Cost recovery / Sustainability / Rural areas / State intervention / Business enterprises / Water demand / Water supply / Water policy / Water quality / Water scarcity / Water institutions / Drinking water Record No:H049099
Tube well irrigation / Groundwater irrigation / Irrigation methods / Water supply / Water storage / Water allocation / Water user associations / Farmer participation / Community involvement / Communities / Tank irrigation Record No:H049084
Farmers / Food production / Groundwater extraction / Nexus / Electricity generation / Electrical energy / Pumps / Irrigation practices / Solar energy Record No:H048843
Livelihoods / Rice / Economic aspects / Tank irrigation / Agriculture / Farmers / Farm income / Irrigated land / Irrigation water / Water levels / Water supply / Water distribution / Assessment / Groundwater recharge / Groundwater irrigation / Small scale systems / Irrigation schemes Record No:H048733
Solar energy / Pumps / Energy consumption / Tube well irrigation / Policy making / Farmers / Water distribution / Water resources / Groundwater irrigation / Surface water / Economic aspects / Small scale systems / Irrigation schemes Record No:H048732
Risk assessment / Public health / Health hazards / Farmers / Irrigation canals / Sewerage / Urbanization / Water quality / Water resources / Wastewater irrigation Record No:H048516
Water quality / Drinking water / Defaecation / Health hazards / Public health / Maternity / Human nutrition / Child development / Literacy / Womans status / Gender / Sanitation Record No:H048387
Wastewater irrigaon is not new in Maharashtra and the Government of Maharashtra as well as farmers are beginning to recognize its value as a drought response. This Highlight presents a synthesis of eld exploraons in 11 locaons in Maharashtra which cover the extent of wastewater irrigaon; economics of wastewater and freshwater use; farmersapos; preferences and percepons about wastewater; and how they are adapng to its use in agriculture.
Health hazards / Vegetables / Water use / Freshwater / Economic aspects / Farmers / Wastewater treatment / Wastewater irrigation Record No:H047831
As a cold desert with extreme climate and limited precipitaon, Ladakh struggles to meet its irrigaon requirements. In recent years, a historical pracce of graing glaciers and a new innovave technique of building apos;ice stupaapos; has helped communies improve irrigaon access and extend the crop calendar. This Highlight looks at how combining sound science with credible local knowledge is helping people improve climate resilience.
Sowing / Social impact / Environmental impact / Economic impact / Climate change / Water supply / Water conservation / Irrigation water / Water harvesting / Meltwater / Glaciers Record No:H047830
Households / Land use / Economic aspects / Groundwater recharge / Research projects / Impact assessment / Case studies / Runoff / Rainfall patterns / Climate change / Irrigation methods / Irrigation system / Erosion / Rainfed farming / Highlands / Water storage / Multiple use / Water use efficiency / Technology / Water harvesting / Water resources development / Water management Record No:H045949
Kuppannan, Palanisami; Sharda, V. N.; Singh, D. V. 2013. Hill water management: the way forward. In Palanisami, Kuppannan; Sharda, V. N.; Singh, D. V. (Eds.). Water management in the hill regions: evidence from field studies. [Outcome of the IWMI and ICAR Workshop organized by IWMI-TATA Water Policy Research Program]. New Delhi, India: Bloomsbury Publishing India. pp.268-275. More...
Runoff / Rainfed farming / Policy / Capacity building / Water harvesting / Technology / Water management / Highlands Record No:H045737
Sharma, Bharat; Ngachan, S. V.; Pant, D. 2013. Multiple use water systems for the hilly areas. In Palanisami, Kuppannan; Sharda, V. N.; Singh, D. V. (Eds.). Water management in the hill regions: evidence from field studies. [Outcome of the IWMI and ICAR Workshop organized by IWMI-TATA Water Policy Research Program]. New Delhi, India: Bloomsbury Publishing India. pp.160-190. More...
Households / Income / Costs / Rain / Rainfed farming / Indicators / Water poverty / Drip irrigation / Irrigation systems / Irrigated sites / Highlands / Multiple use / Water use / Water resources Record No:H045733
Kuppannan, Palanisami; Das, A. 2013. Water management options in the hill regions of Uttarakhand [India]. In Palanisami, Kuppannan; Sharda, V. N.; Singh, D. V. (Eds.). Water management in the hill regions: evidence from field studies. [Outcome of the IWMI and ICAR Workshop organized by IWMI-TATA Water Policy Research Program]. New Delhi, India: Bloomsbury Publishing India. pp.72-94. More...
