects, this also results in significant pollution of often-limited surface and groundwater resources in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Direct and indirect water reuse plays a key role in global water and food security. Here we offer several suggestions to mitigate water and food insecurity in emerging economies.

Streamflow alteration and subsequent change in long-term average, seasonality, and extremes (e.g., floods and droughts) may affect water security, which is a major concern in many watersheds across the globe. Both climatic and anthropogenic activities may contribute to such changes. Therefore, this study assesses: (i) Streamflow and precipitation trends to identify streamflow alterations in the Extended East Rapti (EER) watershed in central-southern Nepal; (ii) relationship of the alterations to climatic and anthropogenic sources; and (iii) implications of streamflow changes to the socio-environmental system. The trends in streamflow were analyzed for pre-and post-1990 periods considering the abrupt shift in temperature trend in 1990. Results showed a general decreasing trends in discharge post-1990 in the EER watershed. Human activities have significantly contributed in altering streamflow in the EER. Human-induced streamflow alterations have affected the water availability, food security, river health, aquatic biodiversity, and groundwater abstraction in the EER watershed.

The missing link between cross-sectoral resource management and full-scale adoption of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus has been the lack of analytical tools that provide evidence for policy and decision-making. This study defined WEF nexus sustainability indicators, from where an analytical model was developed to manage WEF resources in an integrated manner using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The model established quantitative relationships among WEF sectors, simplifying the intricate interlinkages among resources, using South Africa as a case study. A spider graph was used to illustrate sector performance as related to others, whose management is viewed either as sustainable or unsustainable. The model was then applied to assess progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals in South Africa. The estimated integrated indices of 0.155 and 0.203 for 2015 and 2018, respectively, classify South Africa’s management of resources as marginally sustainable. The model is a decision support tool that highlights priority areas for intervention.

Small-scale irrigation (SSI) technologies can be useful not only to increase crop productivity and income but also as a viable adaptation practice to climate variability. A farm simulation model (FARMSIM) and data from selected SSI technologies piloted in northern Ghana under the ‘Feed the Future-Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation’ (ILSSI) project were used to assess the economic feasibility of the SSI technologies and their potential to improve income and nutrition of smallholder farm households. Three dry season irrigated crops (onion, corchorus, amaranthus) grown under three agricultural water management regimes were analysed. Results show that adoption of the SSI technologies could increase the net farm profit by 154%–608% against the baseline depending on the ‘crop type - SSI technology’ combination. Nutrition levels also improved significantly as a result of the improvements in crop yields due to irrigation and use of complementary inputs. However, the results further reveal that the options that utilize capital-intensive SSI technologies such as solar-powered water pumps to grow high value cash crops are constrained by the high investment cost. Currently, farmers tend to choose low-cost SSI technologies such as a traditional watering-cans, which generate low economic returns. Improving access to credit or alternative financing schemes could mitigate the capital constraints and enable smallholders to gain more benefits from participating in market-oriented high-value irrigated production.

This chapter highlights where land–water linkages are expected to become apparent in terms of climate impacts and where practical approaches to land and water management offer scope for both climate adaptation and mitigation though agriculture. It also provides an agricultural perspective from which to further engage the United Nations Climate Change Conference in terms of water management.

There is increasing recognition of the need to bring about changes across the full spectrum of agricultural practices to ensure that, in future, food production systems are more diverse, sustainable and resilient. In this context, the objectives of irrigation need to be much more ambitious, shifting away from simply maximizing crop yields to maximizing net benefits across a range of uses of irrigation water, including ecosystems and nature-based solutions. One important way to achieve this is by better integrating fisheries into the planning, design, construction, operation and management of irrigation systems. Irrigation – a major contributor to the Green Revolution – has significantly improved agricultural production worldwide, with consequent benefits for food security, livelihoods and poverty alleviation. Today, irrigated agriculture represents about 21 percent of cultivated land, but contributes approximately 40% of the total global crop production. Many governments continue to invest in irrigation as a cornerstone of food security and rural development. Investments in irrigation often represent a pragmatic form of adaptation to changing climatic conditions. This guide focuses on how to sustainably optimize and broaden the range of benefits from irrigation development - not only economic but also social and environmental benefits. It emphasizes the opportunities that fisheries could provide to increase food production and economic returns, enhance livelihoods and public health outcomes, and maintain key ecosystem services. The guide considers possible trade-offs between irrigation and fisheries, and provides recommendations on how these could be minimized.

Rice and fish are preferred foods, critical for healthy and nutritious diets, and provide the foundations of local and national economies across Asia. Although transformations, or “revolutions,” in agriculture and aquaculture over the past half-century have primarily relied upon intensified monoculture to increase rice and fish production, agroecological approaches that support biodiversity and utilize natural processes are particularly relevant for achieving a transformation toward food systems with more inclusive, nutrition-sensitive, and ecologically sound outcomes. Rice and fish production are frequently integrated within the same physical, temporal, and social spaces, with substantial variation amongst the types of production practice and their extent. In Cambodia, rice field fisheries that strongly rely upon natural processes persist in up to 80% of rice farmland, whereas more input and infrastructure dependent rice-shrimp culture is expanding within the rice farmland of Vietnam. We demonstrate how a diverse suite of integrated production practices contribute to sustainable and nutrition-sensitive food systems policy, research, and practice. We first develop a typology of integrated production practices illustrating the nature and degree of: (a) fish stocking, (b) water management, (c) use of synthetic inputs, and (d) institutions that control access to fish. Second, we summarize recent research and innovations that have improved the performance of each type of practice. Third, we synthesize data on the prevalence, outcomes, and trajectories of these practices in four South and Southeast Asian countries that rely heavily on fish and rice for food and nutrition security. Focusing on changes since the food systems transformation brought about by the Green Revolution, we illustrate how integrated production practices continue to serve a variety of objectives to varying degrees: food and nutrition security, rural livelihood diversification and income improvement, and biodiversity conservation. Five shifts to support contemporary food system transformations [i.e., disaggregating (1) production practices and (2) objectives, (3) utilizing diverse metrics, (4) valuing emergent, place-based innovation, (5) building adaptive capacity] would accelerate progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 2, specifically through ensuring ecosystem maintenance, sustainable food production, and resilient agricultural practices with the capacity to adapt to global change.

Land tenure, or access and rights to land, is essential to sustain people’s livelihoods. This paper looks at how farm households perceive land tenure (in)security in relation to food (in)security, and how these perceptions evolve throughout different policy periods in Laos. The paper highlights the centrality of farmers’ strategies in configuring the dynamic relationships between tenure (in)security and food (in)security, by demonstrating how farmers’ perceived and de facto land tenure insecurity shapes their decisions to diversify livelihood options to ensure food security. While the paper’s key findings reveal the close interlinkages between land tenure (in) security and food (in)security, we argue that the first does not automatically result in the latter. In contrast, we show how perceived and de-facto land tenure insecurity pushes farmers to explore alternative strategies and avenues to ensure food supply, through farm and non-farm employment. From a policy perspective, the paper highlights the need to put people’s livelihoods at the center of land governance, thus moving beyond the current positioning of land as merely a means for agricultural production or environmental conservation.

The main limiting factor impeding the operationalisation of the WEF nexus has been lack of metrics and tools to translate the concept into a fully-fledged operational framework to support policy and decision-making. This study developed a WEF nexus model by (i) defining WEF nexus sustainability indicators, and (ii) calculating composite indices for those indicators to establish numerical relationships among WEF nexus resources using South Africa as a case study. The composite indices show WEF nexus performance as well as monitoring and evaluation of WEF resources management. The indicators were integrated through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM). The established quantitative relationships indicate resource utilisation, management and performance through a spider graph to illustrate WEF nexus performance, providing a general overview of the level of interactions, interrelationships and inter-connectedness of resources. The shape of the spider graph is determined by the level of the interdependencies and interactions among the WEF nexus sectors, whose management is viewed either as sustainable or unsustainable depending on the classification of the developed integrated index. The spider graph for South Africa showed an over-emphasis on food self-sufficiency and water productivity at the expense of other sectors. The deformed shape of the spider graph is a demonstration of the sectoral or “silo” approach in resource management. The calculated integrated WEF nexus index of 0.203 for South Africa classified the country under the low sustainability category. The developed model is a decision support tool that provides evidence for interventions in priority areas. The model demonstrates the capabilities of the WEF nexus to evaluate synergies and trade-offs in a systematic and integrated way to increases efficiency and productivity in resource management for sustainable development.

About 60% of southern Africa’s population lives in rural areas with limited access to basic services and amenities such as clean and safe water, affordable and clean energy, and balanced and nutritious diets. Resource scarcity has direct and indirect impacts on nutrition, human health, and well-being of mostly poor rural communities. Climate change impacts in the region are manifesting through low crop yields, upsurge of vector borne diseases (malaria and dengue fever), and water and food-borne diseases (cholera and diarrhoea). This study applied a water–energy–food (WEF) nexus analytical livelihoods model with complex systems understanding to assess rural livelihoods, health, and well-being in southern Africa, recommending tailor-made adaptation strategies for the region aimed at building resilient rural communities. The WEF nexus is a decision support tool that improves rural livelihoods through integrated resource distribution, planning, and management, and ensures inclusive socio-economic transformation and development, and addresses related sustainable development goals, particularly goals 2, 3, 6 and 7. The integrated WEF nexus index for the region was calculated at 0.145, which is marginally sustainable, and indicating the region’s exposure to vulnerabilities, and reveals a major reason why the region fails to meet its developmental targets. The integrated relationship among WEF resources in southern Africa shows an imbalance and uneven resource allocation, utilisation and distribution, which normally results from a ‘siloed’ approach in resource management. The WEF nexus provides better adaptation options, as it guides decision making processes by identifying priority areas needing intervention, enhancing synergies, and minimising trade-offs necessary for resilient rural communities. Our results identified (i) the trade-offs and unintended negative consequences for poor rural households’ livelihoods of current silo approaches, (ii) mechanisms for sustainably enhancing household water, energy and food security, whilst (iii) providing direction for achieving SDGs 2, 3, 6 and 7.

Irrigated agriculture and inland fisheries both make important contributions to food security, nutrition, livelihoods and wellbeing. Typically, in modern irrigation systems, these components operate independently. Some practices, commonly associated with water use and intensification of crop production can be in direct conflict with and have adverse effects on fisheries. Food security objectives may be compromised if fish are not considered in the design phases of irrigation systems. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a framework that can serve as a backdrop to help integrate both sectors in policy discussions and optimise their contributions to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Inland fisheries systems do play an important role in supporting many SDG objectives, but these contributions can sometimes be at odds with irrigated agriculture. Using case studies of two globally important river catchments, namely the Lower Mekong and Murray–Darling basins, we highlight the conflicts and opportunities for improved outcomes between irrigated agriculture and inland fisheries. We explore SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) as a path to advance our irrigation systems as a means to benefit both agriculture and inland fisheries, preserving biodiversity and enhancing the economic, environmental and social benefits they both provide to people.

Global discourses have advocated womenapos;s empowerment as a means to enhance food security. Our objective was to critically review the causal linkages between womenapos;s empowerment and food availability and access. We relied on mixed methods and a cross-country analysis, using household survey data from Bangladesh, Nepal and Tajikistan and qualitative data from Nepal. The quantitative analysis highlights the diversity of patterns linking empowerment and food security indicators and the roles socio-economic determinants play in shaping these patterns across countries. The qualitative analysis further stresses the need for a truly intersectional approach in food security programmes that supports challenging the structural barriers that keep marginalised men and women food insecure. Lastly, our findings call for informing standardised measures of empowerment with an assessment of local meanings and values.

Small reservoirs are a critical coping mechanism in water-stressed rural areas in Africa, providing immense livelihood benefits that include improved food and water security, entrepreneurial activities and climate resilience. Challenges associated with the implementation of investments in small reservoirs include appropriate site selection, weak institutions, insufficient maintenance and sedimentation. The findings from this study suggest that the benefits of small reservoirs may be tapped more efficiently by rehabilitating old sites rather than building new infrastructure. However, the findings also point to broader lessons on the need to change the way of doing business, i.e., to adopt a long-term, more holistic approach (or model) to the construction and maintenance of small reservoirs that matches the degree of the challenge associated with sustainably tapping the benefits of the water that they store.

The increasing demand for water, energy and food, and the interdependence of these systems could lead to potential human conflict in the future. This was seen in the food crisis of 2008, which stirred a renewed interest in taking a quot;systemsquot; approach to managing resources. The initial flurry of activities led to many nexus frameworks, but there remains a gap between theory and its implementation. This paper tries to look at various frameworks and unpacks the concept of nexus in order to develop matrices to help quantify and understand the interlinkages between the nexus systems. It suggests multi-level and multi-system indices to measure the health of nexus systems and to identify the weak links. It is hoped that such frameworks can be used at country level, and eventually be used to measure and rank countries on the health of their systems. The paper suggests a questionnaire that can be used (after modifying for local conditions) to collect country-level institutional and political-economy data (which is difficult to get from online resources) to be used in the framework.

