How to grow nutritious food without over-extracting groundwater
- Blog Aerial view of solar pumps in Samastipur district, India. Photo: Metro Media / IWMI Policies that helped India to become self-sufficient and keep food prices affordable in the 1960s and 70s are today contributing to rapid groundwater depletion, putting electricity utilities in financial distress, and keeping farmers locked in to growing rice and wheat, instead of more nutritious coarse cereals. ...more
Initial Research Highlights Importance of Irrigation for Ethiopian Farmers During COVID-19
- IWMI in the news Sewagegn, a local smallholder farmer, and Gebeyaw, a data collector, set up Sewagegn's solar powered pump to irrigate her backyard garden in Danghesta, Amhara region of Ethiopia. Photo Credit: Mulugeta Ayene/WLE Agriculture sustains the Ethiopian economy, and access to irrigation here is critical for food security. Now, in the wake of COVID-19, the World Food Programme estimates ...more
IWMI at COP24
- Focused on food systems transformation Growing maize with the use of well water during the dry season in northeastern Sri Lanka. Photo: Samurdhi Ranasinghe / IWMI Researchers from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) played active roles at COP24, the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held over the last 2 weeks ...more
IWA-network.org: Re-examining the economics, engineering and water management paradigms - An interview with Claudia Sadoff
- IWMI Director General, Claudia Sadoff, spoke to IWA about exciting initiatives that turn wealth from waste during World Water Congress in Tokyo, Japan. "We need to change the way we manage the economic signals around water to ensure it is used sustainably, to safeguard its quality, to promote its efficiency and productivity, and to allocate it to its best uses." Read the full ...more
Blogs.WorldBank.org: Secrets to successful irrigation management from Central Asia
- As delegates are gathering this week in Tajikistan for the High-Level International Conference on the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development,” 2018-2028, it is an opportune moment to share some lessons learned in improving gender inclusiveness in water management in Tajikistan. Khatlon Region is one of the most populated areas of Tajikistan and located to the south of the conference ...more
Water for Food International Forum
- Creating fertile ground for innovation in agricultural water management Photo: IWMI Smallholder farmers across the developing world are eager to seize the diverse advantages that improved water management practices can offer. Farm households that have access to irrigation generally fare better in terms of food security and dietary diversity than those that do not. Moreover, irrigation opens up new options for ...more
New book on wastewater re-use in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Download the book In an important first for this region, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has published a new book compiling a wealth of information on wastewater re-use for agriculture. Available in Spanish, the book was prepared in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems ...more
Press Release: Global use of wastewater to irrigate agriculture at least 50% greater than previously thought, says new study
- Download the press release COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (5th July 2017) – The use of untreated wastewater from cities to irrigate crops downstream is 50 percent more widespread than previously thought, according to a new study published this week in the journal Environmental Research Letters. The study relies on advanced modeling methods to provide the first truly comprehensive estimate of the global ...more
Business-Standard.com: Solar irrigation: India's farmers can sell electricity and save groundwater
- “A solar pump is viewed in Dhundi not only as an irrigation asset but also an income-generating asset that has potential to deliver ‘climate-proof’, risk-free income stream,” the paper stated. The IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program is a partnership between the International Water Management Institute, a not-for-profit research organisation based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and the Mumbai-based Sir Ratan Tata Trust, a ...more
Times of India: 73% of land in state flood prone
- PATNA: The fourth day of silver jubilee celebrations and international conference on 'Bihar and Jharkhand: Shared History to Shared Vision', organised by ADRI, saw Barh Mukti Abhiyaan convener Dinesh K Mishra presenting his lecture on 'River, Land and People: The Kosi Trail'. Mishra said floods, which were a rural phenomenon, have become an urban phenomenon in Bihar and are more prolonged. ...more