Research programmes / Costs / Economic aspects / Legal aspects / Microirrigation / Supplemental irrigation / Irrigation systems / Irrigated land / Yield gap / Agricultural production / Drainage / Rain / Climatic zones / Water resources / Water management / Highlands Record No:H045729
Pati, R.; Kuppannan, Palanisami. 2013. Designing irrigation structures for hilly areas: potential and challenges. In Palanisami, Kuppannan; Sharda, V. N.; Singh, D. V. (Eds.). Water management in the hill regions: evidence from field studies. [Outcome of the IWMI and ICAR Workshop organized by IWMI-TATA Water Policy Research Program]. New Delhi, India: Bloomsbury Publishing India. pp.10-24. More...
Water supply / Ponds / Water storage / Water distribution / Case studies / Community involvement / Irrigation water / Drip irrigation / Irrigation systems / Irrigation development / Highlands Record No:H045725
Kuppannan, Palanisami. 2013. Hill water management: issues and challenges. In Palanisami, Kuppannan; Sharda, V. N.; Singh, D. V. (Eds.). Water management in the hill regions: evidence from field studies. [Outcome of the IWMI and ICAR Workshop organized by IWMI-TATA Water Policy Research Program]. New Delhi, India: Bloomsbury Publishing India. pp.1-9. More...
Water stress / Climate change / Crop production / Rainfed farming / Technology / Water management / Highlands Record No:H045724
Households / Land use / Economic aspects / Groundwater recharge / Research projects / Impact assessment / Case studies / Runoff / Rainfall patterns / Climate change / Irrigation methods / Irrigation system / Erosion / Rainfed farming / Highlands / Water storage / Multiple use / Water use efficiency / Technology / Water harvesting / Water resources development / Water management Record No:H045723
Irrigated farming / Wastewater irrigation / Land use / Population growth / Water availability / Water demand / Food production / Irrigation water Record No:H045641
Water table / Arsenic / Pumps / Tube wells / Water policy / Contamination / Groundwater development / Agricultural development / Green revolution / Electrification Record No:H045485
Irrigated sites / Sanitation / Drinking water / Livestock / Land ownership / s participation / Womenapos / Decision making / Indicators / Equity / Water resources / Social aspects / Gender Record No:H045303
Water user associations / Economic aspects / Agricultural production / Cropping patterns / Lift irrigation / Irrigation systems / Water market / Water rights / Water use / Canals Record No:H045280
Groundwater recharge / Rainfed farming / Cost benefit analysis / Food consumption / Water productivity / Water transfer / Water demand / Water resources / River basins / Research projects Record No:H045277
Irrigation management / Water resource management / Research projects / Research priorities / Agricultural research / Research institutes Record No:H044741
Pant, N.; Verma, R. K. 2010. Tanks in Eastern India: a study in exploration. : Hyderabad, India: International Water Management Institute, IWMI-TATA Water Policy Research Program; Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India: Centre for Development Studies 215p. More... | Fulltext (1.30MB)
Policy / Colonialism / Water market / Case studies / Ethnic groups / Irrigated sites / Surveys / Fisheries / Tank irrigation / Tanks Record No:H044211
Pant, N.; Verma, R. K. 2010. Tanks in Eastern India: a study in exploration. : Hyderabad, India: International Water Management Institute, IWMI-TATA Water Policy Research Program; Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India: Centre for Development Studies 215p. [DOI] More... | Fulltext (1.30MB)
Policy / Colonialism / Water market / Case studies / Ethnic groups / Irrigated sites / Surveys / Fisheries / Tank irrigation / Tanks Record No:H044209
International Water Management Institute (IWMI). IWMI TATA Water Policy Research Program. 2010. IWMI-TATA Water Policy Research Program Annual report 2009. Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India: International Water Management Institute (IWMI), South Asia Regional Office 69p. More... | Fulltext (4.56)
This report covers phase 2 of the IWMI-Tata Water Policy Research Program (ITP) for the period 2006-2010. The major areas of action: Research focusing on water sector issues concerning underprivileged communities and backward regions in the country; Idea-incubation for livelihoods enhancement efforts using water as a central input, supporting the Trust in their water sector partnerships; Dissemination and raising public awareness; Widening the network of research partners; Policy influencing.
