Reports

To address the knowledge and coordination gaps and foster an enabling policy and investment environment, the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), together with the Agriculture Consultative Forum (ACF) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) hosted its first National Policy Dialogue at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Lusaka, Zambia, on 18 August 2022. The Dialogue is part of the CGIAR initiative on Diversification in East and Southern Africa, launched by CGIAR (including IWMI, CIAT, CIMMYT, ILRI, IFPRI, IITA, and WorldFish).

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.

To address the knowledge and coordination gaps and foster an enabling policy and investment environment, the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), together with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and the local partner, the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) hosted the Kenya National Policy Dialogue at ILRI in Nairobi on 21 November 2022. The dialogue is part of the CGIAR initiative: Diversification and Intensification in East and Southern Africa, launched by CGIAR.

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 irrigation suitability classification was achieved by using physical factors that include slope, rainfall, landuse, closeness to waterbodies (surface and groundwater) and soil characteristics for selected districts in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, and Kenya, some of the UU target countries. As cereals form the main food basket of the selected countries, and cereals are not tolerant to saline conditions, the report also provides maps showing high soil salinity areas of Makueni and Nakuru of Kenya, where soils are highly saline. However, soil salinity is insignificant in the other study districts and therefore not mapped. This report provides (a) a conceptual framework and detailed methodology for irrigation suitability mapping, including details of identified boundary maps and geospatial data, and (b) a synthesis model and maps on irrigation suitability mapping for the selected districts in the four target countries.

The report provides a methodology protocol for measuring temporal and spatial changes in water quantity and quality using drone imagery. The procedure is informed by the need for effective and sustainable water resource use to enhance water productivity under climate change. It is based on a literature review that allows the identification of appropriate processes, materials, and procedures for water monitoring, including mapping spatial and temporal dynamics of reservoirs, measurement of water quality parameters, and flood mapping of irrigation canals.

The report proposes a framework for assessing the sustainability of social-ecological landscapes (SEL) to be used by the West and Central African Food Systems Transformation (TAFS-WCA) initiative for research, planning, and implementation of its Work Package 3 (WP3). It builds on existing assessment frameworks from relevant fields (e.g., Eco agriculture, Agroecology, Integrated Landscape Management, etc.). At the center of a Sustainable Social-Ecological Landscape (SSEL) is the improvement of the management of land and the natural resource base in such a way that land use concurrently meets three goals: (i) provision of products (e.g., food) and services on a sustainable basis, (ii) support for sustainable livelihoods for all social groups and (iii) conservation of the full complement of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Globally, SSEL related approaches like eco-agriculture, agroecology, and landscape approaches are already being applied, with promising results, especially in places where food production, poverty alleviation, and conservation of biodiversity, water, and ecosystem services are all high priorities. However, a comprehensive framework for measuring/monitoring landscape status and performance vis-a-vis competing landscape uses and management interventions has not been given much priority in the literature. Different forms of land use, such as forestry, agriculture, extraction of minerals, conservation/protected areas, and settlements, are interdependent. Therefore, landscape performance and monitoring frameworks that focus exclusively on protecting natural resources or the intensification of agriculture and other land uses can only give an incomplete viewpoint/overview of landscapes with all their uses and stakeholders. Considering the SSEL goals above, a holistic conceptual framework for landscape-based assessment is needed; such a framework must consider the drivers and effects of land use and the individual management interventions as well as the complex interactions among different land uses and interventions across the landscape. The present study proposes the Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework for SEL. It is important to emphasize that this study recognizes that different individuals and organizations under the TAFS-WCA initiative may have different interests in understanding the status and performance of selected SELs. The research envisages two important applications of a framework for measuring and understanding SEL: i) it can facilitate inclusive decision-making by multiple stakeholders working in the same landscape by explaining interactions, synergies, and trade-offs among SSEL goals and landscape components, and ii) when SSEL-related management innovations are successful (or otherwise), the framework can help document the same, reinforcing the case for adopting and scaling up innovations.

Based on a systematic literature review using scientific database search engines and an opportunistic review of published and unpublished government, international and nongovernmental organization reports on cocoa from the internet, the paper explores sustainable irrigation financing feasibility and the potential for different cocoa systems. We design a conceptual framework and propose a sustainable financing ecosystem for supplemental irrigated cocoa farming in Ghana and a qualitative data collection tool based on the conceptual framework and insights from the literature review.

A Social-Ecological Landscape (SEL) comprises a set of important resources (e.g., natural, socioeconomic, and cultural) whose flow and use are controlled by a mix of ecological and social subsystem dynamics. In developing countries, drivers of SEL changes are complex, and SEL pressures are growing. Areas endowed with natural resources (e.g., fertile soils, forests, water, minerals, etc.) tend to have high population growth rates and high poverty incidence. These tend to culminate in high demand for livelihood capitals (e.g., access to livelihood alternatives, education, food, health, water, forest resources, dwellings, roads, agriculture/aquaculture spaces, etc.). Further, multiple national and global stakeholders have continuedly to place a high demand on exploiting natural resources at the subnational.

The report creates contexts for a systemic understanding of the CGIAR Transforming agric-food system (TAFS-WCA) initiative starting with work package (WP) 3 and expanding the causality effects across the other WPs of the Initiative. The main focus of WP3 is inclusive landscape management, whereby access to and proper use of land and water resources is a prerequisite to building a healthy, productive environment for resilient agri-food systems and livelihoods. Mapping synergies with other Work Packages ensure that respective contributions are integrated and impactful. The process intends to provide policymakers, researchers, and practitioners with a strategic framework to activate solutions temporarily with a stakeholder-defined suite of scenarios.

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.

Focusing on bundling innovations to co-develop scalable bundles, the Rethinking Food Markets and VCs for Inclusion and Sustainability Initiative develops and applies its monitoring, evaluation, learning and impact assessment, and scaling preparedness and action (MELIAamp;SPA) framework from a process-based perspective. This MELIAamp;SPA framework aims to co-developing the scaling preparedness to enhance the scalability of the bundle, and to build market actors’ and relevant stakeholders’ ability to adopt innovation bundles and accelerate the scaling while responding effectively to changes and trade-offs coming. To achieve these, the MELIA (monitoring, evaluation, learning, and impact assessment) emphasizes ensuring the initiative’s impacts on malnutrition reduction, food safety, income and job, small producers’ livelihood, social and gender inclusion, GHG emissions, climate adaptation, and sustainable land and water resources. The SPA (scaling preparedness and actions) enhances the scalability and accelerate the scale of the innovation bundles developed by the Work packages (WPs). The SPA contains exploring intervention and scaling context and options for the piloted innovation bundles, co-designing the piloted innovation bundles with and for the value chain actors, and codeveloping the scaling preparedness and strategies to build the ability for market actors and relevant stakeholders to adopt and accelerate the investment in scalable innovation bundles.

There are solutions to sustainable intensification, irrigation technologies, and water management under changing weather and climate conditions; they are just not available to smallholder farmers and vulnerable groups on a large scale. Scaling these solutions, therefore, needs to develop bundles of best-fit solutions to diversify farming and farmer conditions and adapt them to the context of irrigated farming. Throughout the action research process, solar-based irrigation bundle (SBIB) has been scaled in Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Northeast, and Savanah region, Ghana since January 2020. SBIB offers solar-powered irrigation pumps and pay-as-you-go and pay-as-you-own (PAYGO/PAYOWN) financing services to smallholder farmers in combination with tailoring their business models to different client segments (ability to pay, frequency, amount) to lower the barrier for upfront investment cost, enabling solar irrigation adoption and enhancing productivity and income throughout the year. This SBIB profile consists of three components: 1) bundle components and characteristics, 2) assessing the scalability and scaling potential of the bundle, and 3) developing scaling strategies.

Innovation bundles enable different innovations to complement one another and adapt to new contexts they are being introduced. The scalability of a bundle is measured by its ability to adapt to the context in which it is being scaled, respond positively to any system changes, and bring about intended outcomes. Profiling innovation bundles helps to assess the scalability of an innovation bundle to design the best-fit scaling strategies. Innovation bundle profiling includes but is not limited to 1) characterizing the innovation bundle, 2) assessing and enhancing the bundle’s scalability and identifying partnerships to scale the bundle, 3) providing foundation and inputs to design the scaling actions and learning and synergies across work packages, and 4) enhancing reflexivity of the intervention process to ensure that the bundling innovation is participatory, that there are ambassadors of the innovation bundling process, and that financial and human resources are dedicated to the scaling process.