Food insecurity is a recurrent problem in northern Ghana. Food grown during the rainy season is often insufficient to meet household food needs, with some households experiencing severe food insecurity for up to five months in a year. Flood recession agriculture (FRA) – an agricultural practice that relies on residual soil moisture and nutrients left by receding flood water – is ordinarily practiced by farmers along the floodplains of the White Volta River in northern Ghana under low-input low-output conditions. Opportunities abound to promote highly productive FRA as a means of extending the growing season beyond the short rainy season (from May to September) into the dry season and thereby increase household income and food security of smallholder farmers. This study uses an optimization modelling approach to explore this potential by analyzing the crop mix and agricultural water management options that will maximize household income and enhance food security. Results indicate that growing cowpea, groundnut and melon under residual-moisture based FRA and high value crops (onion, pepper, and tomato) under supplementary irrigation FRA maximize household income and food security. The cash income from the sale of FRA crops was sufficient to purchase food items that ensure consumption smoothing during the food-insecure months. The study concludes that the full potential of FRA will be realized through a careful selection of crop mixtures and by enhancing access of farmers to improved seeds, integrated pest management and credit and mainstreaming FRA through targeted policy interventions and institutional support.

The Arab region needs a new generation of policies and investments in agricultural water. Agricultural water management has always posed challenges and opportunities in the Arab world. However, unprecedented and accelerating drivers such as climate change, population growth, and land degradation make agricultural water management a more urgent priority than ever before. In addition, as part of the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development, Arab countries have committed to work towards an ambitious set of development targets, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unless the right policies and investments are put in place, it will be difficult to achieve the SDGs, including ending hunger and providing clean water and sanitation for all. This paper is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Water Management Institute to foster dialogue on agricultural water policies and investments in the context of the FAO led Regional Water Scarcity initiative. The purpose of the paper is to frame the key challenges and opportunities in the sector – including emerging innovations in digital agriculture, water accounting, water supply and wastewater reuse – and to lay out broad strategic directions for action.

Orphan crops play an important role in global food and nutrition security, and may have potential to contribute to sustainable food systems under climate change. Owing to reports of their potential under water scarcity, there is an argument to promote them to sustainably address challenges such as increasing drought and water scarcity, food and nutrition insecurity, environmental degradation, and employment creation under climate change. We conducted a scoping review using online databases to identify the prospects of orphan crops to contribute to (1) sustainable and healthy food systems, (2) genetic resources for future crop improvement, and (3) improving agricultural sustainability under climate change. The review found that, as a product of generations of landrace agriculture, several orphan crops are nutritious, resilient, and adapted to niche marginal agricultural environments. Including such orphan crops in the existing monocultural cropping systems could support more sustainable, nutritious, and diverse food systems in marginalised agricultural environments. Orphan crops also represent a broad gene pool for future crop improvement. The reduction in arable land due to climate change offers opportunities to expand the area under their production. Their suitability to marginal niche and low-input environments offers opportunities for low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from an agro-ecosystems, production, and processing perspective. This, together with their status as a sub-set of agro-biodiversity, offers opportunities to address socio-economic and environmental challenges under climate change. With research and development, and policy to support them, orphan crops could play an important role in climate-change adaptation, especially in the global south.

Agricultural land suitability analysis (ALSA) for crop production is one of the key tools for ensuring sustainable agriculture and for attaining the current global food security goal in line with the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) of United Nations. Although some review studies addressed land suitability, few of them specifically focused on land suitability analysis for agriculture. Furthermore, previous reviews have not reflected on the impact of climate change on future land suitability and how this can be addressed or integrated into ALSA methods. In the context of global environmental changes and sustainable agriculture debate, we showed from the current review that ALSA is a worldwide land use planning approach. We reported from the reviewed articles 69 frequently used factors in ALSA. These factors were further categorized in climatic conditions (16), nutrients and favorable soils (34 of soil and landscape), water availability in the root zone (8 for hydrology and irrigation) and socio-economic and technical requirements (11). Also, in getting a complete view of crop’s ecosystems and factors that can explain and improve yield, inherent local socio-economic factors should be considered. We showed that this aspect has been often omitted in most of the ALSA modeling with only 38% of the total reviewed article using socio-economic factors. Also, only 30% of the studies included uncertainty and sensitivity analysis in their modeling process. We found limited inclusions of climate change in the application of the ALSA. We emphasize that incorporating current and future climate change projections in ALSA is the way forward for sustainable or optimum agriculture and food security. To this end, qualitative and quantitative approaches must be integrated into a unique ALSA system (Hybrid Land Evaluation System - HLES) to improve the land evaluation approach.

Water availability for agriculture will become a growing constraint in areas already under environmental and social stress due to population growth, development, and climatic variability. This limits the potential for expanding irrigated areas and for sustainable intensification, and compromises the ability of smallholder farmers to cater to the increased demand for food. This chapter assesses the key global challenges to water availability and how increasing scarcity and competition for water resources are affecting agricultural productivity, especially that of smallholder producers in Asia and Africa. It further analyzes emerging water management practices that can be sustainably adapted to the needs of smallholder farmers. We provide evidence of the economic viability and potential to improve farmers’ income from such solutions. The opportunity for scaling up high-impact solutions is also assessed against available empirical evidence.

The increasing frequency and intensity of droughts and floods, coupled with increasing temperatures and declining rainfall totals, are exacerbating existing vulnerabilities in southern Africa. Agriculture is the most affected sector as 95% of cultivated area is rainfed. This review addressed trends in moisture stress and the impacts on crop production, highlighting adaptation possible strategies to ensure food security in southern Africa. Notable changes in rainfall patterns and deficiencies in soil moisture are estimated and discussed, as well as the impact of rainfall variability on crop production and proposed adaptation strategies in agriculture. Climate moisture index (CMI) was used to assess aridity levels. Southern Africa is described as a climate hotspot due to increasing aridity, low adaptive capacity, underdevelopment and marginalisation. Although crop yields have been increasing due to increases in irrigated area and use of improved seed varieties, they have not been able to meet the food requirements of a growing population, compromising regional food security targets. Most countries in the region depend on international aid to supplement yield deficits. The recurrence of droughts caused by the El Nio Southern Oscillation (ENSO) continue devastating the region, affecting livelihoods, economies and the environment. An example is the 2015/2016 ENSO drought that caused the region to call for international aid to feed about 40 million people. In spite of the water scarcity challenges, cereal production continues to increase steadily due to increased investment in irrigated agriculture and improved crop varieties. Given the current and future vulnerability of the agriculture sector in southern Africa, proactive adaptation interventions are important to help farming communities develop resilient systems to adapt to the changes and variability in climate and other stressors.

Hydropower production is altering the Mekong River basin’s riverine ecosystems, which contain the world’s largest inland fishery and provide food security and livelihoods to millions of people. The basin’s hydropower reservoir storage, which may rise from ~2% of its mean annual flow in 2008 to ~20% in 2025, is attenuating seasonal flow variability downstream of many dams with integral powerhouses and large storage reservoirs. In addition, tributary diversions for off-stream energy production are reducing downstream flows and augmenting them in recipient tributaries. To help manage tradeoffs between dam benefits (hydropower, irrigation, flood control, domestic water supply, and navigation) and their consequences for livelihoods and ecosystems, we review observed and projected impacts on river flows along both the Mekong mainstream and its tributaries. We include the effects of diversions and inter-basin transfers, which prior reviews of flow alteration in the Mekong basin have largely neglected. We also discuss the extent to which concurrent changes in climate, water demand, and land use, may offset or exacerbate hydropower-induced flow alteration. Our major recommendations for assessing hydrological impacts in the Mekong and other basins undergoing rapid hydropower development include synchronizing and integrating observational and modeling studies, improving the accuracy of reservoir water balances, evaluating multi-objective reservoir operating rules, examining hydropeaking-induced flow alteration, conducting multi-dam safety assessments, evaluating flow indicators relevant to local ecosystems and livelihoods, and considering alternative energy sources and reservoir sedimentation in long-term projections. Finally, we strongly recommend that dam impact studies consider hydrological alteration in conjunction with fish passage barriers, geomorphic changes and other contemporaneous stressors.

Agricultural water management, particularly management of multi-purpose small reservoirs (SRs) in drier savanna areas of the northern Ghana, is being promoted as a key solution to improve agricultural production, enhance food security and livelihoods of smallholder farm households. However, little empirical evidence exist on how effective these small water infrastructures are in terms of delivering multiple benefits and their impact on the livelihood of smallholder farmers. This study assessed the effectiveness and impact of the small reservoirs on smallholder vegetable farmers in northern Ghana. A participatory rating method using a 5-point Likert-scale was used to assess the effectiveness of SRs in delivering multiple livelihood benefits and an endogenous switching regression model was applied to assess the SRs’ impact using a primary data collected from 328 randomly sampled vegetable farmers. Results from the Likert scale analysis show that most of the SRs are either dysfunctional or underutilized and not effective in delivering multiple benefits. Results from the endogenous switching regression model show that there is only about 3% increase in the income of vegetable farmers participating in irrigated vegetable production using SRs against the counterfactual situation but this change is insignificant statistically. The current low level effectiveness and impact of SRs could be enhanced by improving their management, for example, through the provision of incentive mechanisms such as subsidies to the private sector involvement in rehabilitation, management and irrigation service provision and strengthening the capacity of existing water users associations. Furthermore, small reserviors should be recognized not only as water sources for small scale irrigation but also as providers of multiple livelihood benefits to local communities and consequently should attract due attention in public resource allocation in their rehabilitation and management/institutional capacity building.

This paper develops a conceptual framework with an indicator-based approach to assess Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) and applies it to case study sites in Lao PDR (Ekxang CSV), Cambodia (Rohal Suong CSV), and Vietnam (Tra Hat CSV) in Southeast Asia. The intensification, extensification, diversification, commercialization, alteration of practices, use of common lands, migration strategies that can augment climate resilience, farm income, assets, and food security are assessed based on a composite index of the strategies and key outcome variables. The study demonstrates a method that can be applied widely for assessing climate-smart agriculture strategies and finding possible entry points for climate-smart interventions. The influence of gender in resource control and livelihood strategies is also discussed. It is also evident that the climate-smart interventions can augment different livelihood strategies of farmers and enhance the developmental and climate resilience outcomes. There is a need to prioritize the possible interventions in each case and implement them with the help of donor agencies, local institutions, and government offices.

Small-scale irrigation continues to cushion the food security gap in sub-Saharan Africa. Irrigation is largely governed by water availability, soil type and crop water requirements, among other factors. Thus, a study was conducted to assess the suitability of various water sources for irrigation in northern Ghana. Specifically, the study sought to assess quality of water sources in the Savelugu, Kasena-Nankana East, and Nabdam districts for small-scale irrigation development. The water quality parameters used were: pH, electrical conductivity (ECw), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), sodium percent (Na%), soluble sodium percentage (SSP), magnesium adsorption ratio (MAR), Kelleyapos;s ratio (KR), total hardness (TH), Chloride (Cl), E. coli, and Faecal coliforms. While we found most of the irrigation water sources, including small reservoirs, dams, wells and rivers suitable, few unsuitable irrigation water sources were also identified. Overall, the study found that opportunities for scaling small-scale irrigation exist in all the sites. The knowledge generated from this study will guide irrigation water use, and agricultural policy for sustainable smallholder irrigation development in the region.

Building on existing literature and the analysis of a portfolio of development projects (past and under implementation), this paper reviews the evolution of water user associations (WUAs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), reflecting on the conceptualization of how they operate, and the promised outcomes related to irrigation development, and the efficient and effective delivery of irrigation services. It also moves one step further from existing studies on WUAs, postulating that additional reflection is needed to understand the limitations of WUAs and proposes alternative, viable and context-based adapted models. This need is particularly strong in SSA where irrigation is incipient, and governments and donors are still consolidating their development approaches. Whereas a growing body of international literature takes into account the sociopolitical context of decentralized irrigation management, practical indication on what remains to be done to address the various limitations found in SSA stays meagre and scattered. The objective of this paper is not to challenge the myth of WUAs but to learn how to better deliver on the promised outcomes. The underlying message is that, if the SSA region is to be made water and food secure while respecting resource sustainability, community development, livelihoods and equality of resource access, the recurrent templates for WUA management and governance need to be revisited and adapted to local needs.

After a hiatus through the 1990s and the early part of this century, rising energy demand, new private sector financing options and countries pursuing food security, modernization and economic growth have spurred a new era of large dam development. Currently an estimated 3700 dams are planned or under construction globally (Zarfl et al., [2015] 77, 161–170). Many of the challenges faced in the context of the water-energy-food nexus are brought into sharp focus by large dam construction. Dams can safeguard food production, provide an important source of income and relatively cheap electricity, and can have direct and indirect benefits for poor people. Too often, however, they have created significant and poorly mitigated environmental and social costs (WCD, [2000] London: Earthscan Publications Ltd). Adverse impacts on ecosystem services caused by dam construction can have profound implications for the health, resilience and livelihoods of the poor. This article explores the challenges facing decision makers with regards to building resilience and navigating risk within the water-energy-food nexus and dams. It draws from two progressive case studies, one in Africa and one in Asia, to highlight lessons learned from nexus approaches including the need for meaningful participation, transparency in decision making, and valuing ecosystem services. The case studies examined contain relevant lessons for global agreements including the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement because unlike the Millennium Development Goals, they are expected to address interlinkages and tradeoffs across the nexus. The implications of the increasing trend of public private partnerships to finance, build, and operate hydropower dams is discussed. The article concludes by demonstrating that although mitigating impacts across the nexus and social-ecological resilience presents challenges and requires overcoming complexity, the need to tackle these is greater than ever.