Irrigation management / Water resource management / Research projects / Research priorities / Agricultural research / Research institutes Record No:H042753
Kuppannan, Palanisami; Kumar, D. S.; Wani, S. P. 2009. A manual on impact assessment of watersheds. : Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT); Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India: International Water Management Institute, IWMI-TATA Water Policy Research Program 52p. (Global Theme on Agroecosystems Report 53) More... | Fulltext (2.32 MB)
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.
Best practices / Guidelines / Rain / Natural resources management / Social aspects / Rural development / Rural economy / Economic analysis / Cost benefit analysis / Evaluation / Development projects / Indicators / Impact assessment / Economic impact / Watershed management Record No:H034811
Water conservation / Irrigation management / Water management / Agricultural research / Research policy / Research priorities / Research projects Record No:H041900
Since the 1850s, the Krishna basin has seen an increasing mobilization of its water resources and a dramatic development of irrigation, with little regard to the limits of available water resources. This progressively led to the closure of the basin: surface water resources are now almost entirely committed to human consumptive uses; the increasing groundwater abstraction negatively affects the surface water balance by decreasing base flows, and the discharge to the ocean continues to decrease. The lower Krishna basin, located in Andhra Pradesh, is a deficit sub-basin; it depends highly on inflow from the upper basin and on upstream water uses. It is the first part of the Krishna basin to face the adverse consequences of any hydrological changes. It is also the region of the basin where most of the available water is depleted by human consumptive uses. In times of drought, it is the first region to face severe water shortages and to witness a spatial re-distribution or re-appropriation of water. Taking place on the basis of current political, institutional and geographical forces, this re-appropriation of water raises socio-political questions of sectoral and regional water apportionment within the lower Krishna basin and may be at the origin of conflicts between water users. This paper identifies two main drivers to the lower Krishna basin closure: (i) a long-term trend towards decreasing water availability with a declining surface water inflow due to water development in the upper basin and (ii) a local water over-commitment due to uncontrolled development of private groundwater abstraction and short term management decisions, both at the farmer and command area levels, in the large irrigation projects of the lower Krishna basin. In 1996/2000, 80% of the lower Krishna basin net inflow was depleted and discharge to the ocean amounted to 17.9 km3/yr, defining a moderately modified ecosystem. During the drought of 2001/2004, likely to forecast the future waterscape of the lower Krishna basin, all indicators point to further water resource commitment with a depleted fraction amounting to 98% of the net inflow, a lack of discharge to the ocean and the shrinkage of surface irrigated agriculture. This paper illustrates that local users and managers participate to a large extent in the shifting waterscape of the lower Krishna basin. At the basin scale, this paper shows that both the intra-agriculture and the inter- sectoral distribution of water are being reshaped. In the agricultural sector, the strong political divide among the three regions of Andhra Pradesh and the need to balance rural development among those regions are two of the main driving forces of a shifting agricultural water use. If surface water distribution among large irrigation projects tends to be to the advantage of the politically influent coastal region; the uncontrolled groundwater development mainly benefits the dry upland regions of Telangana and Rayalaseema and is tantamount t
Irrigated farming / Water transfer / Water use / Canals / Water allocation / River basin development / Water resources development Record No:H040583
Institutional reform / Water use / Social aspects / Economic aspects / Water scarcity / Water law / Water policy / Water governance / Water management Record No:H044295
Groundwater / Irrigation management / Water management / Water policy / Evaluation / Institutional development / Financing / Project appraisal / Research projects / Agricultural research Record No:H036746
Research comment on report of the National Commission on Integrated Water Resources Development (NCIWRD) titled “Integrated water resource development: A plan for action.”
Groundwater / Surface irrigation / Population growth / Water demand / Water use / Domestic water / Irrigation water / Water requirements / Water resources Record No:H036617
Water requirements / Domestic water / Livestock / Crop management / Irrigated farming / Hydrology / Water use / Water allocation / River basins Record No:H036608
Land use / Stream flow / Water balance / Crop production / Economic analysis / Social aspects / Groundwater development / Water harvesting / Hydrology / River basins / Development projects / Watershed management Record No:H036605
Research highlight based on a paper titled “Groundwater markets promoting efficiency in water use in agriculture in Karnataka.”
Policy / Models / Pricing / Domestic water / Irrigation water / Crop production / Wells / Water use efficiency / Groundwater extraction / Water market Record No:H036602
Crop production / Farmers attitudes / Groundwater extraction / Water productivity / Water costs / Pricing / Electricity / Irrigation water / Water allocation Record No:H036601
Research highlight based on a paper titled “The blue and green water use and productivity in agriculture: Study from Narmada River Basin, Madhya Pradesh, India.”
