Crop irrigation with untreated wastewater

 

Photo credit: IWMI

Basudev Mondal irrigates a farm near the busy EM Bypass road of Calcutta, India growing brinjal or egg plant. Photo: Chhandak Pradhan / IWMI

A major health and environmental menace

The use of wastewater to irrigate crops is far more widespread than previously estimated, according to a new study, exposing hundreds of millions of people to health risks and posing a major environmental hazard.

Study results, based on on advanced modeling methods, show that 65% of all irrigated areas within 40 kilometers downstream from urban centers – amounting to about 35.9 million hectares (Mha) worldwide – are affected by wastewater flows to a large degree. Of this total area, 29.3 Mha are in countries where wastewater treatment is very limited, exposing 885 million urban consumers as well as farmers and food vendors to serious health risks.

Five countries – China, India, Pakistan, Mexico and Iran – account for most of this cropland. The new findings supersede a widely cited 2004 estimate, based on case studies in some 70 countries and expert opinion, which had put the cropland area irrigated with wastewater at a maximum of 20 million hectares.

Read the full article: IWMI

Solar irrigation pumps in Ethiopia

A farmers in Lemo woreda with his newly installed solar irrigation pump (photo credit: IWMI/ Petra Schmitter). – https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4266/34754722623_a0b5fa5688_z.jpg

 

Expanding use of solar irrigation pumps in Ethiopia

by SIMRET YASABU

In the first phase of the Africa RISING project in the Ethiopian highlands, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) investigated technologies that could improve farmers’ access and use of the available water in their surroundings for better agricultural production and productivity. Water scarcity and lack of technologies for accessing and managing available water are major constraints to farming in Ethiopia.

Starting in August 2015, IWMI introduced and tested the effectiveness of water lifting technologies such as solar-powered irrigation pumps that help farmers’ easily access water from near their farms. The solar pump-based irrigation was tested in the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region. Farmers from the Upper Gana and Jawe kebeles used these pumps to irrigate fodder (oats and vetch mixed cropping) for their animals and fruits and vegetables farms in the dry seasons.

An assessment showed that most of the farmers used the pumps to lift water for domestic purposes and agriculture across seasons. They claimed improved production and productivity; saved labour and time and improved access to clean water.

To expand these benefits to more farmers, IWMI, the Solar Development PLC (the main supplier of solar pumps in Ethiopia) and partners are working together to accelerate wider adoption of the technology as a key goal of the second phase (2017-2021) of the Africa RISING project.

Read the full article: Africa Rising

Pinpointing untapped irrigation potential

Photo credit: IWMI

Irrigation and agricultural development in rural areas of Limpopo Province, South Africa.
Photo: Graeme Williams / IWMI

A baseline for revitalization of smallholder schemes in South Africa

Ambitious efforts are underway in Africa to promote the spread of smallholder irrigation. This work is critical for achieving sustainable intensification of agriculture and for enhancing its resilience in the face of more frequent and severe droughts.

As part of its concerted support for such efforts, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has published a new study – titled Smallholder irrigation schemes in the Limpopo Province, South Africa (Working Paper 174) – which sheds light on the underutilization of these schemes in former “homeland” areas of a key agricultural province. Working in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) and the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (LDARD), a team of researchers lead by IWMI principal researcher Barbara van Koppen conducted a survey of 76 public smallholder irrigation schemes. Their purpose was to establish a baseline understanding of key features of these schemes, including smallholders’ perceptions about their limitations.

Read the full article: IWMI

Smallholder irrigation

 

http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/2017/06/iwmi-working-paper-174-smallholder-irrigation-schemes-in-the-limpopo-province-south-africa/

IWMI Working Paper – 174: Smallholder irrigation schemes in the Limpopo Province, South Africa.

A survey of 76 public smallholder irrigation schemes in the Limpopo Province was jointly conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), South Africa, and the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (LDARD), as part of the ‘Revitalization of Smallholder Irrigation in South Africa’ project. About one-third of those schemes was fully utilized; one-third partially utilized; and one-third not utilized in the winter of 2015; however, no single socioeconomic, physical, agronomic and marketing variable could explain these differences in utilization. Sale, mostly for informal markets, appeared the most important goal. Dilapidated infrastructure was the most important constraint cited by the farmers. The study recommends ways to overcome the build-neglect-rebuild syndrome, and to learn lessons from informal irrigation, which covers an area three to four times as large as public irrigation schemes in the province.