Agricultural waste represents untapped resources that can be used to produce large value added products with many potential industrial applications. On-farm food waste comprises of harvest and post-harvest waste amounting to 1.2 billion tons per annum and measures up to USD 370 million. Production of food products and other outputs (like biofuel and compost) help in reduction of on-farm food waste and provide livelihood opportunities for the rural households. This reports highlights some innovative approaches across four countries which lead to reduction to food waste. The report cover 6 cases located in Burkina Faso, India, Kenya and Vietnam. The two business models identified in Ouagadougou are – (i) Waka group, that repurpose mango residues in to sweet and bio-vinyl vinegar called MISSIM vinegar, and (ii) SOFAB-SA utilizes oilseeds (such as peanuts, cotton, and soybeans) with blue cheese bran or corn, salt, or any other micro-ingredient to produce feed for livestock. From India, two such case studies are included – (i) Sai Shubhada agro industries is located in Ahmednagar, (Maharashtra, India), and converts bagasse, [a pulpy and fibrous residue of the sugarcane processing] into organic jiggery, and (ii) Arogyasangini Oil Mill, Mill has embarked on the mission to reintroduce oil extracted from the safflower seeds. Nadanya Greens located in Mbale, (Vihiga, Kenya) is exploring the use of farm waste from livestock to produce feeds for fish reared through three fish ponds. Xuan Tien Agricultural Cooperative, located at Yen Chau (Son La province, Vietnam), converts mango which is otherwise wasted post-harvest.

Agricultural waste can be widely adopted to manufacture biogas or biofuel, which is obtained from biomass or agricultural wastes like molasses, bagasse slurries manure etc. Agricultural waste is mostly burned or left decomposing on the fields, where it has potential for polluting the environment and release greenhouse gases. Recovering energy helps to (i) reduce greenhouse emissions by reducing environmental pollution from unwanted biomasses otherwise being burnt in the field; (ii) improve energy efficiency in heating systems from renewable energy sources; (iii) introduce renewable energy by substituting carbon neutral biomass for hydro-carbons (coal, heavy oil and gas); and (iv) Recycle ash residues or slurry as a fertilizer. The present report covers four case studies from Kenya and Burkina Faso related to recovering energy from agrowaste. Biogas International Limited (BIL) is a public private venture in Kenya involved in collection of market waste and recovering biogas, compost, liquid bio fertilizer. The Dunga Beach biogas plant in Kenya turns the invasive water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) on the shores of Lake Victoria to biogas energy, an alternative to charcoal burning for fish vendors at the beach. Keveye Girls is a boarding high school located in Vihiga County. Through consultations and interventions by the Department of Agriculture and Livestock at Vihiga County, Keveye Girls now converts cow dung into biogas, which is then used to power the school’s science laboratories and kitchen as an alternative to LPG gas and wood energy. Similar case studies exist in Burkina Faso. FasoBiogaz, an SME was founded by two Dutch entrepreneurs and supported by the Dutch government and is fully operated by a local team. FasoBiogaz operates the first industrial biogas plant connected to the SONABEL power grid and provides innovative resource recovery solutions producing 550 KW of power.

To support the implementation of environmental flows (e-flows), we piloted a three-dimensional digital modeling approach to monitor the changes in river ecosystems. A high-resolution 3D model of study sites in the Crocodile River, South Africa, was constructed and used to test its utility and value to monitor changes in river ecosystem structure over time. The initial demonstration of the approach shows highly detailed 3D models of nine tracks across the study sites. The output represents the velocity-depth and bathymetry variability of each site in 3D. The dataset successfully demonstrated the potential value of adopting the approach for e-flow implementation to monitor the habitat dynamism to support the timely management of river health. In the next phase, this assessment will integrate the 3D modeling approach into a hydrodynamic modeling framework to investigate dynamic relationships between flow-ecosystem and ecosystem services.

The miniSASS was developed as a citizen science tool for monitoring the health of river systems and reflecting the water quality through assessing macroinvertebrates communities. The miniSASS samples the macroinvertebrate community in a river reach and compares the community present to the expected community under ideal natural conditions. The information garnered during a survey relies heavily on the accurate identification of macroinvertebrates by lows killed citizen scientists. This leaves a potential for errors in identification which may impact the accuracy of results and, ultimately, of the river health assessment. In response, we initiated the development of a smartphone application with built-in machine-learning algorithms for the automatic, real-time identification of macroinvertebrates. This report presents our data, methodology, and preliminary results from the automated identification algorithms.

This study assessed the investment climate for circular bioeconomy in Kenya by reviewing the national policies, strategies and regulations, financing mechanisms, infrastructure and business environment. The study identified key gaps in these areas affecting waste management and entrepreneurship development in the circular bioeconomy sector. There are key developments at the policy level and some developments in entrepreneur promotion in resource recovery from different waste streams. The specific focus of the policies, strategies and regulations in the waste sector, lack of coordination of the relevant sectors in waste management, weak horizontal communication between sectors and implementation and compliance problems are main gaps in promoting circular bioeconomy. Absence of drastic changes in actual behaviour such as waste separation at source and lack of incentives in entrepreneurial development are also critical challenges. While addressing these gaps, the progresses identified need to be further scaled out to make waste management and circular bioeconomy in Kenya sustainable. Establishment of multiple stakeholder platforms involving key actors in the sector and enhancing awareness is important in promoting resource recovery and reuse. Promotion of incubator centres to enhance local capacity and foster uptake of resource recovery and reuse businesses is critical.

To tackle overexploitation of resources, pollution and related health issues, there has been an increase in policies, laws, and programmes that emphasize the importance of treatment, recycling, and reuse over the years. Various attempts have been made at various scales for resources recovery and reuse (RRR) interventions with varying degrees of completion and success. With limitations of the public sector, engagement of the private parties is believed to enhance circular economic approaches in future. This report is an attempt to assess the existing institutional, policy, regulatory and financial environment in which the RRR businesses operate in India. It begins with a brief introduction of India’s take and position in terms of sustainability followed by an overview of the regulatory environment. The regulatory environment covers some of the important acts and rules concerning wastewater, energy and nutrients. The policies and programme section talks about some of the major policies that are being run by the central government in the country. The subsequent section talks about the key institutions involved in the national level for the major sectors being covered in the report. This discussion is followed by description of the financial environment. The section describes the major government-run financial assistance and subsidies in the RRR domain. It also talks about the various monetary incentives offered by the government for the promotion of MSMEs in the country along with their general access to debt. The report also lists some of the key drivers that are involved in the RRR sectors differentiated by various parameters such as policy, regulatory and financials and others, followed by a conclusion.

Burkina Faso has a huge opportunity and natural resources to develop circular bioeconomy (CBE) sector. The agricultural sector employs 63% of the employed workforce and contributes to 16% of the Gross Domestic Product. Large production of cereals results in large quantities of agricultural residues. In a country where the industrial sector is still in its infancy, CBE solutions offer significant opportunities for reconfiguring economies, labor and resource use. However, implementing CBE solutions remains at small scale and scaling up faces numerous challenges. This report reviews the enabling environment - drivers, barriers, and opportunities for promoting CBE initiatives in the country and presents conclusions and recommendations.

Agricultural waste represents untapped resources that can be used to produce large value added products with many potential industrial applications. The use of agricultural wastes as raw materials for various industrial applications can help to reduce production cost and contribute to environmental conservation. The business cases described in this report highlight innovative approaches to convert the growing amount of agricultural waste into eco-efficient and bio-based products which are essential components of Nature-based solutions.

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.

This report explores the agrarian history of Nepal over the last 500 years, and the historical, social, and political trajectories that still shape modern agrifood systems in Nepal. The report is organised according to the main epochs in Nepal’s political-economic history. The study explores the complex layers of factors which vary across space according to contemporary and historic state formations, the local agroecology and indigenous and imported cultural-economic institutions and technologies that shape regional diversity in modes of production and food production systems across Nepal. The study is based on readily available documents including secondary literature and archival data as data sources.