Crop production / Irrigated farming / Water quality / Drought / Supplemental irrigation / Water productivity / Water use Record No:H036598
In the classical model of irrigation efficiency, all water applied to the crop is treated as consumed or lost while the integrated basin view of irrigation efficiency views only the effective evapo-transpiration as the consumptive use in irrigation. In either case, increased water efficiency at farm/individual level would not lead to water saving at the system (basin) level unless these higher farm efficiencies are achieved system-wide! Thus, unless the adoption of micro-irrigation is scaled up, it would not make any significant contribution to alleviating the problem of groundwater depletion and in resolving various related issues. Even after more than three decades of promotion by various government and non-government agencies, the spread of micro-irrigation in India is miniscule. The limited growth of micro-irrigation technologies in India can, to a large extent, be explained by the apparent gap between what ha s been marketed and where the demand lies. This paper tries to understand the adoption, spread, impacts, market dynamics and constraints of micro-irrigation technologies through an extensive review of literature and by capturing recent development in the field to derive conclusions and implications for promotion of these technologies, especially among the poor.
Crop yield / Crop production / Water conservation / Drip irrigation Record No:H042290
Small scale systems / Investment / Government managed irrigation systems / Groundwater management / Environmental effects / Water policy / Land management / Water management Record No:H031817
Research highlight based on a paper titled Alternative irrigation institutions in canal-command: the case of Chalakkudy River Diversion Scheme in Kerala, South India
Farmers attitudes / Water delivery / User charges / Pricing / Policy / Cropping systems / Irrigation programs / River basin management / Irrigation canals Record No:H031810
Research highlight based on a paper titled Understanding underdevelopment: Characterizing regional development in Vidarbha with special focus on water use
Income / Poverty / Cropping systems / Climate / Irrigated farming Record No:H031805
Research highlight based on a paper titled Groundwater development and agriculture production: A comparative study of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal
Economic aspects / Tube wells / Water market / Public policy / Groundwater irrigation / Groundwater development Record No:H031803
Research highlight based on a paper titled Poverty, gender and water issues in irrigation agriculture and irrigation institutions: A review of literature
Labor / Women / Participatory management / Gender / Poverty / Irrigated farming Record No:H031798
Research highlight based on a paper titled quot;Energy pricing and supply for groundwater demand management: Lessons from Mexican agriculturequot;,; Paper presented in the Policy Dialog on Forward Thinking Policies for Groundwater Management: Energy, water resources and economic approaches, New Delhi, 2-6 September 2002.
Participatory management / Economic aspects / Wells / Energy / Groundwater management Record No:H031797
Research highlight based on a paper titled Who should manage the tanks: Irrigation department, users organization, or private management agency? A quest to find a sustainable solution.
Water user associations / Bureaucracy / History / Social aspects / Tanks Record No:H031795
Rural development / Pumps / Regression analysis / Productivity / Agricultural production / Water use / Surface water / Groundwater irrigation Record No:H029653
In the arid and semi-arid Indian state of Rajasthan, tanks and ponds have been a mainstay of rural communities for centuries. This paper assesses a rehabilitation strategy proposed for 1200 large tanks. It argues that treating tanks only as flow irrigation systems is very likely to result in a flawed strategy. As the experience of NGOs work shows, Rajasthan’s tanks belong more to the watershed development domain than to the irrigation domain and a strategy that views tanks as multi-use socio-ecological constructs, and which recognizes varied stakeholder groups is more likely to enhance the social value of tanks.