The discourse on the need for water, energy, and food security has dominated the development agenda of southern African countries, centred on improving livelihoods, building resilience, and regional integration. About 60% of the population in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) live in rural areas relying mainly on rainfed agriculture, lacking access to clean water and energy, yet the region is endowed with vast natural resources. The water-energy-food (WEF) nexus is a conceptual framework that presents opportunities for greater resource coordination, management, and policy convergence across sectors. This is particularly relevant in the SADC region as resources are transboundary and supports efforts linked to regional integration and inclusive socio-economic development and security. We conducted an appraisal of WEF-related policies and institutions in SADC and identified linkages among them. The present ‘silo’ approach in resource management and allocation, often conducted at the national level, contributes to the region’s failure to meet its development targets, exacerbating its vulnerabilities. The lack of coordination of WEF nexus synergies and trade-offs in planning often threatens the sustainability of development initiatives. We highlighted the importance of the WEF nexus to sustainably address the sectoral coordination of resources through harmonised institutions and policies, as well as setting targets and indicators to direct and monitor nexus developments. We illustrate the significance of the nexus in promoting inclusive development and transforming vulnerable communities into resilient societies. The study recommends a set of integrated assessment models to monitor and evaluate the implementation of WEF nexus targets. Going forward, we propose the adoption of a regional WEF nexus framework.

Sustainable development has become the main focus of the global development agenda as presented in the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, for countries to assess progress, they need to have reliable baseline indicators. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to develop a composite baseline index of the agriculture-related SDGs in Southern Africa to guide progress reporting. The paper identified eight of the SDG indicators related to the agriculture sector. The paper relies on data for indicators from five SDGs (SDGs 1, 2, 6, 7 and 15). Applying the arithmetic mean method of aggregation, an agriculture-related SDG composite index for Southern Africa between zero (0 = poor performance) and 100 (best possible performance) was computed for thirteen countries that had data on all identified indicators. The results show that the best performing countries (Botswana, Angola, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa) in the assessment recorded high scores in SDGs 1, 2 and 7. The three countries (Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Madagascar) that performed poorly on both SDG 1 and 2 also had the least scores on the overall agriculture-related SDG composite index. The water stress indicator for SDG 6 recorded the worst performance among most countries in the region. Possible approaches to improve the contribution of agriculture to SDGs may include investing more resources in priority areas for each agriculture-related SDG depending on baseline country conditions. The implementation, monitoring and evaluation of regional and continental commitments in the agriculture sector and the SDGs are critical for achievement of the targets at the national and local levels. While the methods employed are well-grounded in literature, data unavailability for some of the SDGs in some countries presented a limitation to the study, and future efforts should focus on collecting data for the other SDGs in order to permit a wider application.

This report outlines a business model approach to assessing the feasibility and for encouraging investment in smallholder solar pump irrigation. It also proposes a new methodology for mapping the suitability of solar energy-based irrigation pumps. The proposed business model framework and the methodology for suitability mapping are applied to Ethiopia as a case study, based on data from existing case studies and reports. A brief analysis outlines the regulatory and institutional context for investment in solar pump irrigation, and the ways in which it both constrains and attempts to support investment. The report identifies and outlines three business model scenarios that present opportunities for investing in smallholder solar pump-based irrigation, which would contribute towards sustainable intensification for food and nutrition security. The business model scenarios are based on the value proposition of supplying water to smallholder farmers for irrigated agricultural production. Analysis of potential gains and benefits suggests that direct purchase of solar pumps by farmers is feasible, and that out-grower schemes and pump supplier options with bundled financing offer promising solutions. The potential constraints that different investors may face in up-scaling the business models are also discussed, particularly within institutional, regulatory and financial contexts. The report provides development actors and investors with evidence-based information on the suitability and sustainability of solar pump irrigation in Ethiopia, as well as suggestions for helping to enable smallholders to invest in individually-owned, smallholder photovoltaic (PV) solar pumps.

This paper explores ways to increase public investments in agricultural water management and irrigation for improved agricultural productivity in Southern Africa, with a specific focus on Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. The analysis was based on a critical review of literature and assessment of the national agricultural investment plans and agricultural/water policies in the study countries. Despite the potential to improve agricultural productivity, irrigation does not currently play a significant role in Southern African agriculture. There have been efforts and formal commitments at the continental, regional and country levels to promote investments in agricultural water management and irrigation to improve and sustain agricultural productivity. However, despite these commitments, actual implementation has been a challenge and the first 5 years of national agricultural investment plans have passed or are now coming to an end without much progress having been made regarding actual investments. Lack of adequate resources and institutional capacity have been some of the challenges affecting implementation of the investment plans to meet commitments in sustainable land and water management. Overall, as countries plan for the second phase of the CAADP programme, there are opportunities to ensure that investments in agricultural water management and irrigation and complementary technologies are prioritised and allocated adequate resources for implementation.

The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) has conducted innovative research in the upper watersheds of the Ganges, Mekong, Red and Nile river basins. WLE sought to identify how to improve people’s livelihoods in ways that are equitable, profitable and sustainable, while also improving ecosystem services locally and downstream. The research specifically examined the impact of interventions spanning several sectors, including water, food, energy and trade. This brief presents results, insights and tools that can be adopted and applied elsewhere. Escaping from the confines of narrow sectoral investments and adopting an integrated, ecosystems-focused approach can lead to more sustainable, profitable and equitable use and development of upper watershed landscapes.

Increasing agricultural productivity has always been a prominent feature on the regional agenda due to a high incidence of food and nutrition insecurity. This review assessed the current status of irrigated agriculture in southern Africa from a water–energy–food (WEF) nexus perspective. Gaps and opportunities for improving irrigated agriculture within the context of the WEF nexus were also assessed in terms of the feasible limits to which they can be exploited. Southern Africa faces water scarcity, and climate projections show that member states will face increased physical and/or economic water scarcity by as early as 2025, which will have negative impacts on water, energy and food production. Recurrent droughts experienced across the region reaffirm the sensitive issues of food and energy insecurity as well as water scarcity. Projections of an increasing population within the region indicate increased water, energy and food demand. With agriculture already accounting for about 70% of water withdrawals, increasing the area under irrigation will place additional demand on already strained energy grids and scarce water resources. This poses the question—is increasing irrigated agriculture a solution to improving water access, food security and energy supply? While there are prospects for increasing the area under irrigation and subsequent improvement in agricultural productivity, adopting a WEF nexus approach in doing so would mitigate trade-offs and unintended consequences. Consideration of the WEF nexus in integrated resources planning and management eliminates the possibilities of transferring problems from one sector to other, as it manages synergies and trade-offs. While it is acknowledged that improving water productivity in irrigated agriculture could reduce water and energy use while increasing yield output, there is a need to decide how such savings would then be reallocated. Any intervention to increase the irrigated area should be done in the context of a WEF nexus analytical framework to guide policy and decision-making. Technical planning should evolve around the WEF nexus approach in setting targets, as WEF nexus indicators would reveal the performance and impact of proposed interventions on any of the three WEF nexus components.

Rapid urban growth in sub-Saharan Africa challenges food supply of cities. As food and other organic matter are transported from production areas to consumption points, water, which has been used for their production, is transported virtually. This study aimed at determining the magnitude and sources of virtual water flows in food trade of two West African cities, in order to better assess food provisioning risks and water resource use and planning. To this end, flows of unprocessed food from local, regional, national and international sources were systematically recorded at all roads leading to Tamale, Ghana and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The survey was conducted within two years covering the peak (November - December) and lean season (March - April), respectively, for six days in a row. Virtual water flows were computed by multiplying the flow quantities (t yr-1) by their respective virtual water contents (m3 t-1). Results showed that virtual water of all food commodities imported to Tamale and Ouagadougou were 514 and 2105 million m3 yr-1 respectively, out of which 68% and 40% were re-exported to other regions of the country. The data also showed major seasonal variation in virtual water flows across the year. Reflecting their dominating role in local diets, cereals contributed most to the total virtual water inflows in both cities. Southern Ghana is the major net virtual water importer from Tamale through cereals, legumes, vegetables, and livestock. The Northern Region of Ghana, on the other hand, is a net exporter of virtual water in all food groups apart from fruits. In Ouagadougou, large flows of virtual water were imported in cereals, specifically rice from Asian countries, via Ivory Coast.

This report is the result of the implementation of an assessment methodology for Colombo and its city region food system (CRFS). Colombo stands as a unique city in Sri Lanka due to the complexity of its socio-demographic profile and the diverse food items that arrive through multiple channels. The busy and complex lifestyle of its inhabitants, together with the floating population of the city, creates a high demand for catering services that supply prepared food for direct consumption. In addition, the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) acts as the national hub for imported food items and the regional hub for vegetable and fruit. As a result, Colombo has one of the most complex food systems in Sri Lanka. The aims of the CRFS assessment include: to better understand the functioning the Colombo food system; to examine the current and future constraints on food security and safety, with respect to the challenges of urban growth, diversity, lifestyle and dynamics; to explore the sustainability and resilience of the Colombo CRFS; and to seek to improve the livelihoods of rural and urban dwellers now and in the future.

Water and nutrition are linked in multiple ways, but few of these interlinkages are well understood. What is, for example, the exact relationship between water pollution and health or between water resource management and nutrition? Even less is known about the interactions across these various linkages. The importance of better understanding these connections has been highlighted as we pursue the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which challenge mankind to meet both water security as well as food and nutrition security goals, while also improving water-based ecosystems. It has become increasingly clear that progress toward these goals can only be achieved if measures in the food and nutrition space (SDG 2) do not constrain progress on water (SDG 6) and if measures undertaken to support targets under one of these SGDs also support the outcomes of the other. This paper provides an overview of water–nutrition linkages as reflected in the SDGs, and it identifies key gaps in these linkages and suggests a way forward to support the achievement of both water and nutrition goals and targets.

Smallholder irrigation expansion would signi cantly increase agricultural production, and reduce food insecurity and poverty levels in East Africa. This paper reviews literature on trends, constraints and opportunities of smallholder irrigation in four East African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Irrigation development has been slow in these countries, and has been mainly through traditional schemes. Recently, individual irrigation technologies such as small motorized pumps, drip kits, treadle pumps, rope and washer pumpsarebeing promoted.Adoption ofthesetechnologiesandexpansion ofsmallholder irrigationhoweverface a number of challenges including land tenure issues; lack of access to appropriate irrigation technologies, improved agricultural inputs, reliable markets, nance and credit services, and research support; poor transport and communication infrastructures; poor irrigation water management; poor extension systems; and the over dependence on national governments, NGOs and donors for support. Despite these challenges, opportunities exist for smallholder irrigation expansion in East Africa. Such opportunities include: high untapped irrigation potential; rainwater harvesting to improve water availability; high commitment of national governments, NGOs and donors to smallholder irrigation expansion; low cost irrigation technologies adaptable to local conditions; traditional schemes rehabilitation;growing urbanization; and increaseduse ofmobilephones thatcanbeused to disseminate information.

Climate change is a complex and cross-cutting problem that needs an integrated and transformative systems approach to respond to the challenge. Current sectoral approaches to climate change adaptation initiatives often create imbalances and retard sustainable development. Regional and international literature on climate change adaptation opportunities and challenges applicable to southern Africa from a water-energy-food (WEF) nexus perspective was reviewed. Specifically, this review highlights climate change impacts on water, energy, and food resources in southern Africa, while exploring mitigation and adaptation opportunities. The review further recommends strategies to develop cross-sectoral sustainable measures aimed at building resilient communities. Regional WEF nexus related institutions and legal frameworks were also reviewed to relate the WEF nexus to policy. Southern Africa is witnessing an increased frequency and intensity in climate change-associated extreme weather events, causing water, food, and energy insecurity. A projected reduction of 20% in annual rainfall by 2080 in southern Africa will only increase the regional socio-economic challenges. This is exacerbating regional resource scarcities and vulnerabilities. It will also have direct and indirect impacts on nutrition, human well-being, and health. Reduced agricultural production, lack of access to clean water, sanitation, and clean, sustainable energy are the major areas of concern. The region is already experiencing an upsurge of vector borne diseases (malaria and dengue fever), and water and food-borne diseases (cholera and diarrhoea). What is clear is that climate change impacts are cross-sectoral and multidimensional, and therefore require cross-sectoral mitigation and adaptation approaches. In this regard, a wellcoordinated and integrated WEF nexus approach offers opportunities to build resilient systems, harmonise interventions, and mitigate trade-offs and hence improve sustainability. This would be achieved through greater resource mobilisation and coordination, policy convergence across sectors, and targeting nexus points in the landscape. The WEF nexus approach has potential to increase the resilience of marginalised communities in southern Africa by contributing towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 13).