Agricultural land use and practices have important implications for climate change mitigation and adaptation. It is, therefore, important to develop methods of monitoring and quantifying the extent of crop types and cropping practices. A machine learning approach using random forest classification was applied to Sentinel-1 and 2 satellite imagery and satellite-derived phenological statistics to map crop types in the Mekong River Delta, enabling levels of rice intensification to be identified. This initial classification differentiated between broad and prevalent crop types, including perennial tree crops, rice, other vegetation, oil palm and other crops. A two-step classification was used to classify rice seasonality, whereby the areas identified as rice in the initial classification were further classified into single, double, or triple-cropped rice in a subsequent classification with the same input data but different training polygons. Both classifications had an overall accuracy of approximately 96% when cross-validated on test data. Radar bands from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 reflectance bands were important predictors of crop type, perhaps due to their capacity to differentiate between periodically flooded rice fields and perennial tree cover, which were the predominant classes in the Delta. On the other hand, the Start of Season (SoS) and End of Season (EoS) dates were the most important predictors of single, double, or triple-cropped rice, demonstrating the efficacy of the phenological predictors. The accuracy and detail are limited by the availability of reliable training data, especially for tree crops in small-scale orchards. A preliminary result is presented here, and, in the future, efficient collection of ground images may enable cost-effective training data collection for similar mapping exercises.

The growing relevance of research on gender and social inclusion in agricultural research for development calls for systemic, transformative change processes. Transformative gender ambitions can stand at odds with personal biases and experiences that shape diverse understandings of gender, institutional values, structures and cultures that tend to reward technological quick-fix solutions, and other practical challenges to ‘doing’ gender on the ground. Very little is known about these challenges. How are these challenges navigated by (relatively small) teams of gender researchers, who are often caught between the demand for tangible fast gains on gender, and the intractable challenges of deep-rooted and complex, intersectional gender inequalities? This was the focus of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) End of Program Reflection and Evaluation (EoPRE) to assess how gender and inclusion research is pursued, and the key barriers to knowing and doing gender in eight research projects. Adopting a reflexive, self-analytical feminist approach to evaluation, this EoPRE facilitated eight project teams, diverse and with an uneven focus on gender, to connect the dots between the processes of knowing and doing gender research. A key finding of this evaluation is that the need for change is foremost internal. We need to begin by fixing our personal biases and assumptions, and fixing institutional cultures, values and structures instead of just trying to fix things out there, including fixing poor and marginalized women. A key recommendation is to seek more regular and open conversations across researcher disciplines and hierarchies, and between CGIAR and external partners and stakeholders, including feminist grassroots actors and networks – on what works well (and does not) and why. This would allow us to grasp why we start with different meanings and conceptualizations of gender; how agile we are (or not) in adapting to changes on the ground; and how, through a culture of reflection and learning, we might shift pathways to more transformative change processes in a fast evolving and increasingly unequal world.

This paper explores outcome indicators and process principles to evaluate landscape resilience in agro-ecosystems, drawing on outcome indicator case studies of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). Four questions are addressed: (1) which outcome indicators and process principles feature most prominently in the seminal literature on resilient agro-ecological landscapes? (2) to what extent are these principles represented in CGIAR Outcome Impact Case Reports (OICRs) and selected peer-reviewed studies? (3) how does the use of process principles in the case studies compare to their occurrence in the theoretical literature? and (4) which process principles co-occur with related outcome indicators in the OICRs? The findings enable researchers and practitioners to be more specific about the outcomes and processes that drive resilience in agro-ecosystems, thereby informing adaptive program management. Seven novel research themes are proposed.

Measuring the impact of integrated systems research has been a challenge to CGIAR since it expanded into natural resource management research in the early 1990s. Despite repeated efforts, it has yet to be adequately addressed. Meanwhile, the demand for evidence of impact on development outcomes has only increased, as have calls for greater methodological rigor. At the same time, there is greater recognition of the complex, systemic nature of many problems facing society today and the need for new approaches to designing, implementing and evaluating research. In an attempt to provide pragmatic guidance to One CGIAR and others on how to address these issues in the design of research for development programs that involve integrated systems research (ISR), CGIAR held a virtual workshop on Measuring the Impact of Integrated Systems Research on September 27–30, 2021. Participants took stock of recent experiences and reviewed existing and new tools and approaches with the potential to overcome conceptual, empirical and institutional challenges that obstruct ISR. In terms of methods for assessing the impact of ISR, the workshop highlighted recent advances in the use of geospatial data and called for more significant investment in both the quantity and quality of qualitative methods. Integrating monitoring, evaluation, learning and impact assessment (MELIA) into the research programs will require greater capacity on the part of managers, researchers and MELIA specialists to use theory of change effectively and efficiently for multiple purposes. It is also becoming increasingly clear that some of the challenges in conducting ISR in CGIAR are not technical but have to do with structures, processes and internal tensions within CGIAR itself about the kind of outcomes it seeks and the way it organizes and implements research. While calling for research that contributes to sustainability and systems transformation, CGIAR has in different ways failed to adequately support, and to learn from, the kinds of integrated systems approaches that will likely underpin success. Workshop participants proposed tackling this head-on through changing CGIAR systems, processes and incentive structures, and engaging directly with funders on how impact is understood and measured.

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.

At the end of 2021, CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) will be replaced by Initiatives housed within One CGIAR. This new modality is intended to achieve higher levels of impact at a faster rate and at reduced cost compared to the CRPs. As One CGIAR begins, there is a unique opportunity to reflect on what has worked in different contexts. In this paper, we provide findings that relate to One CGIAR’s overarching view of how it will achieve positive and measurable impacts, and for agricultural research for development (AR4D) more generally. Specifically, we draw from three related CRP evaluations to identify how different types of AR4D approaches have contributed to successful outcomes. In the final section of the paper, we present our conclusions and provide a list of recommendations for the science and technology policy of One CGIAR and possibly other integrated research for development programs.

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.

This paper argues for more creativity and flexibility in agricultural research for development (AR4D) scaling and impact evaluation in complex contexts. While acknowledging the importance of setting reasonable end-of-project targets and outcomes, we argue that the achievement of outcomes and impacts, particularly in complex contexts, requires adaptive management and acknowledgment that significant positive outcomes and impacts may occur after the project funding cycle is complete. The paper presents a practitioner-developed approach to scaling AR4D innovations called Impact Tracking (IT). We illustrate IT in practice by presenting three case studies from Ethiopia in which IT proved crucial to achieving impact. The paper concludes by drawing lessons from the case studies and discussing what implications IT may have for development practitioners.

This report examines social equality aspects related to resource recovery through solid waste composting and wastewater irrigation. The report shows that women are represented in greatest numbers at the base of the recycling chain, most often as informal waste pickers and as sorters of recyclables with limited access to resources and upward mobility. Despite a wide gender gap in the solid waste and sanitation sectors, women play a key role in both municipal waste reduction and food safety where irrigation water is unsafe. Analyzing the gender dimension is important for understanding household responses to recycling programs, differences between the formal and informal sectors as well as along the waste-to-resource value chain from collection to treatment and reuse. The report stresses the important role of women in household waste management, including waste segregation, and the power of women-dominated waste picker associations, where the informal sector plays an essential role alongside the formal sector.

Wastewater-fed aquaculture has a long history, especially in Asia. This report examines three empirical cases of integrated wastewater treatment and aquaculture production. From an aquaculture entrepreneur’s perspective, the combination of fish farming and wastewater treatment in common waste stabilization ponds allows significant savings on capital (pond infrastructure) and running costs (wastewater supporting fish feed). On the other hand, the treatment plant owner will have the benefit of a partner taking over plant maintenance. Given the importance of food safety and related perceptions, the report is focusing on innovative business models where the marketed fish is not in direct contact with the treated wastewater, but only the brood stock or fish feed. The financial analysis of the presented systems shows profitable options for the fish farmer, operational and in part capital cost recovery for the treatment plant, and as the treatment plant operators can stop charging households a sanitation fee, eventually a triple-win situation for both partners and the served community.