Non governmental organizations / Water harvesting / Rehabilitation / Tank irrigation Record No:H043959
AB Provision of irrigation has been thought to be crucial in improving the livelihoods of millions of tribals in Central belt of India, who are locked in perpetual poverty. Green Revolution Technology, which has been at the heart of India’s agricultural development, has more or less bypassed the tribal population. For one, irrigation infrastructure is inadequate in the tribal regions and again when irrigation infrastructure is made available, the tribals do not seem to make adequate use of them. Creating demand for irrigation among the tribal farmers seems to be most important challenge. It is in this backdrop that we undertook our case study in a tribal dominated block of Gujarat. Unlike the other tribal dominated areas Jharkhand and Chattisgarh), the tribals in our study area were third generation farmers and therefore they faced no cognitive barriers in adopting irrigated agriculture. They are also as skilled a farmer as any other, which is reflected by the fact that there are no discernable yield differences between a tribal and a non-tribal farmer. We studied four canal irrigation schemes, which have been all turned over to the farmers at the behest of AKRSP (I)’s intervention. All these four schemes are tribal dominated, some of them are completely so, others have a handful of non-tribal population. The schemes we studied were Pingot RBMC, Baldeva LBMC, Pingot LBMC and Issar Minor Irrigation scheme. Our results confirm that irrigated agriculture has brought about tremendous benefits to a tribal farmer in the form of yield increases, higher cropping intensity, lower out migration and higher wage rates within the village. The trajectory of change for a typical tribal farming has been from cultivating local paddy in Kharif and migrating in Rabi and summer to cultivating hybrid paddy in kharif and irrigated groundnut or moong in summer. Irrigated agriculture has become central to their livelihoods and this in part explains why Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) has been more or less successful here. However, the non-tribal farmers have benefited more from PIM than tribal farmers, because they shifted to very lucrative sugarcane farming. The non-tribals (Patels) have also played a significant role in these irrigation co-operatives in that they have provided the much needed “demonstration effect” of profitability of irrigated agriculture. AKRSP (I)’s role as facilitator of PIM in Pingot RBMC and Baldeva LBMC has been acclaimed nationally. But we propose that the success of these two schemes lies in the creation of Pingot LBMC society, where tribal farmers came forward on their own and formed irrigation society to take over management of the canal system. The very fact that an all-tribal farmer group could successfully replicate PIM experiment in Gujarat that was started with Pingot RBMC and Baldeva LBMC is a proof enough for the success of PIM as a whole. We also propose that in the long term, the sustainability of PIM will depend on the o
Non-governmental organizations / Maintenance / Economic impact / Water rates / Water distribution / Migrant labor / Wage rates / Crop yield / Cropping systems / Irrigated farming / Farmer participation / Participatory management / Irrigation management / Irrigation canals Record No:H033198
Pest control / Social impact / Environmental effects / Land ownership / Watersheds / Development projects / Institutional development / Water users / Social participation / Irrigation management / Maintenance / Catchment areas / Tanks Record No:H029660
Pumping / Groundwater extraction / River basins / Conflict / Water market / Water table / Water use / Farmers / Private ownership / Wells / Groundwater irrigation Record No:H029659
Environmental degradation / Water use / Wells / Crop production / Women / Water availability / Non-governmental organizations / Water conservation / Tube wells / Water shortage / Groundwater depletion Record No:H029656
Farmer-agency interactions / Cost recovery / Fisheries / Social status / Social participation / Maintenance / Seepage / Siltation / Irrigation canals / Farmers / Water distribution / Water user associations / Privatization / Institutional development / Irrigation management / Tank irrigation Record No:H029655
Water reuse / Water shortage / Tanks / Wells / Water supply / Aquifers / Water demand / Drought / Villages / Water scarcity / s status / Womanapos / Social aspects / Social status / Gender Record No:H029654
Power sector reform in Orissa has not brought the desired results. The major reasons are over-expectations, incomplete and incorrect information about the sector at the beginning of the reform process in a short time span, financial constraints, poor employee discipline, government apathy and economic downturn. An all out effort needs to be made by the government, distribution companies, regulatory authority, media, body politic and public at large to improve the health of the distribution system, for in it lies the success of reform.
Irrigation water / Water lifting / Pricing / Electricity supplies / Rural development / Groundwater Record No:H029650
Water conservation / Institutional constraints / Water harvesting / Tube wells / Water market / Water use / Runoff / River basins / Rain / Water scarcity / Recharge / Aquifers / Ecosystems / Groundwater management / Water management Record No:H029644
Social aspects / Constraints / Infrastructure / Farmers / Villages / Income / Crop production / Water potential / Rain / Living standards / Poverty / Rain-fed farming / Irrigated farming / Small scale systems / Communal irrigation systems Record No:H029641
Farmers / Watersheds / Water deficit / Drought / Pumping / Rainfall-runoff relationships / Water harvesting / Artificial recharge / Groundwater management Record No:H029284
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Brokering knowledge for sustainability
As a research-for-development organization, IWMI is both a producer and broker of knowledge. IWMI generates evidence to support investment in innovations that sustainably increase agricultural productivity and economic returns, support human well-being, water security and safeguard ecosystems in a changing climate. Through forums and events, often co-convened with partners, IWMI brokers knowledge exchange to catalyze change in water and food systems and accelerate innovation scaling. These forums and events include multi-stakeholder dialogues, demand-supply linkage workshops and knowledge exchange conferences.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Enabling gender and youth inclusion
Agriculture is the bedrock of food and nutrition security and a major source of income and employment in many developing countries. Inclusive agriculture, provides opportunities for women and youth who have historically been excluded from agriculture-led economic growth. Enhancing gender and youth inclusion in high-value agricultural value chains has the potential to increase the production of nutrient-rich, profitable crops and create attractive job opportunities for currently disadvantaged groups. Inclusive agriculture includes ensuring that women, youth and other vulnerable groups gain equitable access to water resources and technologies to support agronomic growth.