In Montane Southeast Asia, deforestation and unsuitable combinations of crops and agricultural practices degrade soils at an unprecedented rate. Typically, smallholder farmers gain income from “available” land by replacing fallow or secondary forest by perennial crops. We aimed to understand how these practices increase or reduce soil erosion. Ten land uses were monitored in Northern Laos during the 2015 monsoon, using local farmersapos; fields. Experiments included plots of the conventional system (food crops and fallow), and land uses corresponding to new market opportunities (e.g. commercial tree plantations). Land uses were characterized by measuring plant cover and plant mean height per vegetation layer. Recorded meteorological variables included rainfall intensity, throughfall amount, throughfall kinetic energy (TKE), and raindrop size. Runoff coefficient, soil loss, and the percentage areas of soil surface types (free aggregates and gravel; crusts; macro-faunal, vegetal and pedestal features; plant litter) were derived from observations and measurements in 1-m2 micro-plots. Relationships between these variables were explored with multiple regression analyses. Our results indicate that TKE induces soil crusting and soil loss. By reducing rainfall infiltration, crusted area enhances runoff, which removes and transports soil particles detached by splash over non-crusted areas. TKE is lower under land uses reducing the velocity of raindrops and/or preventing an increase in their size. Optimal vegetation structures combine minimum height of the lowest layer (to reduce drop velocity at ground level) and maximum coverage (to intercept the largest amount of rainfall), as exemplified by broom grass (Thysanolaena latifolia). In contrast, high canopies with large leaves will increase TKE by enlarging raindrops, as exemplified by teak trees (Tectona grandis), unless a protective understorey exists under the trees. Policies that ban the burning of multi-layered vegetation structure under tree plantations should be enforced. Shade-tolerant shrubs and grasses with potential economic return could be promoted as understorey.

The report analyzes the changing tripartite constellations between South African black smallholders, the pre- and post-apartheid state, and the country’s large-scale agribusiness and irrigation industry. A recent mode of farming is the ‘joint venture’, in which smallholders hand over land and share in the net profits, while a strategic partner manages the cultivation with own inputs and equipment, and markets the output. With a focus on the 13 sub-schemes of the Flag Boshielo irrigation scheme in the former homeland of Lebowa (current Limpopo Province), the report analyzes the emergence of six joint ventures - the collapse of three and the troubled continuation of the other three. For the government’s support to joint ventures as one of the options of the revitalization of smallholder irrigation schemes in former homelands, it is recommended to ensure there is a robust bilateral contract between smallholders and the strategic partner, to strengthen land tenure arrangements, and to diversify irrigation technologies for women and men smallholders.

The Bhungroo Irrigation Technology (BIT) is a system designed to infiltrate excess ‘standing’ floodwater to be stored underground and abstracted for irrigation during the dry season. The system was developed in India and piloted in three sites in northern Ghana. This paper documents the implementation of BIT, the operating principles and criteria for selecting appropriate sites for the installation of such systems, as well as the potential benefits complementing existing irrigation systems in Ghana. Essential requirements for the installation of BIT include biophysical features such as land-use type, soil type, surface hydrology and slope of the terrain. The hydrogeological characteristics of the subsoil are also vital, and must exhibit high storage capacity and potential for groundwater accessibility. To be profitable and generate benefits for farmers, the technology needs to be situated in close proximity to markets and must have public acceptance.

Farmer-led investments in agricultural land and water management (ALWM) are transforming livelihoods and food security across South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Potential exists for even greater benefits, for even more beneficiaries. Understanding what factors influence adoption and impact of ALWM interventions can help ensure sustainable, positive effects of future investments. WLE has designed a suite of tools and investment models to support policy makers and development agents to leverage and extend the investments farmers are already making.

Dams provide numerous economic benefits and can mitigate the adverse impacts of water variability and extreme climate events. However, such large-scale water infrastructure has also caused significant social and environmental costs, prompting calls for alternative, nature-based solutions. WLE suggests that collections of built and natural infrastructure, combined with participatory management approaches, can support water and food security, while enhancing livelihoods and environmental outcomes.

There is an ongoing debate on what constitutes sustainable intensification of agriculture (SIA). In this paper, we propose that a paradigm for sustainable intensification can be defined and translated into an operational framework for agricultural development. We argue that this paradigm must now be defined—at all scales—in the context of rapidly rising global environmental changes in the Anthropocene, while focusing on eradicating poverty and hunger and contributing to human wellbeing. The criteria and approach we propose, for a paradigm shift towards sustainable intensification of agriculture, integrates the dual and interdependent goals of using sustainable practices to meet rising human needs while contributing to resilience and sustainability of landscapes, the biosphere, and the Earth system. Both of these, in turn, are required to sustain the future viability of agriculture. This paradigm shift aims at repositioning world agriculture from its current role as the world’s single largest driver of global environmental change, to becoming a key contributor of a global transition to a sustainable world within a safe operating space on Earth.

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is a non-pro t, scienti c research organization focusing on the sustainable use of water and land resources in developing countries. IWMI works in partnership with governments, civil society and the private sector to develop scalable agricultural water management solutions that have a real impact on poverty reduction, food security and ecosystem health. IWMI is a member of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.

The chapter discusses how adopting a holistic methodology that acknowledges socio-logical factors, including community participation, public involvement, social perception, attitudes, gender roles and public acceptance, would lead to improvements in wastewater management practice. It highlights the social dimension as a tool, a lens through which wastewater management and reuse can take on new dimensions. In this way, this chapter aims to shift the focus from perceiving wastewater as a nuisance that needs disposal, toward a resource not to be wasted, which can contribute to food security, human and environmental health, access to energy as well as water security.

Development partners and public investors assume that spate irrigation reduces household poverty and malnutrition. This article examines whether the poverty profiles of smallholder farmers and the nutritional outcomes of their children have improved as a result of using spate irrigation. The study areas were in two regional states in Ethiopia. Twenty-five users each, both from traditional and modern spate irrigation schemes, and an equal number of non-users responded to a structured questionnaire. Anthropometric measures of 122 children under five were measured using a hanging scale and stadiometer. The results indicated that all poverty indices were significantly lower for the spate irrigation users compared to non-users, and were even lower for modern spate compared to traditional spate systems. Our results did not show gender differences, using sex of the household head as a crude measure of gender, in poverty profiles. Stochastic dominance tests showed that the poverty comparisons between users, traditional and modern, and non-users are statistically robust. It can be concluded that the use of spate irrigation can significantly reduce poverty, and modernizing spate systems further increases its poverty-reduction impact. However, anthropometric measures indicated that use of spate irrigation did not have significant nutritional effects, suggesting the need for nutrition-sensitive interventions, such as nutrition education and awareness and multisectoral collaboration.

Building climate resilience, defined as the ability to anticipate, absorb, accommodate, or recover from climate change in a timely and efficient manner, is becoming a major priority of development across multiple sectors. However, there is still no consensus on how resilience should be assessed despite the release of numerous theoretical papers on the topic. Various measurement frameworks and recommendations have emerged, but their applicability is yet to be critically assessed. Using a comprehensive review and a systematic selection approach, we review resilience assessment tools developed for the context of climate change and agricultural development, and their linkages to theoretical frameworks, with a particular focus on the choice of indicators and the scale and methods of measurement. Fifteen tools originating from diverse organizations were selected and evaluated according to a measurement framework. Our study finds that, while some of the tools remain embedded in classical approaches, by simply adding a resilience lens to previous tools and by recycling indicators, others demonstrate a true attempt to re-think in order to account for resilience dimensions. We conclude that for the use of resilience assessment tools, a major challenge is to ensure that simple and operational tools can address complexity. Full baseline should comprise both quantitative and qualitative data collection, and include more systemic indicators as well as indicators of stability and shocks. Changes should be tracked with regular monitoring and evaluation using simple tools based on key variables that capture short-term adaptive processes and changes in states, at the appropriate system level. Clear pathways to human well-being, including transformation, should be discussed through system-oriented approaches, to discard potential undesired resilient states. Finally, robust outcome and impact records from the use of these tools are needed to demonstrate whether the resilience concept is useful over time in driving development into more desirable paths.

Due to extensive groundwater development in the recent past, Pakistan now faces enormous challenges of groundwater management as it struggles to ensure food security for its rapidly growing population. These management challenges require a re-balancing of surface and groundwater monitoring objectives and approaches in the country. This article presents the current status of the groundwater monitoring and management in Pakistan. A compelling case is presented for optimization of material resources in improving groundwater level and quality data by proposing to use farmer organizations as a source of crowd sourced groundwater information. The authors showcase new methods to collect groundwater data and demonstrate use of automatic recording instruments for groundwater monitoring in a tertiary canal command area in the Pakistan’s Punjab. The results suggest that the potential for broader impact by engaging farmer organization and expanding monitoring networks is attractive. A common concern about long term deployment of automatic instruments is that the observation wells are not purged before extracting water quality samples. The authors address this concern through a field experiment by utilizing capabilities of automatic recording instruments.

This Research Report chronicles the evolution of thinking on water productivity in the research agenda of IWMI and in the broader irrigation literature over the past 20 years. It describes the origins of the concept and the methodological developments, its operationalization through applied research, and some lessons learned over the two decades of research. This report further highlights how a focus on agricultural water productivity has brought greater attention to critical water scarcity issues, and the role of agricultural water management in supporting broader development objectives such as increasing agricultural production, reducing agricultural water use, raising farm-level incomes, and alleviating poverty and inequity. Yet, reliance on a single-factor productivity metric, such as agricultural water productivity defined as “crop per drop,” in multi-factor and multi-output production processes can mask the complexity of agricultural systems as well as the trade-offs required to achieve desired outcomes. The findings from this retrospective underscore the limitations of single-factor productivity metrics while also highlighting opportunities to support more comprehensive approaches to address water scarcity concerns and, ultimately, achieve the broader development objectives.

Groundwater is integral to water security. It is the largest store of unfrozen freshwater on earth, and it serves almost half of the global population for basic water needs. In addition, it contributes more than 40% of the irrigation water globally. Groundwater also secures critical ecosystems and ecosystem services, on which people and the environment depend. This paper gives an overview of the significance of groundwater and the critical interlinkages in the Water–Food–Energy–Climate–Environment nexus. It also discusses how opportunities for bringing in groundwater as part of the solutions to water security at various levels are often missed out. Examples are given of how research can contribute to moving forward to ensure that groundwater plays a stronger role in achieving the SDGs. Realizing that sustainable groundwater development, use and management hinges on conscious and pro-active governance, the presentation gives an highlight of the upcoming book on Advances in Groundwater Governance. Finally, some recent developments in terms of developing global platforms and initiative to work across disciplines, sectors and levels and geographic boundaries to address groundwater management challenges are presented, including GRIPP, the Groundwater Solutions Initiative for Policy and Practice and the Working Group on Groundwater Management under the Sustainable Water Future Program. These initiatives are emerging with strong buy-in from stakeholders at various levels, from local to global.

The increasing demand for solar-powered irrigation systems in agriculture has spurred a race for projects as it potentially offers a cost-effective and sustainable energy solution to off-grid farmers while helping food production and sustaining livelihoods. As a result, countries such as Morocco and Yemen have been promoting this technology for farmers and national plans with variable finance and subsidy schemes like in India have been put forward. By focusing on the application of solar photovoltaic (PV) pumping systems in groundwater-fed agriculture, this paper highlights the need to further study the impacts, opportunities and limitations of this technology within the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus. It shows how most policies and projects promoting solar-based groundwater pumping for irrigation through subsidies and other incentives overlook the real financial and economic costs of this solution as well as the availability of water resources and the potential negative impacts on the environment caused by groundwater over-abstraction. There is a need to monitor groundwater abstraction, targeting subsidies and improving the knowledge and monitoring of resource use. Failing to address these issues could lead to further groundwater depletion, which could threaten the sustainability of this technology and dependent livelihoods in the future.

Smallholder agricultural systems, strongly dependent on water resources and investments in shared infrastructure, make a significant contribution to food security in developing countries. These communities are being increasingly integrated into the global economy and are exposed to new global climate-related risks that may affect their willingness to cooperate in community-level collective action problems. We performed field experiments on public goods with private and collective risks in 118 small-scale rice-producing communities in four countries. Our results indicate that increasing the integration of those communities with the broader economic system is associated with lower investments in public goods when facing collective risks. These findings indicate that local public good provision may be negatively affected by collective risks, especially in communities more integrated with the market economy.

The doubling of global food demand by 2050 is driving resurgence in interventions for agricultural intensification. Globally, 700 million people are dependent on floodplain or coastal systems. Increased productivity in these aquatic agricultural systems is important for meeting current and future food demand. Agricultural intensification in aquatic agricultural systems has contributed to increased agricultural production, yet these increases have not necessarily resulted in broader development outcomes for those most in need. Here we review studies of interventions that have sought to improve productivity in aquatic agricultural systems in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Zambia. We review evidence of development outcomes from these interventions and the particular role of participatory approaches in intervention design and deployment. There was evidence of increases in productivity in 20 of the 31 studies reviewed. Yet, productivity was only measured beyond the life of the intervention in one case, income and food security improvements were rarely quantified, and the social distribution of benefits rarely described. Participatory approaches were employed in 15 studies, and there was some evidence that development outcomes were more substantial than in cases that were less participatory. To explore the impact of participatory approaches further, we examined five empirical cases. Review and empirical cases provide preliminary evidence suggesting participatory approaches contribute to ensuring agriculture and aquaculture interventions into aquatic agricultural systems may better fit local contexts, are sustained longer, and are more able to deliver development benefits to those most in need. A worthy focus of future research would be comparison between outcomes achieved from interventions with differing levels of participation, and the social differentiation of outcomes.