A necessary extension of the concept of Resource Recovery and Reuse with an even higher priority is the prevention and reduction of waste. One concern, in particular, is food waste, which constitutes the largest share of human waste. Target 12.3 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to ‘halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses, by 2030’. For this report, over 400 businesses were analyzed to identify common approaches and business models to address the food waste challenge. The business models are presented under seven categories – measurement, redistribution, resell, value addition, responsible waste collection, resource recovery, and recycling – with a special focus on their application potential to the Global South.

This paper outlines a new and integrated water storage agenda for resilient development in a world increasingly characterised by water stress and climate uncertainty and variability.; Storing water has long been a cornerstone of socio-economic development, particularly for societies exposed to large climatic variability. Nature has always supplied the bulk of water storage on earth, but built storage has increased significantly, particularly over the twentieth century. Today, numerous countries suffer from water storage gaps and increasingly variable precipitation, threatening sustainable development and even societal stability. There is a growing need to develop more storage types and manage existing storage better. At the same time, the policy, engineering, and scientific communities may not fully recognise the extent of these storage gaps and how best to manage them. There are large and uncertain costs and benefits of different types of storage, and developing storage can be risky and controversial. Although there is consensus that built and natural storage are fundamentally complementary, there is still no pragmatic agenda to guide future integrated water storage development.; This paper argues that water storage should be recognised as a service rather than only a facility. More than volumes of water stored behind a dam or in a watershed, what ultimately matters is the ability to provide different services at a particular time and place with a given level of assurance. Integrated storage systems should be developed and managed to deliver a targeted service standard. This will reduce the costs of new storage development and make the benefits more sustainable.; As this paper demonstrates, there are numerous data gaps pertaining to water storage, as well as a need for greater clarity on some key concepts. This paper does not introduce new data or research but rather provides a review of some of the current knowledge and issues around water storage, and outlines a new, integrated and constructive water storage agenda for the decades to come.

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.

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.

Globally, 50% of the population relies on on-site sanitation systems (OSS) such as septic tanks and pit latrines and is, hence, in need of Fecal Sludge Management (FSM) solutions. India is a classic example, given that its government built more than 100 million toilets with the majority relying on OSS. With 400 fecal sludge treatment plants (FSTPs) in various stages of planning, procurement and construction, this report comes at an opportune time to present findings on FSM business models already implemented across India. Interviews were conducted with a total of 105 Emptying and Transport (Eamp;T) operators in 72 towns and cities across 16 states in India, 22 representatives from municipalities that own emptying vehicles, 18 FSTP operators and more than 30 institutions. In addition, procurement tenders for Eamp;T and FSTPs in 13 states were analyzed. In total, 18 business models were identified, several with energy or nutrient recovery components. The analysis of Eamp;T operators revealed clear differences that steer a business towards success or failure. The majority of operators still dispose fecal sludge in an unsafe manner, due to the lack of official disposal or treatment sites. In comparison to sewer networks, the capital and operating costs (per capita) of FSTPs were significantly lower. The report provides evidence-based discussions on policies and recommendations for scaling and sustaining FSM.

Based on primary data from fecal sludge (FS) treatment plants in three West African urban regions (Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, Greater Accra in Ghana, and Grand Nokou in Benin), FS collection and treatment patterns were analyzed to identify possible scenarios for resource recovery (RR) through FS co-composting. FS collection was analyzed for up to 7 years, in part per day, month and season, as well as FS characteristics to understand peak flows, FS qualities and related variations to plan for appropriate RR technology and capacities. Overall, the FS volumes collected by vacuum trucks were not significantly affected by the calendar days, months or seasons. Commonly assumed increases during rainy months were, for example, only recorded in Ouagadougou. FS composition appeared highly variable with a pronounced difference in total solids between FS collected from households versus institutional sources, likely indicating that institutions are served more frequently. The analyzed treatment plants appear to be exploited beyond their capacity. RR for reuse can turn sludge disposal from a cost into a source of revenue with co-benefits for farmers and the environment, thereby reducing the pressure on tipping fees. The probability of the added co-compost production being financially viable on its own was estimated for all the study sites, indicating an earliest breakeven point after 5 to 8 years.

Over the last decade, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has explored the use of fecal sludge (FS) in combination with other organic waste sources to optimize FS treatment and composting for the production of a safe organic fertilizer, which can – depending on demand – be enriched with crop nutrients or pelletized for volume reduction, delayed decomposition or easier application. Based on IWMI’s experience, this training manual has been compiled for plant managers and trainers to help ensure that staff involved in FS treatment and production, and application of an FS-based co-compost adopt best practices in all processes involved. The manual can be adapted to local needs as required. It also includes information on compost registration and certification, as well as guidelines for co-compost application in the field.

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.

Black soldier fly colonies can produce about 100 times more protein per year than chicken or soybeans, not to mention cattle, on the same area of land. The flies can directly feed on different types of organic wastes, leapfrogging closed loop processes within a circular food economy. Also, where no protein is needed, for example, to feed fish or pigs, the larvae can be processed into high-quality biodiesel. However, can this be done at scale? The answer is ‘Yes’. The report showcases some of the leading global businesses in Black Soldier Fly production.

In low- and middle-income countries, the management of fecal sludge from on-site sanitation systems has received little attention over many decades, resulting in insufficient or missing regulations to guide investments and management options. To address this gap, this report examines existing and emerging guidelines and regulations for fecal sludge management (FSM) along the sanitation service chain (user interface, containment, emptying, transport, treatment, valorization, reuse or disposal). It also draws empirical examples from guidelines across the globe to support policy-makers, planners, and sanitation and health officers, as well as consultants in low- and middle-income countries in the development and design of local and national FSM guidelines and regulations.

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development promises to achieve change in almost every aspect of life on Earth. Encompassing 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets, the Agenda marks the first time in history when all nations have agreed on how to chart their future. The SDGs are not just a global reporting exercise, however, but rather involve a global program that embraces country-led efforts. Guided by the ideas contained in the 2030 Agenda, each nation must seek to become more prosperous and sustainable, while contributing to the global effort at the same time. If all the countries achieve this, we will have a sustainable planet and a secure future for all. This document offers guidance on how developing countries can adapt the SDGs to their own contexts and priorities. It indicates important areas for developing countries to consider when creating their own program to achieve the SDGs, and provides examples of success to demonstrate concrete possibilities for progress.

To understand the full value of Resource Recovery and Reuse (RRR), a systematic assessment approach that balances complexity with practicality is required. This report highlights the methods available for quantifying and valuing social, environmental and economic costs and benefits of RRR, focusing on Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) as the primary framework. Rather than prescribing a standardized technique for conducting CBA for RRR, this report presents broad frameworks and several examples that can be catered to individual contexts. This results in a suggested eight-step process accompanied with suggested assessment techniques which have to be tailored to the type of question the assessment is meant to answer and related system boundaries.

The safe recovery of nutrients from our waste streams allows us to address the challenges of waste management and soil nutrient depletion conjointly. Commercialization of waste-based organic fertilizers such as FortiferTM (fecal sludge-based co-compost) has the potential to generate significant benefits for developing economies via cost recovery for the sanitation sector and the provision of an alternative agricultural input for smallholder farmers. To guide future FortiferTM businesses, this report presents examples of detailed market assessments, based on farmers’ perceptions, attitudes and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a pelletized and non-pelletized FortiferTM co-compost. The research was conducted in the Greater Accra and Western regions in Ghana, and in and around Kampala (Uganda), Bangalore (India), Hanoi (Vietnam), and Kurunegala (Sri Lanka). Cross-country analyses helped to understand the effects of market drivers and, where possible, capture lessons learned for knowledge sharing.

Resource recovery and reuse (RRR) of domestic and agro-industrial waste has the potential to contribute to a number of financial, socioeconomic and environmental benefits. However, despite these benefits and an increasing political will, there remain significant barriers to build the required up-front capital which is discouraging private sector engagement. A systematic analysis and understanding of the enabling environment, public and private funding sources, risk-sharing mechanisms and pathways for cost recovery can help to identify opportunities to improve the viability of RRR solutions. This report looks at regulations and policies that remove disincentives for RRR, public and private funding sources for capital and operational costs, risk mitigation options through blending and structuring finance, and options for operational cost recovery.