IWMI conducts comprehensive analyses of the policy framework and interventions in value chains in key geographies to clarify the barriers to gender and youth inclusion. Inclusion segmentation is also carried out to understand the investment needs and abilities of women and youth regarding innovation. IWMI then makes recommendations and develops evidence-based strategies to enable public and private sector actors to achieve sustainable and inclusive scaling of water solutions and agricultural innovation bundles. Among these strategies are internships with private sector companies for young professionals and entrepreneurs. These create win-win situations in which companies benefit from interns’ specific knowledge or skills while interns gain valuable private sector work experience and mentorship.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Economics and equity
At IWMI, researching underlying economic and social trends helps us understand why people migrate. They also explain the impact of remittances and loss of agricultural labor, as well as consequences of migration on gender roles and food and water security. For instance, communities with higher levels of income inequality, or relative deprivation, may experience greater levels of out-migration compared to consistently low-income communities. In addition, migration changes intra-household gender-labor composition, which can change the access of smallholders to water resources, affecting the functioning of community-based institutions and consequently household and local food security. IWMI also focuses on circular economy, a strategy to recover and reuse waste, to boost food security and understand how interventions can encourage refugee and host communities to retain scarce resources.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Co-developing innovation bundles
Although agricultural water is still mainly funded by the public sector, private sector organizations and farmers are increasingly investing in innovative water management and irrigation technologies. At the same time, simply increasing the amount of finance flowing to the agricultural water sector is not enough to guarantee the uptake of innovative solutions. Investments must also be responsible, targeted and bundled with improved inputs and services, market information and access, and digital payment methods.
Consequently, IWMI partners with farmers and public and private sector actors to co-develop contextually relevant socio-technical-institutional-financial and process innovation bundles that are contextually relevant. IWMI integrates the scaling of innovation bundles into agricultural and food value chains, for instance by strengthening market linkages, to enhance the impacts on farmers’ investments, incomes and livelihoods.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Strengthening and sustaining the enabling environment
Making agricultural innovations and water solutions available to farmers on a massive scale is crucial if the world is to meet growing food demands and mitigate climate change impacts. However, innovation scaling efforts often do not have the desired impact because they do not sufficiently consider the factors enabling and inhibiting farmers’ adoption of these innovations. In some instances, they may even produce undesirable impacts, including environmental degradation, loss of access to resources and social inequality. IWMI develops tools and other evidence-based resources to help partners and stakeholders understand and sustain the enabling environment and introduce measures to ensure scaling success. In addition, IWMI co-designs innovative, inclusive financial modalities to accelerate investment in innovations by farmers and agri-businesses.