 

van Koppen, Barbara; Nhamo, Luxon; Cai, Xueliang; Gabriel, M. J.; Sekgala, M.; Shikwambana, S.; Tshikolomo, K.; Nevhutanda, S.; Matlala, B.; Manyama, D. 2017. Smallholder irrigation schemes in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI) 36p. (IWMI

The increasing use of groundwater for irrigation poses a major threat to global food security

 

Photo credit: SciDevNet

Copyright: Panos

Groundwater overuse rising, could hit food prices

Speed read

• The world has been increasingly extracting groundwater to support agriculture
• Most of these go to rice, wheat, cotton, corn, sugar and soybean crops
• Water use efficiency needs to be improved as also monitoring and regulation

The increasing use of groundwater for irrigation poses a major threat to global food security and could lead to unaffordable prices of staple foods. From 2000 to 2010, the amount of non-renewable groundwater used for irrigation increased by a quarter, according to an article published in Nature on March 30. During the same period China had doubled its groundwater use.

The article finds that 11 per cent of groundwater extraction for irrigation is linked to agricultural trade.

“In some regions, for example in Central California or North-West India, there is not enough precipitation or surface water available to grow crops like maize or rice and so farmers also use water from the underground to irrigate,” the article says.

“When a country imports US maize grown with this non-renewable water, it virtually imports non-renewable groundwater.”

Carole Dalin,  Institute for Sustainable Resources at University College, London

The article focused on cases where underground reservoirs or aquifers, are overused. “When a country imports US maize grown with this non-renewable water, it virtually imports non-renewable groundwater,” Carole Dalin, lead author and senior research fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Resources at University College, London, tells SciDev.Net.

Crops such as rice, wheat, cotton, maize, sugar crops and soybeans are most reliant on this unsustainable water use, according to the article. It lists countries in the Middle East and North Africa as well as China, India, Mexico, Pakistan and the US as most at risk.

Read the full article: SciDevNet

Agricultural water productivity for sustainable development

 

Photo credit: IWMI

Sprinkler irrigation used in Eastern Highlands on the Mozambique border to irrigate farms. Photo: David Brazier / IWMI

The “biography” of a bold idea

Adoption of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has added new impetus to the far-reaching concept of agricultural water productivity. This is the idea that raising farm outputs or their value relative to the amount of water used in agriculture, by far the world’s biggest water consumer, is critical to address water scarcity.

SDG 6 (“ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”) includes a target (6.4) to “substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors.” For the first time, efficient water use has gained a prominent place on the international development agenda.

Fulani farmer Abdullah Ahjedi’s daughter demonstrating how she takes readings from rain guage. Photo: Thor Windham-Wright / IWMI – http://g9jzk5cmc71uxhvd44wsj7zyx.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/fulani-farmer-abdullah-ahjedis-daughter-demonstrating-how-she-takes-readings-from-rain-guage.jpg

Bringing the idea to life

To help realize and track progress toward this target, researchers working with World Bank support have prepared a report that traces the theory and practice of improved water productivity in agriculture. They argue that future progress depends on making good use of past research.

Resulting from a study carried out by the Bank’s Water and Agriculture Global Practices, the new report (titled Beyond more crop per drop: Evolving thinking on agricultural water productivity) is a co-publication with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). The authors describe the origins of the water productivity concept (chronicling its evolution in IWMI’s work over two decades), the development of methods to measure it, efforts to put the concept to use through applied research and lessons learned.

Read the full article: IWMI

Steps that can be taken to improve water sustainability

 

Photo credit: FAO

Photo: FAO/Giulio Napolitano

Sustainable agriculture, better-managed water supplies, vital to tackling water-food nexus – UN

Highlighting the challenges associated with the inextricable links between water and food – the so-called ‘water-food nexus’ – for food security, as well as for sustainable development, the United Nations agricultural agency today outlined steps that can be taken to improve water sustainability for current and future needs.

“The magnitude of the water-food nexus is underappreciated,” said Pasquale Steduto, UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Regional Strategic Programme Coordinator for the Near East and North Africa regions.

In his briefing during an event at UN Headquarters in New York, the FAO official also pointed to the fact that a person needs between two to four litres of water for daily consumption, and for domestic uses (washing, etc.) between 40 to 400 litres per family.

But for food and nutritional needs, the requirement is between 2,000 and 5,000 litres per person, depending on diet, or “roughly one litre per kilo-calorie” he explained.

He further emphasized that the nexus is particularly significant for strengthening food security given that the world population is estimated to cross the nine billion mark by 2050, another 50-60 per cent food would need to be produced over current levels to feed everyone.

Read the full article: FAO

A low technology drip irrigation system to water seedlings.

 

Mr Harouna Kaboré, a Mossi farmer from the village Manefyam in the province of Kourwéogo, Burkina Faso

Small is beautiful: Restoring degraded lands, one parcel at a time

The Aichi Biodiversity Targets agreed in Nagoya in 2012 included restoring 15% of the world’s degraded ecosystems by 2020 (Target 15). Subsequent assessments have led to estimates that for terrestrial ecosystems, this 15% means restoring a staggering 350 million hectares – and requires billions of tons of tree seed and trillions of seedlings. 

In the third blog in the CBD COP13 Forest and Landscape Restoration Blog Series, Bioversity International partner, Mr Harouna Kaboré, a Mossi farmer from the village Manefyam in the province of Kourwéogo, Burkina Faso, talks about his experience restoring three hectares of his household’s degraded lands in the context of a newly launched research initiative on nutrition-sensitive forest restoration.

By Marlène Elias and Barbara Vinceti

Mr Kaboré is a 38-year-old farmer and father of seven. In his fields in Manefyam, he displays his skills and experience restoring three hectares of degraded lands through fencing to protect the natural regeneration of trees, selectively tilling, and sowing or selectively planting trees. A self-motivated man, he has planted 2800 trees of value for medicine, nutrition and income over a 10 year period on land that was previously degraded. Due to natural mortality, many of the trees have not survived, but his efforts are relentless. With the support of the burkinabé association tiipaalga, he has also learned about the uses of many species previously unknown to him that now grow in his protected fields; and many species that were previously only encountered in distant areas have also populated these lands. Some came on their own and he no longer has to purchase their goods on the market.

According to Mr Kaboré, in this fenced area, plants grow taller and faster because they are protected from animals. He finds that the high mix of species is beneficial for his trees, and also for the crops growing around the protected area, as the bees living in the cavities of large trees pollinate his crops.

An innovator, Mr Kaboré has devised a low technology drip irrigation system to water his seedlings. Every week, this system slowly but steadily delivers his prized seedlings with 20 liters of water, one drop at a time.

New approaches to irrigation will need to be developed to adapt agriculture

 

Photo credit: UN NEWS CENTRE

Photo: FAO/Giulio Napolitano

Future of food security depends on irrigation methods that adapt to climate change – UN agency

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that in order to adapt agriculture to a changing climate, new approaches to irrigation will need to be developed and implemented worldwide.

These new approaches are being discussed as part of the 2nd World Irrigation Forum which opened yesterday in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and brings together stakeholders from around the world to rethink water management in the context of continued population and economic growth as well as the growing threats of climate change.

During the Forum, which wraps up on 12 November, experts will also discuss ways to improve water management in order to achieve global sustainable food security.

FAO emphasized in a news release that in order to achieve food security, especially in developing countries, regular access to water must be made possible through irrigation. The agency cited irrigation as “a key factor to help transform rural societies and economies,” as it plays a critical role in ending poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, as well as sustaining natural resources and responding to climate change.

The theme of this year’s Forum is ‘Water Management in a Changing World: the Role of Irrigation in Sustainable Food Production.’ In her remarks, Kundhavi Kadiresan, Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, announced that solutions to agriculture necessitated addressing water issues and that the challenges of today’s water problems likewise depend on addressing food production.

“Future irrigation practices should also move beyond conventional approaches of productivity gains, and also focus on rural prosperity, facilitating inclusive, equitable and greener growth,” she urged.

The FAO expects the world population to rise to nine billion people by 2050, which will exacerbate the demand for food and water and require a scaling up of agricultural productivity to ensure that everyone is fed.

Read the full article: UN NEWS CENTRE

Groundwater irrigation efficiency and soil fertility in drylands

 

 

The water under your feet in Laos

The water beneath our feet is a valuable irrigation resource for farmers affected by drought in rural Laos, and can increase crop yields and income for farmers. Students at the Faculty of Water Resources and Management have created an experimental site to research groundwater irrigation efficiency and improve soil fertility. They found that the best way to save water is by using drip irrigation, and that the more crops were produced when compost was added to the soil.

 

Farmers’ understanding of agroforestry and drip irrigation.

 

Drip irrigation system to water seeds at the bottom of the bamboo tube with protective covering. Photo: World Agroforestry Centre/Amy Lumban Gaol – http://blog.worldagroforestry.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Drip-system.jpg

Surviving the long dry season in Konawe Selatan with improved farming systems

Farmers in Indonesia are more optimistic about surviving the increasingly long dry seasons because the World Agroforestry Centre is improving their understanding of agroforestry and drip irrigation.

By Amy Lumban Gaol

Up until recently, for farmers in Konawe Selatan, Kendari District, Southeast Sulawesi Province, Indonesia their understanding of agroforestry was to mix trees and crops together in the home garden with little or no planning or management. The results were not optimal: little or no yields and failed plantings. The farmers were unaware that there were techniques that could be followed in mixing crops, for example, calculating the specific distance between particular species of tree, the suitability of plants for combination and where to plant them in relation to one another.

The situation had been further challenged by a prolonged dry season that caused the failure of many crops, leading farmers to experience difficult times with low incomes and very limited water. With temperatures over 37 degrees and no rain for almost half the year, many crops died. And if the farmers were able to water their crops, the water would evaporate in minutes, leaving the plots as if they hadn’t been watered for months.

To help farmers meet these challenges, the Agroforestry and Forestry in Sulawesi (AgFor) project team has been working to improve farmers’ knowledge of drip irrigation and agroforestry techniques. AgFor is funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, Canada and the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry. After two years of operation in Kolaka Timur and Konawe in Southeast Sulawesi, AgFor started in Konawe Selatan and Kota Kendari in 2014. Konawe Selatan has two sub-districts, Lalembuu and Wolasi, in which seven villages participate actively in AgFor.

Read the full story: Agroforestry World

 

How to avert water crises

 

 

PRESS RELEASE

Smarter irrigation can help avert water crises

To ensure Har Khet Ko Pani, GoI should emulate irrigation policies followed by Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, say researchers.

(New Delhi, 30 May): As parts of the country struggle to recover from some of the worst droughts in living memory, improved irrigation policies could help avoid such problems in future, as well as boosting food production and farm incomes. India nationally can learn from the radical approaches adopted by Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh which have already shown how better water management can benefit farmers. That was the message emerging from a policy consultation organised by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) held at the India Habitat Centre today, and attended by, among others, Amarjit Singh, secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, Dr Sandeep Dave. Joint secretary, Neeranchal administration, IWMP and Mr Jeremy Bird, Director General, IWMI. “We have to improve the management of irrigation systems to ensure that our investment delivers.” Said Dr Amarit Singh adding that comprehensive planning besides demand side management is required. He also appreciated the value and timing of IWMI’s inputs. Jeremy Bird, IWMI’s Director General added, “IWMI is undertaking action based research to help better inform policy making. We should look across sectors with multiple benefits and work on common priorities by focusing on innovation in policy, technical aspects and management.” “After 67 years of irrigation investment, 6.8 crore out of India’s 13.8 crore farm holdings have no source of irrigation whatever,” said Tushaar Shah, leader of IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program, a 15 year old research partnership between Tata Trusts and IWMI, which is based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, but has offices in New Delhi and Anand. “The objective of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana should be to provide sustainable quality irrigation to the 6.8 rainfed farm holdings,” Shah added. IWMI-Tata research has confirmed that new policies have enabled Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat have expanded irrigation coverage by over 10 percent/year. Irrigation expansion has helped these states achieve agricultural growth rate above 10 percent per year during recent years.