There is a strong link between gender and energy in view of food preparation and the acquisition of fuel, especially in rural areas. This is demonstrated in a range of case studies from East and West Africa, where biochar, human waste and other waste resources have been used to produce briquettes or biogas as additional high-quality fuel sources. The synthesis of the cases concludes that resource recovery and reuse for energy offers an alternative to conventional centralized grid projects which, while attractive to investors and large-scale enterprises, do not necessarily provide job opportunities for marginalized communities. Reusing locally available waste materials for energy production and as soil ameliorant (in the case of biochar) in small enterprises allows women and youth who lack business capital to begin modest, locally viable businesses. The case studies offer concrete examples of small-scale solutions to energy poverty that can make a significant difference to the lives of women and their communities.

The karst dolomite aquifers of the North West Province in South Africa are among the most important in the nation. They serve as key water sources for municipal water supply and irrigation, and are also ecologically important in supplying springs that feed important rivers. Over-abstraction and consequent falling groundwater levels jeopardize water supply security, with increasing costs and risks to sustainable development. Better aquifer and conjunctive water management would improve water supply security and lower costs, with wider benefits to many sectors. This GRIPP Case Profile discusses these challenges and management experiences through the examples of two representative North West dolomite aquifers - the Grootfontein and Steenkoppies aquifers. These aquifers are relatively well understood hydrogeologically, and modern South African water law mandates sustainable use. Yet, underperforming collaboration between stakeholders using and managing the aquifers at various levels, and poor support from the national authority have led to an entrenched suboptimal equilibrium where stakeholders are reluctant to change behavior, despite awareness of the negative outcomes. Neither prescriptive local nor top-down organization has been effective. The synthesis argues for prioritized input from a legally mandated and capacitated convening authority (the national Department of Water and Sanitation) to catalyze and support effective local stakeholder groups and other governance initiatives. It calls for a renewed effort by this convening authority and other stakeholders, emphasizing mutually beneficial or “win-win” outcomes.

The second issue of the GRIPP Case Profile Series documents the use of water quotas and pricing mechanisms in Northwest China to control and manage groundwater. Since the 1970s, this region has experienced intensive groundwater abstraction by smallholder farmers. In 2002, however, the revised Water Law urged local authorities to regulate groundwater use in regions with overdraft. The Case Profile reviews, in detail, the use of smart card machines installed on wells by the local government to control abstraction. The study compares the situation in two counties where local authorities opted for two different types of regulatory mechanisms enabled by the smart cards: Minqin County - where they chose quotas, and Guazhou County - where they opted for a tiered water pricing system.; This Case Profile highlights how the success of smart card machines depends on the design and implementation of the regulatory mechanism behind the machines. In Minqin, quotas have successfully affected farmers’ groundwater use practices, whereas in Guazhou, water pricing has had little impact on farmers’ individual groundwater use practices. Moreover, the case of Minqin exemplifies that quotas enable equitable water access to all farmers and maintain the buffer function of conjunctive surface water and groundwater use. These are important principles to design effective groundwater regulation policies, both in and outside China.

Where modern heating and cooking fuels for domestic, institutional, commercial and industrial use are not readily available, briquettes made from biomass residues could contribute to the sustainable supply of energy. This study reviews the briquette making process, looking at the entire value chain starting from the type and characteristics of feedstock used for briquette making to the potential market for briquettes in developing countries. It also analyzes the role that gender plays in briquette production. Depending on the raw materials used and technologies applied during production, fuel briquettes come in different qualities and dimensions, and thus require appropriate targeting of different market segments. Key drivers of success in briquette production and marketing include ensuring consistent supply of raw materials with good energy qualities, appropriate technologies, and consistency in the quality and supply of the briquettes. Creating strong partnerships with key stakeholders, such as the municipality, financiers and other actors within the briquette value chain, and enabling policy are important drivers for the success of briquette businesses.

On-site sanitation systems, such as septic tanks and pit latrines, are the predominant feature across rural and urban areas in most developing countries. However, their management is one of the most neglected sanitation challenges. While under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the set-up of toilet systems received the most attention, business models for the sanitation service chain, including pit desludging, sludge transport, treatment and disposal or resource recovery, are only emerging. Based on the analysis of over 40 fecal sludge management (FSM) cases from Asia, Africa and Latin America, this report shows opportunities as well as bottlenecks that FSM is facing from an institutional and entrepreneurial perspective.

Recovering energy from waste offers dual benefits – a) improved waste management, and b) provision of reliable energy to households, institutions and commercial entities. In this report, we present a socioeconomic assessment of three energy business models (briquette manufacturing, on-site (public toilet) energy generation, and agro-waste electricity generation) based on feasibility studies carried out in the city of Kampala, Uganda. We assess the potential economic, environmental and social impacts of waste-to-energy business models taking into consideration a life cycle of emissions to provide decision makers with the overall costs and benefits of the models to society versus a business-as-usual scenario.

Biological treatment, composting, in particular, is a relatively simple, durable and inexpensive alternative for stabilizing and reducing biodegradable waste. Co-composting of different waste sources allows to enhance the compost nutrient value. In particular, integration of ‘biosolids’ from the sanitation sector as potential input material for co-composting would provide a solution for the much needed treatment of fecal sludge from on-site sanitation systems, and make use of its high nutrient content. This research paper elaborates in detail the main parameters that govern the co-composting process as well as factors that control the production of a safe and valuable quality compost. It further explains technological options to tailor the final product to crop and farmer needs.

Recycling and reuse of treated wastewater are an important part of the sanitation cycle and critical in an environment such as urban India with decreasing freshwater availability and increasing costs for delivering acceptable quality water, often from far distance. This report has been developed as a possible guidance document for the Indian government and gives substantial focus to the financial and economic benefits of wastewater recycling from the perspective of public spending. The report presents possible strategies for city and state planners and policymakers in view of the sanitation situation and the role of wastewater recycling in the larger cities in India (class I and II cities and towns with populations above 50,000), and focuses on recycling at the end of sewerage systems after treatment at sewage treatment plants.

The aim of the research project is to lift Afghanistan out of the identified knowledge gap on its water resources and therefore enable Afghanistan to remove her barrier to sustainable water resource development and management in the Amu Darya basin. At the same time it is anticipated to provide transparency of the potential impact of water resource development plans as well as of on-going projects to downstream riparian states as well as the donor community – which so far seems to take an administrative rather than a resource boundary approach.The duration of the project is anticipated to be 3 years. Because of its international position IWMI Central Asia will take the lead in data generation and analysis and will collaborate with research and implementing agencies in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Water infrastructure is a cornerstone of economic development. In the Zambezi River Basin huge investments have been made in dams for hydropower, irrigation, water supply and flood control. Ecosystem functions are central to outcomes from dams. Not only does the performance of dams depend on ecosystem functions but dams also modify them (e.g. by changing natural flow regimes). It is by changing ecosystem functions (and hence ecosystem services) that dams often have their greatest impact on the livelihoods of poor people. However, investment decisions and, subsequently the management of dams, rarely consider ecosystem functions. Trade-offs and synergies between dams and ecosystem functions often go unrecognized and, as a result, the benefits accruing from dams are typically sub-optimal. One reason for the failure to consider ecosystem functions is lack of understanding of them and how they translate into services for people. It is not clear which ecosystems perform which functions or how they will be affected by a dam. For example, whilst it is widely understood that in relation to hydrology, different ecosystems provide different regulating functions, there is little quantitative information on the extent to which they do this or the dynamic nature of such functions. If ecosystem functions, and specifically flow regulating functions, are to be considered in dam planning and management more information and a method to incorporate them into decision-making processes is required. Based on a literature review this report summarizes i) evidence of the flow regulating functions of the major ecosystems in the Zambezi basin and ii) methods for evaluating ecosystem flow regulating functions. Finally, it proposes an approach for developing a method that could contribute to a decision support system for the synchronization of dam operation in the basin.

In recent years, great emphasis has been placed on the need to improve the management of the environmental and social impacts of large dams. This is particularly important in the Mekong River Basin where the construction of a large number of new dams are planned and yet a large proportion of the population depend on fisheries and other natural resources, which may be adversely affected by their construction. The environmental and consequent social impacts of large dams are often complex and extremely difficult to predict. Dam planners and operators often have to consider a huge number of factors and often conflicting objectives, which makes decision making difficult. In such situations, computer models that can be used to simulate and optimize dam operations are a useful tool. However, to date, most models have focused on the physical aspects of systems and rarely (if ever) explicitly incorporate environmental and social issues. This report presents a brief review of different models and their application to water resource management, both in the Mekong and elsewhere and outlines a modelling strategy for the MK1 project.