A key part of this focus area is the Accelerator Program, for which 12 small and medium-sized agribusinesses were selected to scale five innovation bundles that support climate information services and climate-smart agriculture.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Urban & rural transformation
As agricultural opportunities fluctuate in rural areas, migration, particularly to urban areas, is an adaptation technique to secure incomes and alternative livelihoods. Income generated by migrants is often sent back to family as remittances to support communities at home. At IWMI, we assess linkages between rural and urban areas, as well as the role of agricultural knowledge systems and food and water security. We recognize there are complex push and pull factors such as individual aspirations, economic opportunity, social norms, climate variability and government policies which drive migration and affect rural communities, particularly youth. Our work follows a ‘positive migration’ philosophy, framing migration as an adaptation technique and socio-economic choice (in many cases) rather than a problem to be solved, and focuses on establishing safer, more regular migration by supporting changes to migration governance in sending regions.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Covid-19 disruption & adaptation
Covid-19 has caused a rupture in migration logistics and exposed inequities in the migration system, yet drivers of movement remain. Government lockdowns and closed borders due to the pandemic curtailed movement for migrants, posing complex problems for migrant hosting and origin countries. There have been significant economic shocks, with a sharp decline in unemployment for migrants and an inability to send money home through remittances to support family. Some migrants face social stigma for returning home without an income, particularly if families relied on loans to support their journeys. Consequences have been severe for informal migrants who lack government protection in their host countries. Migrants, particularly those living in crowded, lower-income neighborhoods, have been experiencing stigmatization related to the spread of Covid-19. We look at the impacts of Covid-19 on migration governance and rural areas across seven countries,development planning in Ghana, migration challenges in Southeast Asia, and community-based disaster management and resilience building in South Africa.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Water, climate change and agrarian stress
Migration, water and climate stress are inextricably linked to rural development. Water stress and climate variability can act as a driver of fragility, intensifying pre-existing political, social, economic and environmental challenges. Initiatives designed to address migration-related challenges must tackle inequalities and the exclusion of women, youth and marginalized groups; governance opportunities to better manage water and natural resources and technology and innovations to help communities escape socio-ecological precarity and thrive despite climate challenges. IWMI intends to build climate resilience by implementing projects which tackle gender-power inequalities in the face of dynamic, economic-social-ecological challenges. Our work brings together affected communities, institutional stakeholders and social actors to manage water in response to climate variability and agrarian stress, striving to address complex physical and social variables.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Gender, intersectionality and social inclusion
It is critical to center gender and intersectional identities when unpacking migration phenomena. Gender as a social construct guides social norms and relations, including the decision-making processes and mechanisms leading to migration. We recognize that the intersections between race, age, class, sex, caste and region shape the migrant experience.
IWMI strives to offer transformative approaches and solutions for women, youth and marginalized groups, regarding them as equal partners in our work rather than passive end-users. For example, within communities that experience male out migration, socio-political systems are restructured to make women, youth and other groups active agents in their own agri-food transformation. Migration patterns contribute to the feminization of agriculture, and women may experience a greater burden of responsibility coupled with an increased ability to access and control resources and policies to build sustainable livelihoods. Acknowledging social complexities helps researchers and communities understand migration trends and address structural power imbalances to build a more equitable world.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Enhancing capacity for system transformation
Food, land and water systems are complex networks of actors, institutions and activities related to the production, value addition and consumption of food. These systems are connected to and influenced by the structures and supporting mechanisms that underlie them. System transformation cannot occur without changing these underlying structures and supporting mechanisms. However, the capacity for actors to take up specific roles and responsibilities in scaling processes is sometimes lacking. Stimulating system transformation therefore requires enhancing actors’ capacity to assume their roles and responsibilities in the system to ensure that scaling processes provide equitable opportunities and contribute to sustainable development.
As a research institution, IWMI stimulates system transformation by building capacity within institutions and facilitating dialogue and collaboration between various stakeholders across sectors and their respective networks. IWMI does this by developing evidence-based capacity-strengthening programs and strategies. These include demand-driven internships with private sector entities and innovation hackathons.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Fostering scaling partnerships
Private sector actors play a central role in the dissemination and adoption of technologies and services such as information, financing, and pre- and after-sales support. IWMI has established scaling partnerships with private sector companies across Africa and Asia. Besides technical assistance, IWMI provides its partner companies with research evidence and advice, risk and suitability assessments and capacity strengthening for effective climate change-related planning and management.