This study investigated the dependence of three riparian communities on ecosystem services in northern Ghana. Participatory mapping and ranking exercises in gender-segregated groups were used to elicit information on the communities’ livelihoods. The most important ecosystem-based activities (EBA) are farming, fishing, livestock watering and grazing, collection of wild fruits and vegetables, and provision of water for domestic use. The major EBA are dependent on the seasonal flows of the White Volta River, which are under pressure due to climatic and other anthropogenic changes. For example, observed delays in the start of the rainy season are affecting rainfed agricultural activities on the floodplains. Delayed planting on the floodplains results in damage to, or loss of, crops as floods arrive before the harvest. Moreover, the Bagr Dam in Burkina Faso, built upstream of the communities, has impacted the natural river flow. The planned Pwalugu Dam may, depending on the final operations, support or affect EBA. We, therefore, recommend that operations of the Pwalugu Dam should take into consideration the flow requirements of EBA downstream of the dam.

The key resources that sustain life and the ecosystem (e.g., water, food, energy, and others) are linked in many ways. Action in one sector might have impacts on others, thus forming a policy nexus among them. The relationships between the resources were realized long back; however, the nexus concept is still evolving as a policy and development discourse with the involvement of many actors. It is generally considered as a “multicentric” approach, the advancement of “water centric” Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). This chapter presents a systematic review on how the nexus concept emerged and is now spreading to cover wider sectors; it then discusses key actors involved in raising the profile of the nexus as a policy and development discourse.

Agriculture accounts for most of the renewable freshwater resource withdrawals in Malawi, yet food insecurity and water scarcity remain as major challenges. Despite Malawi’s vast water resources, climate change, coupled with increasing population and urbanisation are contributing to increasing water scarcity. Improving crop water productivity has been identified as a possible solution to water and food insecurity, by producing more food with less water, that is, to produce “more crop per drop”. This study evaluated crop water productivity from 2000 to 2013 by assessing crop evapotranspiration, crop production and agricultural gross domestic product (Ag GDP) contribution for Malawi. Improvements in crop water productivity were evidenced through improved crop production and productivity. These improvements were supported by increased irrigated area, along with improved agronomic practices. Crop water productivity increased by 33% overall from 2000 to 2013, resulting in an increase in maize production from 1.2 million metric tons to 3.6 million metric tons, translating to an average food surplus of 1.1 million metric tons. These developments have contributed to sustainable improved food and nutrition security in Malawi, which also avails more water for ecosystem functions and other competing economic sectors.

The province of Punjab is the main food basket of India. In recent years, many regions of Punjab are facing acute waterlogging problems and increased secondary salinity, which have negative impacts on food security of the nation. In particular, these problems are more pronounced in the Muktsar district of Punjab. The observed groundwater levels trend between 2005 and 2011 implies that groundwater levels are coming towards the land surface at the rate of 0.5 m/year in Lambi and Malout blocks. In this study, a groundwater flow model was constructed using MODFLOW to understand the groundwater table dynamics and to test the groundwater evaporation ponds to draw down the groundwater levels in the waterlogging areas of Muktsar district. The predicted flow model results indicate that groundwater levels could be depleted at the rate of 0.3 m/year between 2012 and 2018 after the construction of Groundwater Evaporation Ponds (GEP). In addition, the constructed ponds can be used for aquaculture that generates additional income. The proposed GEP method may be a promising tool and suitable for the reduction of waterlogging in any region if there is no proper surface drainage, and also for enhancement of agricultural production that improves the social and economic status of the farming community.

Agricultural intensification, now commonly referred to as sustainable intensification, is presented in development discourse as a key means to simultaneously improve food security and reduce rural poverty without harming the environment. Taking a village in Laos as a case study, we show how government agencies and farmers could perceive the idea of agricultural intensification differently. The study illustrates how farmers with the opportunities for groundwater use typically choose to grow vegetables and high valued cash crops rather than intensify rice production. This contrasts with government and donor supported efforts to promote rice intensification as a means to increase food security and reduce rural poverty. The article’s main message is that farmers’ differing strategies are related to a variety of household characteristics and that farmers’ strategies should be central to the current discussion on sustainable intensification.

Phosphorus (P) is a critical, geographically concentrated, nonrenewable resource necessary to support global food production. In excess (e.g., due to runoff or wastewater discharges), P is also a primary cause of eutrophication. To reconcile the simultaneous shortage and overabundance of P, lost P flows must be recovered and reused, alongside improvements in P-use efficiency. While this motivation is increasingly being recognized, little P recovery is practiced today, as recovered P generally cannot compete with the relatively low cost of mined P. Therefore, P is often captured to prevent its release into the environment without beneficial recovery and reuse. However, additional incentives for P recovery emerge when accounting for the total value of P recovery. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the range of benefits of recovering P from waste streams, i.e., the total value of recovering P. This approach accounts for P products, as well as other assets that are associated with P and can be recovered in parallel, such as energy, nitrogen, metals and minerals, and water. Additionally, P recovery provides valuable services to society and the environment by protecting and improving environmental quality, enhancing efficiency of waste treatment facilities, and improving food security and social equity. The needs to make P recovery a reality are also discussed, including business models, bottlenecks, and policy and education strategies.

Reliance on rainfall for agriculture and increased climate change and variability pose growing production risks in developing countries. Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by smallholder farmers who depend mainly on rain-fed agriculture, putting food security at both household and national levels at risk, especially in the event of drought. Investment in smallholder irrigation becomes a priority in developing countries if food security and national development goals are to be met, as their economies are agro-based. This study evaluates the impact of investment in smallholder irrigation schemes in Malawi on improving crop production and productivity in comparison with rain-fed agriculture. The area under smallholder irrigation schemes increased from 15 988 ha in 2003 to about 42 986 ha in 2011, contributing immensely to national food production. Irrigated maize production increased from 78 159 tons in 2000 to 544 378 tons in 2013.

We analyse the threats of global environmental change, as they relate to food security. First, we review three discourses: (i) ‘sustainable intensification’, or the increase of food supplies without compromising food producing inputs, such as soils and water; (ii) the ‘nexus’ that seeks to understand links across food, energy, environment and water systems; and (iii) ‘resilience thinking’ that focuses on how to ensure the critical capacities of food, energy and water systems are maintained in the presence of uncertainties and threats. Second, we build on these discourses to present the causal, risks and options assessment for decision-making process to improve decisionmaking in the presence of risks. The process provides a structured, but flexible, approach that moves from problem diagnosis to better risk-based decision-making and outcomes by responding to causal risks within and across food, energy, environment and water systems.

Deficit irrigation could be considered as one potential option to improve water productivity and obtain some level of assured income under water scarcity and drought conditions in Central Asia. This article investigates water productivity and economic returns to two varieties of potato crop under four different soilmoisture regimes in Uzbekistan. Results suggest that deficit irrigation may not be considered as an option to improve water productivity of potato crop, particularly when the deficit is high. However, deficit irrigation options could be still considered as a viable option to maintain food security and some assured farm income even under extreme drought conditions.

In the Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopian highlands, rainfall distribution is extremely uneven both spatially and temporally. Drought frequently results in crop failure, while high rainfall intensities result in low infiltration and high runoff causing soil erosion and land degradation. These combined factors contribute to low agricultural productivity and high levels of food insecurity. Poor land management practices coupled with lack of effective rainwater management strategies aggravate the situation. Over the past two decades, however, the Government of Ethiopia has attempted to address many of these issues through a large-scale implementation of a number of soil and water conservation measures. Despite the success of interventions, uptake and adoption remains low. The conceptual framework of this study is based on the premise that farmers are more likely to adopt a combination of rainwater management technologies as adaptation mechanism against climate variability and agricultural production constraints. This contrasts the previous work that typically examined a single technology without considering the interdependence between technologies. Data used in this study come from household survey in seven watersheds in the Ethiopian Blue Nile Basin. A multivariate probit model was used to account for the potential correlation and interdependence of various components of rainwater management technologies. Our results suggest that rainwater management technologies are related with each other; hence, any effort to promote the adoption of rainwater management technologies has to consider such interdependence of technologies, or failure to do so may mask the reality that farmers face a set of choices in their adoption decisions.

Concerns over climate change and climatic variability are growing in South Asia because of the potential detrimental impacts of these phenomena on livelihoods. Such growing concerns demonstrate a need to assess how farmers simultaneously cope with extreme events and adapt to climatic variability. Based on household surveys of 2660 farm families conducted in Nepal’s Terai, coastal Bangladesh, and the Indian state of Bihar, this paper seeks to (1) explore farmers’ coping strategies under adverse weather events; (2) identify key adaptation measures used by farmers; and (3) explore the policy interventions required to adjust agriculture to climatic variability. The study reveals that migration is the most important coping strategy of the households in Bihar and coastal Bangladesh, while reliance on credit markets is the most important in Terai. Farmers in the areas with higher rainfall variability pursue a higher number of coping strategies compared to farmers in areas with lower rainfall variability. Food available months are also higher in areas with higher rainfall variability. Across all sites, the most frequently mentioned adaptive practices are changing cropping patterns and adoption of resilient crop varieties. A large number of farmers place emphasis on breeding crop varieties that tolerate adverse weather. Governments should implement a number of planned activities to cope with adverse events, with the aim that these activities would be synergistic with adaptation to climate change.

In countries with transitional economies such as those found in South Asia, large-scale irrigation systems (LSIS) with a history of public ownership account for about 115 million ha (Mha) or approximately 45% of their total area under irrigation. In terms of the global area of irrigation (320 Mha) for all countries, LSIS are estimated at 130 Mha or 40% of irrigated land. These systems can potentially deliver significant local, regional and global benefits in terms of food, water and energy security, employment, economic growth and ecosystem services. For example, primary crop production is conservatively valued at about US$355 billion. However, efforts to enhance these benefits and reform the sector have been costly and outcomes have been underwhelming and short-lived. We propose the application of a apos;theory of changeapos; (ToC) as a foundation for promoting transformational change in large-scale irrigation centred upon a apos;global irrigation compactapos; that promotes new forms of leadership, partnership and ownership (LPO). The compact argues that LSIS can change by switching away from the current channelling of aid finances controlled by government irrigation agencies. Instead it is for irrigators, closely partnered by private, public and NGO advisory and regulatory services, to develop strong leadership models and to find new compensatory partnerships with cities and other river basin neighbours. The paper summarises key assumptions for change in the LSIS sector including the need to initially test this change via a handful of volunteer systems. Our other key purpose is to demonstrate a ToC template by which large-scale irrigation policy can be better elaborated and discussed.

Sustainable Development Goals offer an opportunity to improve human well-being while conserving natural resources. Ecosystem services highlight human well-being benefits ecosystems, including agricultural ecosystems, provides. Whereas agricultural systems produce the majority of our food, they drive significant environmental degradation. This tension between development and environmental conservation objectives is not an immutable outcome as agricultural systems are simultaneously dependents, and providers of ecosystem services. Recognizing this duality allows integration of environmental and development objectives and leverages agricultural ecosystem services for achieving sustainability targets. We propose a framework to operationalize ecosystem services and resilience-based interventions in agricultural landscapes and call for renewed efforts to apply resilience-based approaches to landscape management challenges and for refocusing ecosystem service research on human well-being outcomes.

The UN recognition of a human right to water for drinking, personal and other domestic uses and sanitation in 2010 was a political breakthrough in states’ commitments to adopt a human rights framework in carrying out part of their mandate. This chapter explores other domains of freshwater governance in which human rights frameworks provide a robust and widely accepted set of normative values to such governance. The basis is General Comment No. 15 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2002, which states that water is needed to realise a range of indivisible human rights to non-starvation, food, health, work and an adequate standard of living and also procedural rights to participation and information in water interventions. On that basis, the chapter explores concrete implications of the Comment for states’ broader infrastructure-based water services implied in the recognised need to access to infrastructure, rights to non-discrimination in public service delivery and respect of people’s own prioritisation. This implies a right to water for livelihoods with core minimum service levels for water to homesteads that meet both domestic and small-scale productive uses, so at least 50–100 l per capita per day. Turning to the state’s mandates and authority in allocating water resources, the chapter identifi es three forms of unfair treatment of smallscale users in current licence systems. As illustrated by the case of South Africa, the legal tool of “Priority General Authorisations” is proposed. This prioritises water allocation to small-scale water users while targeting and enforcing regulatory licences to the few high-impact users.

This chapter explores the interrelationships between economic change and environmental issues, by showing how aspiration, education, and migration are variously connected to a loss of agroecological knowledges for rural young people. It reviews a series of case studies from Vietnam, India, and China on the implications for rural youth of changed aspirations and ecological and economic stress. The economic and cultural pressures of globalization mean young people increasingly aspire for a life outside of agrarian- and natural resource-based livelihoods. A consequence of this change has been the migration of young people to urban centers and a drive for families to invest in education. Thishasfar reaching consequences for communities.Those who stay behind face an increased labor burden, and economic pressures can be aggravated when the promise of improved livelihoods outside is notrealized. The chapter also points to the negative implications of these changed aspirations on the intergenerational transfer of agroecological knowledge. Thus, in relation to issues of environment and development, the chapter considers why this complex set of relationships between aspiration, education, and migration is important in the context of children and young people’s lives.