In Lao PDR, one of the less developed countries, water represents a valuable natural resource via the development of hydropower dams and irrigation schemes. In the lower part of the Nam Ngum River Basin, the Vientiane plain is one of the largest food production areas of the country and the largest irrigated area in Lao PDR. While food demand is expected to continue to increase in the future, hydropower dams are under rapid development in the upper part of the basin, modifying the seasonal distribution of the river flow regimes. This study aims at assessing the current water supply and agricultural water demand in the Vientiane Plain and concluding whether the water resource is or may become a limiting factor for food production. The agricultural water demand is assessed from two types of data (characteristics of large-scale pumping stations and official statistics on irrigated areas) and using remote sensing analyses. Flow measurements of the Nam Ngum River were used to quantify the water supply. A 43-year time series (1962-2004) of daily river discharge was reconstructed from actual discontinuous data recorded in the river reach where most of the pumping stations are found. Distinctions in the water resource assessment were made between pristine conditions (before the construction of the hydropower dams) and current conditions of water infrastructure development. A comparison of the water supply and demand indicates that during the 4 driest months of the year (January to April) when the river reaches its minimum level and the irrigation water demand is the highest, pumped volumes represent less than 30% of the river discharge. This ratio should decrease as new hydropower dams are built, storing and releasing more water during the wet and the dry season, respectively. These figures indicate that the availability of water in the Nam Ngum River is not a limiting factor for irrigation, even during the dry seasons of exceptionally dry years. The water demand could exceptionally exceed the water supply in the case of an extreme scenario of irrigation development with irrigated areas 3-fold larger than the current ones. Next analyses will consist in assessing how this water balance will be altered by the development of new hydropower dams and irrigation projects. Possible uses of water surplus will be prioritized, depending on their economic viability and benefits.

This is the final report (2009-2011 June) of the RUAF-FSTT Programme for the South and South East Asia Region, coordinated by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), from its Regional Office in Hyderabad, India. The programme of activities were carried out in two cities, namely Magadi, Ramanagara District, India, and Gampaha, Sri Lanka from 2009 to June 2011, with an no-cost extension of six months, ending in year June 2011. This programme of activities came under IWMI’s theme on Water quality, Health and Environment.The programme was aimed at strengthening farmer organisations and their marketing capacities in urban/periurban settings, and developing sustainable urban farming systems that will contribute towards poverty alleviation, empowerment of disadvantaged and underserved groups in cities, enhance urban food security and social inclusion in development. The core activities were planned around two major components; 1. Operationalisation of a City Strategy Agenda (CSA), through a city multistakeholder forum (MSF) to promote Urban/Periurban Agriculture (UPA), which included diverse UPA activities and supported the shaping of policies to sustain UPA activities; 2. An innovation project that targeted low-income urban producers to innovate their farming practices from a market chain perspective, promoting eco-intensive agriculture based on ecological principals and maximum use of natural resources.

By affecting transpiration and evaporation and influencing how water is routed and stored in a basin, forests, wetlands and floodplains play a crucial role in the hydrological cycle. Although they are widely attributed a major role in regulating flows (i.e. both attenuating floods and maintaining flow during dry periods) these services are seldom, if ever, explicitly factored into the planning and management of water resources. One reason for the failure to include them is lack of understanding of the hydrological functions occurring, their dynamic nature, and the interaction of those functions with the catchments in which the ecosystems are located. Very often it is unclear exactly which functions are performed and how those functions change over time (i.e. between seasons and between years). Furthermore, both the lack of quantitative information and a recognized method to incorporate them into decision-making processes, make it very difficult to integrate natural hydrological functions into the planning and management of water resources. This report describes a pragmatic approach for quantifying the flow regulating functions of floodplains, headwater wetlands and forests in the Zambezi Basin. The method utilizes observed stream flow records and flow duration curves to derive a simulated time series of flow in the absence of the ecosystem. This can then be compared with an observed time series to evaluate the impact of the ecosystem on the flow regime. The method, which is easy to utilize and could easily be incorporated into a decision support system for the synchronization of dam operation, has been applied and results obtained for 16 locations in the basin. Results indicate that the different ecosystems affect flows in different and complex ways. Broadly: i) floodplains decrease flood flows and increase low flows; ii) headwater wetlands increase flood flows and decrease low flows; iii) miombo forest, when covering more than 70% of the catchment, decreases flood flows and decreases low flows. However, in all cases there are examples which produce contrary results and simple relationships between the extent of an ecosystem type within a catchment and the impact on the flow regime were not found.

For decades, increasing land productivity was a major driver of improving food security and reducing rural poverty. However, with increasing water scarcities, competing water demand across different sectors, and increasing cost of investments in water resources development require a paradigm shift. Improving the productivity of water use is emerging as a new way of addressing water scarcity while reducing vulnerability and improving income. Increasing both physical and economic water productivities (quantity per drop and value per drop) are central to this approach. The extent to which physical and economic water productivity should be improved is and area and context specific. However, the approach is especially important in areas that are populated with large agriculturally dependent small-holder rural people and areas that experience recurrent droughts and floods and lack access to proper infrastructure. A major part of the Ganga-Brahamaputra-Meghna (MBG) river basins have such characteristics. This report examines the current situation of poverty, food security and water productivity and their linkages and knowledge gaps in the MBG basins.

This report is an output of the Sustainable Urban Water Management Improves Tomorrow s City s Health (SWITCH) demonstration project, which took place in Accra, Ghana. Accra is one of the ten (10) demonstration cities under the SWITCH project. The main objective of the demo project was to demonstrate (as pilot) the potential of using urine for crop production in Accra Metropolitan Area (AMA) and provide recommendations for scaling up.

To identify interventions which reduce health risks of consumers where highly polluted irrigation water is used to irrigate vegetables in West Africa, scientists worked over 5 years with farmers, market traders and street food vendors in Ghana. The most promising low-cost interventions with high adoption potential were analyzed for their ability to reduce common levels of pathogens (counts of fecal coliforms and helminth eggs). The analysis showed the combination potential of various interventions, especially on-farm and during vegetable washing in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. The tested market-based interventions were important to prevent new or additional contamination.

This CGIAR-CPWF Project was designed and conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), in partnership with international and national partners, to address the relative neglect of livestock water needs of crop-livestock farming systems. The primary objective of this project was to optimize the productive use of water in the crop-livestock farming systems of semi-arid areas to enhance livelihoods, reduce poverty, contribute to gender equity, and protect the environment. This was addressed through an integrated approach led by a multi-disciplinary team across three States of the Ganga Basin.

The goal of Oxfam Americaapos;s Water Program in Ethiopia is to improve smallholders’ food security and strengthen their livelihoods in moisture-stressed areas of Oromiya, Tigray and Amhara National Regional States. To realize this goal, smallholder households must exercise their rights to access and manage water resources sustainably and equitably, for irrigating crops and raising livestock. Better access, equitable sharing, and sustainable management are essential outcomes that must be achieved along the path to greater food security and more resilient livelihoods.

Report submitted to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) under the project, “Comparative assessment of water usage and impacts arising from biofuel projects in South East Asian Countries”, commissioned by the Letter of Agreement No LOA/RAP/2009/38.Thailand and Malaysia are two south East Asian countries with rapidly growing biofuel demand. Increasing use of biofuel envisages reducing dependence of petroleum products for transport and mitigating environmental impacts by reducing carbon emissions. It also expects to contribute to rural development and poverty reduction. However, the impacts of expanding production of feedstock for biofuel on water supply are not well understood. This paper assesses the water footprints and impacts of sugarcane molasses and cassava based bioethanol in Thailand, and palm oil based biodiesel in Malaysia. The water footprint of a commodity or service is the water depleted in its life cycle of its production or consumption.The total water footprints of sugarcane molasses and cassava bioethanol production in Thailand are estimated to be 1,646 and 2,304 m3/tonne, respectively, and of palm oil biodiesel in Malaysia is 3,730 m3/tonne. However, the contributions from irrigation are only a small fraction --9.0, 0.7 and 0.3%-- of the total water footprints of molasses and cassava bioethanol, and palm oil biodiesel respectively. In terms of irrigation water use,cassava is a better feedstock for bioethanol production than sugarcane molasses.In Thailand, the total annual irrigation water footprints in bioethanol production --54 million m3 (mcm) for molasses and 15 mcm for cassava-- is only 0.02% of the total renewable water resources. In Malaysia, total annual irrigation water footprint of palm oil biodiesel production is only 0.001% of the total renewable water resources. A significant spatial variation of irrigation water footprints of molasses based ethanol exists across provinces in Thailand, indicating potential for reducing water footprints.The total irrigation water footprints in biofuel production in the future in both countries will also be negligible in comparison to total water availability. However, the impact of wastewater generated in the production processes can have significant impacts on quality of local water resources. A part of the waste water, called ‘spent wash’, is applied as fertilizer, and over use of it can affect soil and neighboring water resources. The proposed plans on biofuel production in the future can generate more ‘spent wash’ than that can be used in crop fields as fertilizer. Spent wash has found to have high PH value, temperature, biological and chemical oxygen contents etc. The usual practice of storing spent wash in a pond for a long period near a plant can have detrimental impact on soil, streams’ and groundwater quality.In sum, this study concludes that from the perspective of quantity of irrigation water use, the increasing biofuel production does not pose a major problem in Thailand

A project report submitted to Nestle Ltd. under the project “Measuring the water footprints of milk production: contributions to livelihood benefits and sustainable water use in the Moga District in Punjab, India.” This report assesses the water footprints of milk and crop production, their impacts and options of mitigating them. The major objectives of this report are: To assess water availability and use in agriculture in the Moga District of Punjab State, to examine the contribution of the different agricultural water uses to the over all unsustainable water extraction, and its impact on the WFP of milk and crops; To assess surface water and groundwater use of major crops (e.g., rice, wheat and fodder crops) and in milk production, with a focus on feed and fodder and direct water use for dairy cattle; and To propose improved water management practices that farmers can adopt to reduce WFP, and enhance water productivity and conservation, thus contributing to long-term sustainable water use in the region.

The report aims to provide critical input to the Mekong River Commission’s (MRC) regional Climate Change and Adaptation Initiative (CCAI) which was launched shortly after the formulation of this project. The CCAI is a collaborative regional initiative designed to address the shared climate change adaptation challenges of LMB countries in response to the potential effects of climate change on the socio-economic characteristics and natural resources of the LMB region. MRC has identified need for a more informed understanding of the potential impacts from climate change. To contribute to this aim, the purpose of this report is: 1. To present the framework of climate change analysis and its application to the Basin Development Plan (BDP) Scenarios; 2. To present the results from the application of the Decision Support Framework (DSF) models of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) in order to analyse the impacts of climate change and selected BDP Scenarios on flow regimes; 3. To present climate change impacts on floods and fisheries in the LMB; 4. To present the impact of climate change on the productivity of major crops grown in the basin and their consequences on the overall food security of the basin considering future population growth. 5. To present the results of applying simple adaptation strategies related to agriculture and food security; and 6. To determine further studies necessary to identify suitable adaptation strategies for dealing with such impacts.

Rainfall variability is a key constraint to agricultural production and economic growth in many developing countries. This is likely to be exacerbated in many places as rainfall variability is amplified (even where the total amount of rain increases) as a result of climate change. Changes in rainfall will also increase variability in groundwater recharge and river flow, thus affecting all water sources. Water storage, in its various forms, provides a mechanism for dealing with variability which, if planned and managed correctly, increases water security, agricultural productivity and adaptive capacity. As such, water storage can make an important contribution to safeguarding livelihoods and reducing rural poverty. However, ill-conceived water storage is a waste of financial resources and, rather than mitigate, may aggravate unpleasant climate change impacts. Systems that combine complementary storage options are likely to be more adaptable and acceptable than those based on a single storage type. More systematic planning and management is required to avoid the mistakes of the past and to ensure more effective and suitable storage systems for the future.

The purpose of this report is to show the process of the intervention made through the implementation of the IWRM and Food Security Demonstration Project in Zambia. The report gives details of the project processes, showing the steps the project went through, the outcomes and its impact on the communities where it was implemented. The report is the result of a number of field visits made to the completed project sites, the sources of information have been; focus group meetings, interviews, discussions with key informants, beneficiaries the youth, male and female stakeholders and reviews of project activity reports, and direct observations. Therefore, what is presented here is a cumulative “factual and real time” opinion as to what has been observed and discussed.; The Project was implemented over a period of two years in the three sites of the Kafue River Basin in the Central and Southern Provinces respectively. Katuba is at the Northern Bank of the Kafue River on the Mwembeshi River, a tributary of the Kafue River. Namwala is at the Southern Bank of the Kafue River, with Namwala River pouring its waters in the Kafue and meandering around the plains. The Kafue River Basin covers the Copper Belt Province in the North Western part of the country. Katuba is in Chibombo district and in the chiefdom of Mungule. In Namwala district, the project has been implemented in Mungaila and Mukobela Chiefdoms respectively. The report highlights some of the successes achieved by the intervention and some of the challenges faced by the target communities and recommends the way-forward to the sustainable management of water resources by the communities. The purpose of the project was to demonstrate the benefits of applying the IWRM principles and practices to reduce poverty and improve quality of life of the people through economic empowerment.

This report presents seven innovations in Local-level Integrated Water Resource Management, based on lessons learnt in the IWRM Demonstration Projects in Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia.

This project aims to identify the risks and benefits associated with the use of wastewater in urban and peri-urban fodder and vegetable cropping systems in India and Pakistan, where wastewater is largely untreated due to lack of public finance. Two mega-cities (Faisalabad, Pakistan and Hyderabad, India, with large untreated wastewater irrigation areas have been selected a) for comparative purposes and b) to develop and promote country-specific risk mitigation options. With a particular focus on food safety, livelihoods and livestock, the research will combine field and laboratory methods and structured interactions with producers, consumers, and authorities (urban planning, public health and water management). The goal of the project is to improve health and safeguard wastewater-dependent livelihoods of resource-poor urban and peri-urban farmers and consumers in developing countries. This overlaps with IWMI’s mission to improve water and land resources management for food, livelihoods and nature. The project’s purpose is to develop and promote the uptake of a set of risk mitigation options based on a comprehensive assessment of risks and benefits associated with wastewater irrigation in Hyderabad (India) and Faisalabad (Pakistan). The project will enable the uptake of the recommendations in two countries with large wastewater-irrigated areas and different political - institutional environments.

This atlas provides information on the salient findings of the project entitled quot;Ensuring Health and Food Safety from Rapidly Expanding Wastewater Irrigation in South Asiaquot; coordinated by the International Water Management Institute (Hyderabad office). The three year project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (Bundesministerium fr Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung - BMZ) was carried out in two countries, India and Pakistan, in collaboration with a number of international and local partners. This atlas highlights the findings from India. The atlas comprises thematic maps and their corresponding descriptions highlighting the key findings of the project. The wastewater use in agriculture described here is associated with a polluted riverine system, due to all types of city discharges. As such, it can be expected that the water quality can change considerably in different stretches of the 40 km stretch of the river, with the head end being more polluted than the tail end. Therefore in order to avoid a rigid classification, the descriptions to the maps refer to the term quot;(Musi) river waterquot;. In the rest of text, the term quot;wastewaterquot; is used in the context of the chemical and biological attributes associated with agronomic and health risks in any given stretch of the river. The atlas was prepared as a summary document of the key findings of the project, to promote a discussion on the wastewater use in agriculture, at the dissemination workshop held in October 2008.

This report documents the fourth year and final report of the RUAF-CFF programme in the South and South East Asia region, coordinated by the International Water Management Institute, Hyderabad office, India. It is arranged in three sections: Introduction, activities for the year 2008 and cumulative results of 2005 -2008. The overall content reflects the activates, outcomes and outputs of the four year RAFT-CFF programme.