Armed with these tools and resources, companies are better equipped to identify and reach their target customers in ways that are equitable, economically viable and environmentally sustainable. At the same time, farmers benefit from better access to innovations vital for improving livelihoods and climate adaptation.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Cultivating scaling preparedness
Scaling preparedness is a set of actions undertaken throughout the scaling process to maximize the adoption of innovation bundles, accelerate scaling and increase the likelihood of achieving transformational change. In cultivating scaling preparedness, stakeholder engagement is key to gain stakeholders’ buy-in, commitment, resource contribution and investment as well as adaptability. By cultivating scaling preparedness, IWMI is better able to identify and develop high-potential innovation bundles with the greatest chance of being successfully scaled.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Innovation bundles
Farmer-led irrigation development is about much more than installing a pump in a field. It requires access to financing, labor, energy, and input and output markets, so that investments in irrigation translate into sustainable returns. IWMI uses a systemic approach to understand the farming system as well as the factors in the enabling environment that prevent women, men and youth from engaging in and benefitting equitably from farmer-led irrigation. We partner with farmers and the public and private sectors to test contextually relevant innovation bundles that combine irrigation technology such as solar pumps with financing mechanisms like pay-as-you-own or pay-as-you-go, agricultural inputs and agronomic techniques. We also look at ways to improve on-farm water management and nutrient use efficiency and reduce evapotranspiration through digital advances and agricultural extension. We integrate the scaling of innovation bundles into agricultural value chains to enhance the impacts on farmers’ irrigation investments, incomes and livelihoods.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Gender and social inclusion
The barriers facing women and men in accessing irrigation technologies are not the same. Neither are the benefits. Social, cultural and religious norms influence inter- and intra-household power relations. These, in turn, affect access to resources such as land, credit, information and training. IWMI carries out cross-dimensional analysis of gender and social inclusion in policy, financing, livelihood assets and access, institutional approaches and interventions as well as gender-based technology preferences. For example, we work with farmers, financial institutions and the private sector to address gender-based constraints in credit scoring and enhance women’s purchasing power. But benefitting from farmer-led irrigation does not stop at accessing and adopting technologies; enabling women and resource-poor farmers to participate in input and output markets is equally important to ensure that investments in irrigation result in improved nutrition and economic empowerment. Other ways we enhance gender and social inclusion include tackling agency issues around financial management and literacy, livelihood diversity and social capital as well as access to infrastructure, extension services and market linkages.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Environmental sustainability
Population pressure and increasing water competition in a changing climate require us to take stock of the availability and use of water across scales. Water availability not only influences farmers’ commercial prospects but also irrigation-related enterprises and agri-businesses. Greater water scarcity could jeopardize irrigation and agricultural markets while excessive water use can lead to declining ecosystems, water quality and soil health. IWMI advises development partners and the public and private sectors on all aspects of water resource availability and use through a variety of advanced modeling and remote-sensing products and tools, including Water Accounting+, solar irrigation mapping and internet of things. These are complemented by multi-criteria analysis to evaluate the potential of irrigation expansion, taking into consideration environmental flows. With our private sector partners, we are leveraging converging technologies, such as sensors on solar pumps that capture usage data, to encourage better resource management and governance.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Adaptive scaling and partnerships
The ability of farmers to engage in or expand irrigation depends on the prevailing socioeconomic, ecological and political contexts, which are often complex, non-linear and changeable. Overcoming systemic barriers to farmer-led irrigation development while taking advantage of existing opportunities requires scaling processes to be adaptive. This means diverse actors feed off, adapt to, support, cooperate, compete and interact with each other, forming different multi-actor networks and engaging in collective action to undertake various functions in the scaling ecosystem. IWMI works with farmers and public and private sector partners to co-design and pilot contextually relevant innovation bundles and their scaling pathways or strategies, influence policies and accelerate the transition to scale of innovations with demonstrated early impact.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Financing ecosystem
A lack of affordable credit, particularly for women and resource-poor farmers, is one of the main barriers to expanding farmer-led irrigation in low- and middle-income countries. But credit alone is not enough. Financing for irrigation equipment must be embedded in a wider financing ecosystem that bundles credit with inputs and services, market information and access, and technology such as digital payment. In several countries, irrigation equipment suppliers are stepping in to provide financing directly to farmers. In doing so, they increase their own risk. To address this issue, IWMI works with farmers, private companies, finance institutions and development partners such as the World Bank Group to analyze whether credit-scoring tools are inclusive. We also help to identify gaps in the financing ecosystem and de-risk the private sector from testing innovative end-user financing mechanisms that take into account farming system typologies, financial and social capital and crop seasonality.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas:
Human capacity development and knowledge exchange
Scaling farmer-led irrigation requires strengthening human capacity and knowledge exchange among all actors and stakeholders involved. IWMI takes an action research approach, working with national and international research institutions, governments, extension agents and public and private organizations to co-develop the scaling ecosystem and strengthen capacity to drive scaling networks and collective action. We support the development of or reinforce national multi-stakeholder dialogues with the aim of sharing scaling experiences and realizing win-win collaboration, interactive learning and capacity development. Other modalities for capacity development include hackathons, innovation research grants for bachelor’s and master’s students, private sector scaling grants and innovation internships with private companies. These all serve to stimulate local and contextually relevant innovation, close the research-private sector divide and enhance job readiness among young professionals.
This focus area contributes to the following One CGIAR impact areas: