Water Issue Briefs

Farmer-led irrigation development (FLID) has been part of the farming system for hundreds of years, but has only recently attracted increased attention from government institutions, donors and development organizations. Yet, despite its vast potential, FLID has only been expanding slowly. Barriers to scaling include inadequate policy and legal frameworks, underdeveloped irrigation technology and supply chains, a lack of affordable finance, and limited access to input and output markets. Transformative scaling of FLID requires identifying the sociotechnical innovation bundles that fit, designing and implementing effective scaling strategies, and fostering multi-actor engagement and partnerships to achieve impact and trigger changes across farm, local, national, regional and global scales.

While Ethiopia contributes only 0.53% to global greenhouse gas emissions, the effect of climate change on the livelihoods of Ethiopian smallholder farmers, who have weak adaptive capacity, is adverse. Ethiopia’s climate projections show continued warming and unpredictable changes in rainfall patterns. The country is characterized by the frequency of droughts and other extreme events affecting agriculture, health and water. Projections indicate that climate change will reduce the productivity of the agriculture sector in the coming decades. Agriculture is recognized as a highly vulnerable sector to climate change, and the risks from climatic variations pose an imminent danger to food security and sustainability of livelihoods globally, requiring climate-smart adaptation interventions.

This brief summarizes key recommendations from a decade of research to help overcome some of the governance challenges that hinder the effective implementation of landscape management practices. This study was supported by projects, such as the European Union’s Supporting Horn of Africa Resilience (SHARE) I and II projects, and the Nature-Based Solutions for Sustainable and Inclusive Development (NSSID) program which is built on the outputs of the Growth for Future (G4F) project. At the onset, the brief describes the concepts of landscape and landscape management. Thereafter, the context, policy actions and gaps in agricultural landscape management in Ethiopia are explained followed by the findings on landscape management practices such as PFM, freshwater ecosystem conservation, protected area management, hydro-sediment monitoring, and changes in ESVs due to land conversion relating to the ecoregional development framework are detailed. Lastly, the brief provides recommendations for policymakers and other stakeholders to build community and environmental resilience, giving due consideration to diverse practices that benefit both humans and nature.

Despite the high potential of and strong demand for wider adoption of agricultural innovations in Ethiopia, scaling efforts have often been ineffective, and innovation adoption remains limited. Successful and sustainable innovation scaling requires co-identifying and co-developing best-fit solutions for farmers and other actors in the value chain. Bundling these solutions, such as solar-powered irrigation pumps, with pay-as-you-go financing has improved the enabling environment for adoption. Identifying the farmer segments interested in investing in such bundles and strengthening linkages along the irrigation value chains are essential for matching demand and supply and creating the conditions to reach scale.

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.