The attainment of food and water security rank high on the agendas of governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Although the objectives are similar, the underlying drivers, resource endowments and opportunities for achieving them are different. Differences between two regions in natural resource endowment and investment capital stock can, in theory, lead to mutually beneficial trade to achieve desired objectives. Concerns about the recent food crises coupled with the disparity in land and water endowment and investable capital between MENA and SSA have led in recent years to investment in agricultural land in the latter by a number of MENA countries with the aim of producing food. At the same time, many SSA countries seek these investments to infuse capital, technology and know-how into their agricultural sector to improve productivity, food security and rural livelihoods. However, these recent foreign direct agricultural investments have to date performed poorly or have been abandoned without achieving the initial objectives of setting them up. Based on research conducted in selected sub-Saharan countries, this paper analyses the reasons for the failure of these investments. It then reviews a few successful agricultural investments by private sector companies with a long history of operation in SSA. Juxtaposing lessons distilled from failed and successful case studies, the paper argues that large-scale agricultural investments that take advantage of this accumulated knowledge are needed and do have a critical role to play. Such investments, when they also incorporate ecosystems management practices and smallholder inclusive business models in their operations, can serve as appropriate instruments to reconcile the food and water security objectives of both the MENA region and SSA, while promoting sustainable intensification of agriculture and improved rural livelihoods in SSA.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces high incidence of food and nutrition insecurity. Consequently, increasing agricultural productivity has always featured prominently on regional agenda. The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme’s (CAADP) set a target to expand the area under irrigation by at least 5 million ha by 2025. This review assessed the current status of irrigated agriculture in SSA from a water–energy–food nexus perspective, focusing on southern Africa. Gaps and opportunities for improving irrigated agriculture were also assessed in terms of the feasible limits to which they can be exploited. Sub-Saharan Africa faces water scarcity and projections show that countries in SSA will face increased physical and / or economic water scarcity by 2025. However, with agriculture already accounting for more than 60% of water withdrawals, increasing area under irrigation could worsen the problem of water scarcity. Recurrent droughts experienced across SSA reaffirm the sensitive issue of food insecurity and water scarcity. The region also faces energy insecurity with most countries experiencing chronic power outages. Increasing area under irrigation will place additional demand on the already strained energy grids. Projections of an increasing population within SSA indicate increased food and energy demand; a growing middle class also adds to increasing food demand. This poses the question - is increasing irrigated agriculture a solution to water scarcity, food insecurity and energy shortages? This review recommends that, whilst there are prospects for increasing area under irrigation and subsequent agricultural productivity, technical planning should adopt a water–energy–food nexus approach to setting targets. Improving water productivity in irrigated agriculture could reduce water and energy use while increasing yield output.

In this study, we focus on water quality as a vehicle to illustrate the role that the water, energy, and food (WEF) Nexus perspective may have in promoting ecosystem services in agriculture. The mediation of water quality by terrestrial systems is a key ecosystem service for a range of actors (municipalities, fishers, industries, and energy providers) and is reshaped radically by agricultural activity. To address these impacts, many programs exist to promote improved land-use practices in agriculture; however, where these practices incur a cost or other burden to the farmer, adoption can be low unless some form of incentive is provided (as in a payment for ecosystem services (PES) program). Provision of such incentives can be a challenge to sustain in the long term, if there is not a clear beneficiary or other actor willing to provide them. Successfully closing the loop between impacts and incentives often requires identifying a measurable and valuable service with a clear central beneficiary that is impacted by the summative effects of the diffuse agricultural practices across the landscape. Drawing on cases from our own research, we demonstrate how the WEF Nexus perspective—by integrating non-point-source agricultural problems under well-defined energy issues—can highlight central beneficiaries of improved agricultural practice, where none may have existed otherwise.

The resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 25 September 2015 is symptomatic of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus. It postulates goals and related targets for 2030 that include (1) End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture (SDG2); (2) Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all (SDG6); and (3) Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all (SDG7). There will be tradeoffs between achieving these goals particularly in the wake of changing consumption patterns and rising demands from a growing population expected to reach more than nine billion by 2050. This paper uses global economic analysis tools to assess the impacts of long-term changes in fossil fuel prices, for example, as a result of a carbon tax under the UNFCCC or in response to new, large findings of fossil energy sources, on water and food outcomes. We find that a fossil fuel tax would not adversely affect food security and could be a boon to global food security if it reduces adverse climate change impacts.

Responding to rainfall variability has always been one of the most critical risks facing farmers. It is also an integral part of the job of water managers, whether it be designing interventions for flood management, improving the reliability of water supply for irrigation or advising on priorities during drought conditions. The conventional tools and approaches employed are no longer sufficient to manage the increasing uncertainty and incidence of extreme climate events, and the consequent effects these have on human vulnerability and food security. To be effective, the technological advances need to be matched with physical, institutional and management innovations that transcend sectors, and place adaptation and responsiveness to variability at the centre of the approach. This chapter examines a number of these challenges and possible solutions at a range of scales, from ‘climate-smart villages’ to national policy, with a focus on Asia and India, in particular.

Food security in West Africa not only depends on productivity increases in marginal rural areas, but also on enhanced use of intensively farmed agricultural “niche” lands such as the urban and peri-urban spaces. They are characterised by easy market access and input availability which allows self-reinforcing processes of agricultural intensification. However, too little is known about resource use efficiencies, matter flows and negative externalities in these systems. Starting from general assessments (status quo analyses), the African-German UrbanFoodPlus (UFP) network develops and tests site-specific, farmer-tailored innovations. These directly address the above mentioned knowledge gaps in the fourWest African cities of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Tamale (Ghana), Bamako (Mali), and Bamenda (Cameroon). At all locations farmers attempt to cope with increasing land pressure by cultivating along electrical power lines, on public property, and on undeveloped private land.

This study assesses the impact of the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) on farmersapos; investments in sustainable land management (SLM) practices in the Central Rift Valley (CRV) of Ethiopia. Primary data were collected using a structured and pre-tested questionnaire for a sample of 159 households (82 PSNP participants and 77 non-participants) in four kebeles (the lowest administrative unit in Ethiopia) of two weredas (districts). Using a cross-sectional household survey, propensity score matching (PSM) was used to assess the impact of PSNP on householdsapos; investments in soil erosion control and soil fertility management. The PSM results show that the control group of households (non-participants in PSNP) invested more in soil erosion control measures as compared to the treated group of households (participants in PSNP). On the contrary, however, the treated group of households significantly invested more in soil fertility management practices (e.g. inorganic fertilizer and compost) as compared to the control group of households. The negative impact of PSNP on households’ investments in soil erosion control in the treated group of farmers is related to their high labor investment in public works, which is not the case for the non-participants in PSNP. This implies that PSNP should pay more attention to capacity building and awareness raising, which requires a restructuring of the program that would benefit long-term and more sustainable impact on reducing food insecurity and enhancing natural resources in the CRV of Ethiopia.

The ‘WISE-UP to climate’ project aims to demonstrate the value of natural infrastructure as a ‘nature-based solution’ for climate change adaptation and sustainable development. Within the Tana River Basin, both natural and built infrastructure provide livelihood benefits for people. Understanding the interrelationships between the two types of infrastructure is a prerequisite for sustainable water resources development and management. This is particularly true as pressures on water resources intensify and the impacts of climate change increase. This report provides an overview of the biophysical characteristics, ecosystem services and links to livelihoods within the basin.

Small reservoirs (SRs) development, as a strategy to enhance food and water security in water-scarce regions, has long attracted the interests of governments and development agents. The main argument put forward was that by providing water for small-scale agriculture, they can cushion the impacts of drought and rainfall variability on vulnerable and less-developed regions. Because of the dominance of interests in small-scale irrigation, performance assessments of SRs have concentrated on irrigation outcomes. The multiple non-irrigation uses/benefits and potential negative externalities were largely neglected in the measurement of their performance. The publication of Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005 triggered the concept of ‘ecosystem services’ and prompted both academia and policy decisions to consider multiple effects/impacts of human activities on natural capital, ecosystem services, and human wellbeing. Along the lines of the surge in thoughts in ‘ecosystem services’, SRs, besides irrigation use, could generate multiple benefits such as improved access to domestic water, enhance women’s position, recreation, livelihood diversification, fisheries, water availability for livestock, limiting floods, and increased biodiversity. On the other hand, SRs may have unwanted side-effects such as environmental deterioration, decrease in water quality, adverse health impacts (e.g., harbour mosquitos), and reduce environmental flows and ground water recharge. Thus, SRs’ performance need to be assessed against these multiple benefits/dis-benefits and whether there exist trade-offs or synergetic relationship. In the context of ecosystem services (ES), trade-offs between ES arise from management and/or utilization choices made by humans, which can change the type, magnitude, quality and relative mix of ES. Trade-offs occur when the provision of one or more ES is reduced as a consequence of increased use of another ES. In some cases, trade-offs may be an explicit choice; in others, it may take place without explicit account or even without awareness of the decision makers. As human activities transform ecosystems to obtain more of specific services, other services tend to diminish (trade-offs). Understanding how trade-offs operate temporally and spatially in various ecosystems and analysis of either to minimize the trade-offs or find synergetic solutions could provide decision support evidence for sustainable management of natural resources and human wellbeing. Most parts of Burkina Faso (BF) suffer from physical water scarcity and irregular distribution of groundwater. SR development has been promoted as a key strategy aiming at enhancing water and food security in BF. A conservative estimate shows that there are about 1500 SRs in BF. These are used for small-scale irrigations, livestock, and domestic purposes. From 2002 BF has initiated a program to develop village irrigation, which facilitates the exploitation of all the irrigable areas around the SR

Water management strategies and allocation policies that support agricultural intensification across agro-ecological zones and hydrologic basins are required for building resilient agrarian communities in sub-Saharan Africa.We provide an overview of the research and investments needed to enhance agriculture in the region, with a focus on technology and institutions, while describing opportunities for improving rainfed crop production.We discuss a range of water management practices in three river basins that were part of the Challenge Program onWater and Food research on Basin Development Challenges from 2009 to 2013. Our main message is that technical and institutional innovations in water management are required for creating and sustaining resilient agrarian communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Such innovations are best designed and implemented in consultations involving researchers, households, investors, and other participants with a management or regulatory responsibility. It is in this collaborative spirit that we introduce this Special Issue of Water Resources and Rural Development, in which several authors present results of studies on agricultural water management in the region, with recommendations for better planning and implementation of interventions to benefit smallholder farmers.

Mekong hydropower is developing rapidly. Laos is at the forefront of this development. While hydropower development supports the country’s economic growth, many observers have highlighted the potential negative impacts for people’s livelihoods. Taking the Nam Mang 3 hydropower project as a case study, we examine the impacts of hydropower development on farming households of differing livelihood assets and resources, and how they have responded to these impacts. Linking livelihood asset substitution with livelihood outcomes, we examine factors constraining livelihood adaptation and how these shape rural households’ strategies to cope with socioeconomic and environmental impacts from hydropower development. We conclude that while asset substitution generally can improve people’s livelihoods, access to land continues to play an important role in the process of livelihood reconstruction and the shaping of livelihood outcomes.

Thirsty and hungry cities are posing significant challenges for the urban-rural interface ranging from food security to inter-sectoral water allocation. Not only is the supply of resources to urban centres a growing challenge in low-income countries, but even more is the urban return flow, as investments in waste management and sanitation, ie the ‘ultimate food waste’, are not able to keep pace with population growth. And where polluted water is used in irrigation to feed the cities, food safety is becoming a crucial component of food security. Most affected by resource competition and pollution are the urban and peri-urban farming systems which are often driven by the informal sector. Urban waste is not only a challenge but also offers opportunities. It is in this interface between agriculture and sanitation where the CGIAR operates through its research programme on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), addressing both the challenges and opportunities of urbanisation: by exploring novel perspectives and solutions to respond to changing population dynamics, resource demands, centralised water and nutrient flows, and ecosystem services under pressure.

Small run-of-the-river systems (Anicuts) play an important role in irrigated paddy production in Sri Lanka. The total land area under Anicut cultivation is 98,000 ha, benefitting over 333,000 families. Farming under the Anicut schemes is largely smallholder (average 0.3 ha), and the average paddy yield obtained from a hectare of land is about one metric tonne less than the yield of major irrigated areas. As the Anicut schemes are not benefited by reservoirs/storages or major diversions, and are entirely dependent on local rainfall, climate change would make the Anicut farmers more vulnerable. Therefore, increasing efficiency in paddy production is vital to enhancing the productivity and livelihoods of the farmers. This study aimed to measure the farm-level technical efficiency of Anicut farmers in the Walawe Basin. Data collected from162 random farmers in six Anicut schemes in Badulla and Ratnapura districts were used to run the stochastic frontier production function to estimate technical efficiency. Farmer-related exogenous variables causing farm-level variation in technical inefficiency were also assessed. The findings show that the average technical efficiency of the Anicut farmers in Badulla and Ratnapura districts is 65.9% and 74.73%, respectively. This indicates that, in the given mix of inputs used in paddy production, there is a loss of production by 34.1% and 25.27% in Badulla and Ratnapura districts due to inefficiency and allocative errors in the production technique. This paper discusses the determinants of technical efficiency and its relationship with Anicut farmers’ socioeconomic attributes.

Across the globe, the prospect of increasing water demands coupled with the potential for reduced water availability is calling for implementation of a range of technological, institutional, and economic instruments to address growing water scarcity. Hydro-economic models (HEMs), which integrate the complex hydrologic and economic interrelationships inherent in most water resources systems, provide an effective means of diagnosing and devising solutions to water-related problems across varied spatial and temporal scales. This study reviews recent advances in hydro-economic modeling and characterizes the types of issues that are typically explored in the hydro-economic modeling literature. Our findings suggest that additional efforts are needed to more realistically account for the range and complexity of interlinkages between water systems and society, particularly with regards to ecology and water quality, and the food and energy sectors. Additionally, the forces that depend on water and operate on the broader economy, for example in interregional trade should be investigated further. Moreover, effects on the distribution of income within countries, and on migration should be considered in basin management modeling studies.

Irrigated agriculture is undeniably a significant modification to natural ecosystems, and one which has not been without significant adverse impacts on the ecology and hydrology of the landscapes and river basins in which irrigation systems are located. A lack of consideration for broader ecosystem service values during planning, implementation and subsequent operation of irrigation projects may explain the underperformance of investments in irrigation systems. In many cases, this has arisen because irrigation schemes have been designed for a single purpose (intensification or increase) of agricultural production without due consideration being given to other ecosystem functions, and in isolation from the landscape of the entire catchment. Large-scale irrigation systems (LSIS) and smaller, often community managed, systems have been a central component in the food security of the population in much of Asia3, and these systems are expected to make increased contributions to food security and improved livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Irrigation has been an essential input to agriculture to meet the fast-increasing demand for food and is also a contributor to poverty reduction. Future population growth and economic development means that the increasing demand for food must be expected to continue, and it is projected that intensified irrigated agriculture will have to provide about 60% of the extra food needed (World Bank, 2007). Yet, the expansion of irrigated areas has slowed, rates of productivity improvement are slowing, and water availability for irrigation is being constrained by alternate demands for water. Simultaneously, concerns over loss of biodiversity and disruption of ecosystems have increased, resulting in the increasing examination of the sustainability of agricultural value chains and the role of agriculture in the landscape. The core objective of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), is to promote the sustainable intensification of agriculture through evidence-based research and policy development. Fundamental to the achievement of this goal is the application and uptake of an ecosystem services and resilience-based approach. This paper presents an ecosystem service-based approach to sustainable intensification of irrigated agriculture, highlighting approaches to guide research, policy development and strategies to stimulate ecosystem-inclusive management of irrigated agriculture. The concepts of ecosystem services are reasonably well established. However, attempts to develop ecosystem-inclusive management of LSIS is new.

We explore processes that enable effective policies and practices for managing the links between water, energy, and food. Three case studies are assessed at different scales in the Mekong River basin, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. We find that there are considerable opportunities for improving outcomes for sustainable development by finding solutions that accommodate multiple objectives in the nexus. These include making data more publicly available, commissioning independent experts to advise on contested issues, engaging under-represented stakeholders in decision-making, sharing benefits, exploring different perspectives in forums where alternative development options can be tested and engaging decision-makers at different scales.

Ever since the oil, financial and food crises of 2008, sub-Saharan Africa has witnessed a marked increase in large-scale investment in agricultural land. The drivers of this investment are varied and include growing food, water and energy insecurity as well as social and economic interests of investors and recipient countries. The shape of these investments and their eventual outcomes are equally influenced by the existing land and water governance systems in the host countries. Based on fieldlevel research conducted in Ghana and Mali which covered six large-scale agricultural investments, this paper analyzes the current land and water governance systems in these two countries through the lens of land and water acquisition and initial outcomes. It highlights missed opportunities for sustainable and equitable large-scale agricultural land investments due to uncoordinated governance systems and failure to rigorously apply detailed rules and regulations that are already in place. It offers suggestions for revamping land and water governance to promote large-scale investments that will lead to equitable distribution of benefits and sustainable management of natural resources.

This chapter explores some of the financial and economic aspects of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Ghana. Cost-benefit analysis comparisons were made of farm finances of common rural, peri-urban and urban farming systems. Substudies also tried to quantify benefits for society and to cost externalities related to soil nutrient depletion, pesticide use and urban malaria.

In the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), increasing food security remains a challenge since smallholder agricultural systems, which are the main source of food production, are under serious threat due to poor soil fertility and climate variability. This study was undertaken in Lao PDR to investigate the impacts of organic and clay-based soil amendments on maize yield, total nutrient uptake, and soil properties. Structured field experiments were established over two consecutive years (2011 and 2012) with maize as the test crop at the Veunkham and Naphok sites. Ten treatments were applied in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments were control, rice husk biochar (applied at a rate of 10 t ha-1), bentonite clay (10 t ha-1), compost (4 t ha-1), clay-manure compost (10 t ha-1), rice husk biochar compost (10 t ha-1), and their combinations. All treatments were applied in 2011. Significant (p lt; 0.05) treatment effects in maize grain yields, total nutrient uptake, and soil properties were observed. At Veunkham, differences between the control and amended soils in yield ranged from 0.9 to 3.3 t ha-1 in 2011 and from 0.2 to 1.3 t ha-1 in 2012, whereas differences at Naphok varied between 0.2 and 2.2 t ha-1 in 2011 and from 0.2 to 1.7 t ha-1 in 2012. At both sites, in most of the treatments, yields in 2012 were significantly (p lt; 0.05) lower than 2011; this was attributed to a late season drought. Differences between the control and amended soils in yield can be attributed to the improvements in total N and P uptake, soil pH, exchangeable Ca++ and Mg++, and cation-exchange capacity following the application of soil amendments. The results of this study confirm that the soil amendments under consideration can be effective in improving agricultural productivity, while improving key soil properties indicating that soil amendments could be an option for intensification of agricultural productivity.

Agricultural water management (AWM) strategies have been extensively studied and promoted in Burkina Faso during the past four decades. However, rainfall variability and water access continue to limit agricultural production of most of the smallholder farming systems of the country. Our goals in this paper are: (i) to review the evolution of AWM development with respect to the technologies promoted, while emphasizing the context, approaches, investments and outcomes; (ii) to explore the linkages between the evolution of AWM projects, their outcomes and their impacts on rural livelihoods; and (iii) to provide recommendations to enhance the impact of new development initiatives. Between 1970 and 2009, 195 bilateral and multilateral AWM projects were implemented in Burkina Faso, corresponding to an investment of US$ 641 million.The study of the evolution of these projects allows one to assess the reasons for their success or failure. While projects involved many technical solutions, their actual impact on livelihoods is debatable. Using an outcome–impacts framework, we provide recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of investments in agricultural water management.

Urban vegetable production and marketing systems in low-income countries are prone to contamination from polluted irrigation water, use of manure as fertilizer, unsanitary market conditions and other improper postharvest handling practices. In the recent past, the multiple-barrier approach has been adapted in research to develop measures to reduce contamination at different levels on the food chain. However, adoption of these measures could be constrained by low awareness levels of risks and risk-reduction measures as well as lack of adoption incentives. This paper presents various approaches and practical considerations that could enhance adoption rates of these measures, based on lessons learned from extensive studies carried out in Ghana. These studies include participatory development of risk reduction measures where end-users are actively involved in the process, incorporating their perceptions, needs and constraints. In addition, relevant social marketing techniques, incentive systems, awareness creation/education strategies and appropriate regulation measures are described. However, for optimal adoption, a combined framework of the most relevant approaches is advised.

Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) is seen as a subsistence-oriented production system. It has been given little formal support or recognition by city authorities in the development plans. Recent development programmes have continued to raise awareness about this phenomenon, and local authorities have begun to understand the role UPA can play in improving urban food supply and reducing poverty. Constraints to UPA such as limited access to land and good quality water, poor farmer organization, participation in policy development, and poor policy support, imply that UPA needs to be productive and profitable through diverse innovations. In Accra, Ghana and Ibadan, Nigeria, 200 urban farmers were organized into 8 producer groups and trained using technical and organizational innovations in vegetable production so as to improve yield and income. The Ibadan groups were predominantly female farmers, while Accra groups were mainly male. Training was delivered through the Urban Producer Field Schools (UPFS) on topics ranging from integrated plant production and protection principles, food safety and risk-minimization in wastewater use for irrigation to value-addition for marketing. Farmers dealt with organized marketing, targeting niche markets. The farmer groups in Accra progressed significantly over a one-year period of group strengthening as became evident in their organized structure and participation in group processes. The Ibadan group lagged behind at the group formation stage, apparently because of the hierarchical nature of the group and personal conflicts. In addition, external factors such as disease infestation affected the group processes in Ibadan. Adoption of innovations was higher among the farmers in Accra, where farmers applied at least 3 out of 6 different innovations, while adoption of innovations among female farmers in Ibadan was low: as less than 30% adopted 2 out of 5 different innovations. In both Accra and Ibadan, considerable improvement in crop performance was recorded.

Agriculture in the Sultanate of Oman is mostly small scale and is a part of the traditional way of life. The majority of the population benefit from agriculture, however little. The 67 % of the population was in households that had at least one crop or livestock holding where the output contributed to consumption or income. Since the year 2000, the Government spent Rial Omani (RO) 20.1 million on agriculture and fishery development, and another RO 39.4 million on water resources development. Furthermore, the government encourages farming by offering land, machinery, and extension services. However, during the period 2000 till 2007, crop production has in fact gone down. In other words, despite being a capital rich country, substantial investment in agriculture, it is increasingly becoming a food insecure country. An indepth analysis of Oman’s agricultural sub-sectors shows that, household sub-sector contributed 27 % of the total value. Primary crop production in Oman in 2005/07 was 486.872 metric tons of which contribution of fruits and vegetables were 353,072 metric tons and 102,606 respectively. In comparison, only 26,206 metric tons of cereals were produced. The value of production of cereals and vegetables were 7.8 and 17.6 million RO respectively. This comparison confirms that Omanis prefer producing high value vegetables to cereal crops. In addition to vegetables produced locally, Oman imported 148,345 metric tons during the same period. Therefore, it is interesting to explore, if vegetable production in Oman can be further increased, resulting in increased income and near self-sufficiency in vegetables. If Oman chooses to increase vegetable production, then it has to come from a major shift in its current land and water use practices, because almost all of its cultivable lands and available freshwater are fully utilized at present. In this chapter we explored if the Salalah region of Oman could be transformed into Oman’s vegetable basket, leading to self-sufficiency in its vegetable needs.

The study examined whether access to spate irrigation leads to better nutrition outcomes. The results showed that there is an overall improvement in the study sites compared to the 2011 DHS study. As far as households with access to spate irrigation are concerned, weight-for-height z-scores indicated that 8.2% of the children had prevalence of global acute malnutrition; 8.2% of them had moderate acute malnutrition. None of the children had severe acute malnutrition. The weight-for-age results indicated that 27.5, 17.6 and 9.8% of the children showed prevalence of underweight, moderate underweight and severe underweight, respectively. The height-for-age z-scores showed 56.5, 30.8 and 21.7% of the children had prevalence of stunting, moderate stunting and severe stunting, respectively. On the other hand, households without access to spate irrigation indicated that as far as the weight-for-height z-scores of children are concerned, there were no children (boys and girls) with prevalence of global acute malnutrition; weight for-age z-score showed that 13.6, 10.2 and 3.4% of the children had prevalence of underweight, moderate underweight and severe underweight, respectively. The height-for-age z-scores showed that 45.5, 25.5 and 20.0% of the children had prevalence of stunting, moderate stunting and severe stunting, respectively. The anthropometric measures, thus, showed the nutritional outcomes of users were worse-off than of nonusers of spate irrigation. This happens in the face of better income and consumption expenditures, mainly nonfood, for users compared to nonusers. This underlines the importance of nutrition education alongside efforts to improve access to irrigation. Moreover, multisectoral collaborations are needed between the health, agriculture, water, social protection, education, gender and other sectors to improve the nutrition outcome of children.

Climate change and variability will impact water availability and the food security of India. Trend analyses of historical data indicate an increase in temperature and changes in rainfall pattern in different parts of the country. The general circulation models (GCMs) also project increased warming and changes in precipitation patterns over India. This chapter presents examples of model applications in water management and crop yield simulation in India, focusing on climate change impact assessment. Simulation models have been successfully applied for rotational water allocation, deficit irrigation scheduling, etc. in different canal commands. Application of a universal soil loss equation in a distributed parametric modeling approach by partitioning watershed into erosion response units suggests that by treating only 14% of the watershed area, a 47% reduction in soil loss can be achieved. Simulation studies conducted using different hydrological models with different climate change projections and downscaling approaches showed varied hydrological responses of different river basins to the future climate change scenarios, depending on the hydrological model, climate change scenarios, and downscaling approaches used. Crop yield modeling showed decreases in irrigated and rainfed rice (Oryza sativa L.) yields under the future climate change scenarios, but the decrease is marginal for rainfed rice. Maize (Zea mays L.) yields in monsoon may be adversely affected by a rise in atmospheric temperature, but increased rain can partly offset those losses. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yields are likely to be reduced by 6 to 23% and 15 to 25% during the 2050s and 2080s, respectively. A combined bottom-up participatory process and top-down integrated modeling tool could provide valuable information for locally relevant climate change adaptation planning.

This study was undertaken to analyze farmers’ adaption to water scarcity in the command area of a secondary canal in the Nile Delta of Egypt. The results revealed that farmers’ responses were driven by a multiplicity of factors, beyond water scarcity or profit maximization. These additional factors include food security of the family, risk management, social capital and history of farmers, and most unexpectedly the collective dimension of crop choice. The findings of this study expose the limitations of projects, modeling exercises or policy recommendations that are too often based on the oversimplified view of profit maximization as the basis of farming system dynamics.

The Ethiopian economy depends heavily on smallholder agriculture, and this sector directly affects the country’s economic development, food security and poverty alleviation efforts. The adoption of smallholder irrigation technologies as a means to tackle these challenges has become an important policy issue in the development agenda of the country. The lack of access to low-cost irrigation technologies is, however, one of the major bottlenecks to increase smallholder irrigation. This paper examines the factors influencing farmers’ decisions to adopt low-cost small motor pumps. The analysis is based on a survey of 800 farm households in four regions of Ethiopia. We use a combination of econometric techniques to find comparable households among adopter and non-adopter sample households. First, we employ a multivariate probit model to check whether a correlation exists between motor pumps and other water lifting technologies (that is, bucket, treadle and electric pumps). A non-parametric matching method is used to identify a counterfactual (control group) among the non-adopter sample households. Finally, a probit model is adopted to model the determinants of farmers’ motor pump adoption decisions. Our analysis reveals that gender; age; ownership of oxen; access to extension; access to surface and shallow ground water; social capital and regional differences captured by a regional dummy, all influence farmers’ decision of motor pump adoption.

The role of urban agriculture in global food security is a topic of increasing discussion. Existing research on urban and peri-urban agriculture consists largely of case studies that frequently use disparate definitions of urban and peri-urban agriculture depending on the local context and study objectives. This lack of consistency makes quantification of the extent of this practice at the global scale difficult. This study instead integrates global data on croplands and urban extents using spatial overlay analysis to estimate the global area of urban and peri-urban irrigated and rainfed croplands. The global area of urban irrigated croplands was estimated at about 24 Mha (11.0 percent of all irrigated croplands) with a cropping intensity of 1.48. The global area of urban rainfed croplands found was approximately 44 Mha (4.7 percent of all rainfed croplands) with a cropping intensity of 1.03. These values were derived from the MIRCA2000 Maximum Monthly Cropped Area Grids for irrigated and rainfed crops and therefore their sum does not necessarily represent the total urban cropland area when the maximum extent of irrigated and rainfed croplands occurs in different months. Further analysis of croplands within 20 km of urban extents show that 60 and 35 percent of, respectively, all irrigated and rainfed croplands fall within this distance range.

A major challenge of urbanisation, for relevant decision makers, is the provision of sufficient food and water for the emerging mega-cities and appropriate peri-urban sanitation management. This paper focuses on the results of a project carried out by International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in three major cities in Ghana. The project was designed to provide decision support for nutrient recycling from organic waste in peri-urban areas, through waste composting or co-composting with nightsoil. Experiences of existing compost stations from Nigeria, Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso and Togo were taken into consideration to formulate the research framework. Apart from the technical aspect, the study looked at actual waste supply and its quality, a quantification of the compost demand as well as economic viability of different scenarios and legal implications. The analysis showed that from the city perspective cost savings are only possible if large volumes of waste can be composted to reduce waste transport costs while compost sale (and agricultural use) is not a necessity from the perspective of cost savings. In fact, despite much interest the farmers’ willingness to pay remained limited at the reservation price of US$5 per 50 kg bag. As this includes transport costs peri-urban areas will be those benefiting most from composting projects. Closing the rural-urban nutrient cycle appears unrealistic given the increasing transport distance; at least as long as smallholder farmers are targeted. However, the consideration of alternative customer segments and implementation of innovative business models could help in reaching different scales.

This paper explores whether crop genetic engineering can contribute to addressing food security, as well as enhancing human nutrition and farming under a changing climate. The review is based on peer-refereed literature, using results to determine the potential of this gene technology. It also provides a brief summary of issues surrounding this genetic enhancement approach to plant breeding, and the impacts on farming, livelihoods, and the environment achieved so far. The genetic engineering pipeline looks promising, particularly for adapting more nutritious, input-efficient crops in the development of the world’s farming systems.

Food security in India is tightly linked to rainfall variability. Trends in Indian rainfall records have been extensively studied but the subject remains complicated by the high spatiotemporal variability of rainfall arising from complex atmospheric dynamics. For various reasons past studies have often produced inconsistent results. This paper presents an analysis of recent trends in monthly and seasonal cumulative rainfall depth, number of rainy days and maximum daily rainfall, and in the monsoon occurrence (onset, peak and retreat). A modified version of the Mann-Kendall test, accounting for the scaling effect, was applied to 29 variables derived from square-degree-resolution daily gridded rainfall (1951–2007). The mapping of gridded trend slopes and the regional average Kendall test were used concurrently to assess the field significance of regional trends in areas exhibiting spatial homogeneity in trend directions. The statistics we used account for temporal and spatial correlations, and thus reduce the risk of overestimating the significance of local and regional trends. Our results i/ improve available knowledge (e.g. 5 %-field-significant delay of the monsoon onset in Northern India); ii/ provide a solid statistical basis to previous qualitative observations (e.g. 1 %-field-significant increase/decrease in pre-monsoon rainfall depth in northeast/southwest India); and, iii/ when compared to recent studies, show that the field significance level of regional trends (e.g. in rainfall extremes) is test-dependent. General trend patterns were found to align well with the geography of anthropogenic atmospheric disturbances and their effect on rainfall, confirming the paramount role of global warming in recent rainfall changes.

West Africaapos;s rice imports currently satisfy 70% of the soaring local demand, worsening the food vulnerability of an increasingly urbanized population. Despite considerable rice-growing potential, lack of water control systems, access to improved seeds, agrochemicals and appropriate mechanization have resulted in modest production growth rates, unable to alter the regionapos;s dependency on imported rice. Governments aim to boost production with import duties and input subsidies. However, questions remain as to whether these policies enable the rice sector to respond to changing consumers preferences for high grade rice and to contribute to national economic growth. We present the results from a Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) on rice production in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Niger and under three water management systems: irrigation (public scheme), supplemented rain-fed (rainfall aided by autonomously-sourced water supplies) and purely rain-fed. Our results show that policy interventions in these West African countries (i.e., input subsidies and import taxes) did not significantly enhance the profitability of rice production to farmers due to the effect of market failures (limited capital access and non-competitive market for rice) and the low quality of local milled rice. The PAM results point strongly to the importance of improving rice quality and yields through more efficient water management and post-harvest handling/processing and targeted breeding to match consumersapos; preferences.

This paper considers whether there will be sufficient water available to grow enough food for a predicted global population of 9 billion in 2050, based on three population and GDP growth modelling scenarios. Under the a low population growth with high GDP growth scenario, global consumptive water demand is forecast to increase significantly to over 6,000 km3, which is approximately 3,000 km3 greater that consumptive use in the year 2000. Also of concern is that rising global temperatures are going to increase potential evaporation, and t us irrigation water demand, by up to 17%. Sustainable intensification of agriculture can provide solutions to this predicament. However, productivity growth i not fast enough and we face considerable risks in the next 20 to 30 years. Concerted action to combat food insecurity and water scarcity is required based on agricultural research and development, policy reform and greater water productivity, if the world is to feed its growing population.

Australia is a major food exporting country. Recent droughts reduced dryland farming production and the volume of water allocated to irrigated agriculture, with a resulting decline in aggregate agricultural production and exports. This paper analyses the possible impact of increased water scarcity on Australian agricultural production and the magnitude of subsequent impacts on global food security. Using the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data on land and water use coupled with a hydro-economic stochastic modelling approach, the impacts of reduced agricultural production in the southern Murray–Darling Basin, and more generally for Australia, are analysed. Changes in agricultural activity, reduction in agricultural exports and altered composition of products exported attributed to the severe 2000–2009 drought are also analysed to highlight the implications for global food security. The impact of climate change on food production is examined. The analysis shows that climate change, when modelled as the extreme case, along with other factors such as land use, will impact Australian food exports. Despite its relatively small contribution to total global food supply, Australia’s contribution to international trade in wheat, meat and dairy products is substantial and could affect global food prices. Furthermore, Australia’s agricultural exports are of disproportionate importance within the South- and South–East Asian and Oceania region, both in terms of volume and for strategic reasons. Adaptation along with investment in agriculture production is needed to maintain Australian agricultural production and enhance global food security.

Land-use-change-induced increases in shallow groundwater levels across parts of the Sahel in recent years have coincided with expanded use of groundwater for irrigation. This study was conducted to assess the potential linkages and livelihood implications based on a field survey of nine villages building on previous hydrological studies. The results show that irrigators lack effective means of production and mostly rely on manual methods. Borehole usage is more pro table and reliable than shallower wells. Overall incomes from irrigation are relatively small and severely constrained by the limited field scale due to high establishment and operating costs.

The Indus and Ganges river basins (collectively called the Indus-Ganges Basin) in South Asia covers 2.20 million km2 and is inhabited by a population of more than a billion people, many living in poverty with livelihoods based on waterdependent agriculture. The northwestern Indus basin is highly developed and over-abstracted with only about 10 % net river discharge; whereas in the eastern Ganges basin 37 % of the total precipitation discharges into the Bay of Bengal. The upper reaches of the basin are in the high Himalayas and seriously influenced by the melting of snow and glaciers and impending climate change. The average land and water productivity for the predominant rice-wheat cropping system is low with only about 5 per cent of the basin in the northwest (a regional “bright-spot”) having high productivity that is central to South Asia’s food security. This region is, however, now at risk of groundwater over-exploitation, aggravated mainly by energy and food policies. Access to water resources is relatively low in large areas and critical irrigation water requirements remain unmet due to inadequate access to the resource, high energy prices for water pumping, transboundary nature of the basin, and lack of an organized basin development plan. There is a strong linkage between poverty and low water productivity. Reduction of pervasive rural poverty in the basin can be accelerated by providing access to water to help achieve improvement in productivity, diversification and other pro-poor livelihoods. Based on the hydrological, agricultural and socio-economic variations in the two basins, as summarized in this chapter, the development frameworks and policies need to be regionally differentiated. Pathways to alleviate poverty might include improving agricultural productivity through optimal use of the available water resources, out-scaling bright-spot management practices to other parts of the basin, improved access to groundwater through affordable energy and cooperative tubewells for the smallholders, and policy and investment tools leading to land consolidation, rural infrastructure improvement, and market development.

We present a framework for prioritizing adaptation approaches at a range of timeframes. The framework is illustrated by four case studies from developing countries, each with associated characterisation of uncertainty. Two cases, on near-term adaptation planning in Sri Lanka and on stakeholder scenario exercises in East Africa, show how the relative utility of ‘capacity’ versus ‘impact’ approaches to adaptation planning differ with level of uncertainty and associated lead time. A further two cases demonstrate that it is possible to identify uncertainties that are relevant to decision-making in specific timeframes and circumstances. The case on coffee in Latin America identifies altitudinal thresholds at which incremental versus transformative adaptation pathways are robust options. The final case uses three crop-climate simulation studies to demonstrate how uncertainty can be characterised at different time horizons to discriminate where robust adaptation options are possible. We find that ‘impact’ approaches, which use predictive models, are increasingly useful over longer lead times and at higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions. We also find that extreme events are important in determining predictability across a broad range of timescales. The results demonstrate the potential for robust knowledge and actions in the face of uncertainty.

Water storage can help to safeguard livelihoods and reduce rural poverty. However, ill-conceived water storage will fail to deliver intended benefits and, in some cases, may worsen the negative impacts of climate change. More systematic planning is required to ensure suitable storage systems that support development targets, as an international research project demonstrates.

We assessed the potential impact of climate change on the yield of rainfed rice in the lower Mekong Basin and evaluated some adaptation options, using a crop growth simulation model. Future climate projections are based on IPCC SRES A2 and B2 scenarios as simulated by ECHAM4 global climate model downscaled for the Mekong Basin using the PRECIS system. We divided the basin into 14 agro-climatic zones and selected a subcatchment within each zone for the model and assessed the impact for the period of 2010–2030 and 2030–2050. In general, the results suggest that yield of rainfed rice may increase significantly in the upper part of the basin in Laos and Thailand and may decrease in the lower part of the basin in Cambodia and Vietnam. The increase is higher during 2030–2050 compared to the period of 2010–2030 for A2 scenario. For B2 scenario, yield increase is higher during 2010–2030. The impact is mainly due to the change in rainfall and CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. We have tested widely used adaptation options such as changing planting date, supplementary irrigation, and reduction in fertility stress and found that negative impact on yield can be offset and net increase in yield can be achieved.

Sustainable financing can be viewed from two perspectives. According to the first, an adequate mix of public and private financing, and significant reliance on local finance options, for any activity is necessary to avoid dependency on external funding (often project related). The second perspective relates to the purpose of the investment, focusing here on value chains in the sanitation and (peri)urban agricultural (UPA) sectors. This issue, no. 26, is a collaborative effort of the RUAF Foundation and WASTE, both members of the Dutch WASH Alliance. The emphasis is on exploring options for the financing of urban agriculture as part of the sanitation value chain: valorisation of urban waste with clear benefit impacts to the urban and periurban agricultural sector.