These guidelines are based on the IWRM Demonstration Projects in Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia, implemented by the SADC Regional Water Sector Programme supported by Danida, and synthesized by Barbara van Koppen. It provides a practical step-by-step guide on how to apply community-driven water resource management for improved livelihoods and sustainable water systems for multiple uses. The guideline is aimed at implementers of community water development projects, in particular the local government.

Recognising the importance of watershed development as a strategy of rural development, both central and state governments, non-governmental organisations, International Development Agencies invest huge funds on watershed development. The watershed approach enables the planners to internalize such externalities and other linkages among agricultural and related activities. Experience shows that various watershed development programme brought significant positive impact. Impact evaluations contribute to improve the effectiveness of policies and programs. Different methodologies have been used in the evaluation literature mainly the qualitative and quantitative methods. Choosing appropriate methodology for impact assessment of natural resource management interventions is essential. This bulletin outlines the various concepts and methods in watershed impact evaluation with examples. The use of economic surplus approach with consumer and producers’ surplus is compared with the conventional approach with only producers’ surplus. Also incorporation of the rainfall variability in the watershed evaluation is demonstrated. A simple computer based watershed programme incorporating the various components of the watershed development is also developed and included.

This is a report on the fourth and final year of the RUAF-CFF programme activities in West Africa Anglophone region, coordinated by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Ghana. This report documents the activities implemented as well as the results, outcomes and impacts in all focus cities within the region from January 2005 to December 2008. The cities are: a. Pilot cities: Accra, Ghana, Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Ibadan, Nigeria in sequential order of entry and intervention; b. Partner (or dissemination) cities: Tamale, Tema and Cape Coast in Ghana; and Akure in Nigeria, all at completion stages of pilot project implementation in their respective cities.

This project, based in the Great Ruaha River Basin in Tanzania, is looking at basin level water management impacts on agricultural productivity and wetlands. The main focus is to identify whether water currently going to rice production could be apos;savedapos; and reallocated for dry season environmental flows; and if so, how this could be done. Working with local partners and with UK-based institutions, the IWMI component focuses on the use of an integrated set of models to examine interactions between different water uses in the basin.

This study aims to systematically establish whether costs of irrigation projects in SSA are truly high, determine the factors which influence costs and recommend cost-reducing options in order make irrigation investments in SSA more attractive. The study analyzes 314 irrigation projects implemented from 1967 to 2003 in 50 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America funded (or assisted) by the World Bank, African Development Bank and the International Fund for Agriculture Development. The sample includes “irrigation” projects, irrigation development with power generation (“irrigation with power”) projects, and irrigation component in multi-sectoral projects (MSPs). For the latter two types of project, only the cost of the irrigation component was included in the analyses. The study distinguishes projects according to purpose (ranging from purely new construction to purely rehabilitation), type of irrigation system (river diversion, reservoir-based, tank, river/groundwater-lift, and largely drainage or flood control), mode of Oamp;M (government managed, jointly managed, farmer-managed), and major crops irrigated. All data are obtained from project completion (PCRs) and performance audit reports (PPARs) complemented with information from staff appraisal reports. Unit irrigation costs and project performance measured by economic internal rates of return are actual figures reported in PPARs or PCRs. This report examines whether the difference in unit costs in sub-Saharan Africa compared with other regions is significant, and identifies the key determinants of unit investment costs and performance of irrigation projects. It makes three important contributions: (1) it confirms some earlier findings about irrigation projects; (2) it disproves some popularly-held notions and incorrect perceptions about unit costs and performance of irrigation projects in sub-Saharan Africa; and (3) it provides empirical support to some existing irrigation investment policies and programs and a basis for reconsideration of others and introduction of new ones. The report presents recommendations for formulating better irrigation projects and a clear investment direction in agricultural water in sub-Saharan Africa.

This paper focuses on enhancing returns on investments in agricultural water through effective integration of livestock production. It suggests that multi-sectoral approaches to investment in water, soil, crop and livestock will have greater development impact and profitability than developing water and livestock independently in the same areas.

This report analyses environmental and health impacts arising from agricultural water development in sub-Saharan Africa and recommends ways to increase the sustainability of investments in irrigation by taking into account health and environmental concerns. In many places in the region irrigation is a key means of enhancing productivity that can reduce poverty and improve livelihoods. However, failure to adequately foresee, plan and manage the negative environmental and health impacts arising from irrigation undermines the sustainability of many projects and may worsen poverty.This report is not intended as a compendium of data on environmental and health issues pertaining to agricultural water development. Rather it seeks to provide an overview and framework for understanding policy and programming issues to tackle these issues.

Manual produced under the IWMI financed project “Options for Increasing the Productivity of Harvested and Stored Rainwater for Smallholder Farmers in the Dry Area of Western Pare Lowlands”

Final report on the project, funded by US State Dept.

The framework reported here drives from the documentation and experiences gained under the SDC funded “Integrated Water Resources Management in the Fergana Valley Project (IWRM-Fergana), which is implemented by the association comprising the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Scientific Information Center of the Interstate Commission on Water Coordination (SIC-ICWC) of Central Asia.

IWMI-ADB Project

IWMI-ADB Project

IWMI-ADB Project

IWMI-ADB Project

The case studies reported here highlight important concepts and information on the linkages between water and poverty that may not be available elsewhere. The overall objective of the studies is to draw generic lessons and identify interventions that can help policy makers, planners and other stakeholders to develop actions that are effective in water resources management for the poor. All case studies focus on poor in South Asia, but all with differing geographic contexts or thematic focci. The first two papers are based on field surveys supplemented by literature reviews. The first focusses on the impact of water on poverty in a mountainous region in Nepal, while the second focusses on the impact of drought on water availability, and hence poverty, in a district in Pakistanapos;s Baluchistan province. The final two papers both took Sri Lanka as their area of study. The first Sri Lanka paper explores the linkages between water, health and poverty and presents a conceptual framework which was used to analyze the results of previous studies. Sri Lankaapos;s dry zone is the geographic focus of the second paper, which focusses primarily on the linkages between irrigation and poverty.

Regional study implemented by IWMI with financial support from the Asian Development Bank (RETA 5812)

Regional study implemented by IWMI with financial support from the Asian Development Bank (RETA 5812)

Regional study implemented by IWMI with financial support from the Asian Development Bank (RETA 5812)

Regional study implemented by IWMI with financial support from the Asian Development Bank (RETA 5812)

Regional study implemented by IWMI with financial support from the Asian Development Bank (RETA 5812)

Regional study implemented by IWMI with financial support from the Asian Development Bank (RETA 5812)

Regional study implemented by IWMI with financial support from the Asian Development Bank (RETA 5812)

A regional study implemented by IWMI wth financial support from ADB (RETA 5812).

A regional study implemented by IWMI wth financial support from ADB (RETA 5812).

A regional study implemented by IWMI wth financial support from ADB (RETA 5812).

In the Senegal river floodplain, irrigated agriculture and traditional flood recession crops (mainly sorghum) coexist. The latter depends upon the extent of the annual flood, which is partly a function of the amount of water released from the upstream Manantali reservoir. Even though recession sorghum yield is clearly smaller than that of irrigated rice, this production system, because it covers a large area, is a major contributor to total food production in Podor and Matam departments. It is therefore important to quantify areas and yields. In collaboration with the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), SAED has carried out a survey of the 2000-2001 agricultural campaign based on remote sensing and GIS analysis. In 2000, inundations in the Podor department covered 37.635 hectares. 3.277 million m3 of water were released from the Manantali reservoir specifically to support the natural flooding due to uncontrolled tributaries of the Senegal river. However, over the entire rainy season, the inflow into the reservoir exceeded the water released from it. In the Podor department, 18.998 hectares were cultivated, corresponding to 51% of the inundated area. In total, in both departments, the total area under sorghum cultivation amounted to 25.745 hectares in 2000-2001, that is only 44% of the area of the previous season, particularly wet. The total production of recession sorghum grain in the Matam department is about 4.075 tons and the average yield 638 kg/hectare. The method used gives reliable results, particularly a good relationship between yield and spectral response. It requires not more than 3 weeks of fieldwork but timing is crucial. Coupled with SAED’s Geographic Information System (GIS) and complementary to the survey of rice production using remote sensing analysis, this work provides a more accurate estimation of food production at the level of each Rural Community. It also provides objective information to assess the mutual influence of recession sorghum and irrigated rice cropping systems.