6. Proposed research and uptake programme

RATIONALE AND RELEVANCE FOR IFAD

IFAD's main target group is resource-poor people, especially those in rural or peri-urban areas who are mainly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. The majority of projects in IFAD's portfolio in West and Central Africa focus on ‘improving agricultural production and increasing the incomes and the standards of living of the IFAD target group'.^[13] Some of the strategic objectives of IFAD's support for technology development have been summarized as:

a) IFAD's target groups and their household food-security strategies, specifically in remote and marginalized agro-ecological areas;

b) technologies that build on traditional knowledge systems, are gender responsive, and enhance and diversify the productive potential of resource-poor farming systems by improving productivity and addressing production bottlenecks;

c) access to productive assets (land and water, financial services, labour and technology, including indigenous technology) and the sustainable and productive management of such resources;

d) a policy framework that provides the rural poor with an incentive to reach higher levels of productivity, thereby reducing their dependence on transfers;

e) an institutional framework within which formal and informal, public and private-sector, local and national institutions provide services to the economically vulnerable according to their comparative advantage; and

f) networks for knowledge-gathering and dissemination that can enhance the Fund's capacity to establish long-term strategic linkages with its development partners and to multiply the effect of its agricultural research and training programmes.

The Programme proposed here would respond to all these strategic objectives. In West Africa, where there is little scope for new large irrigation schemes. The main way to boost agricultural production is through increased irrigation by smallholders, which usually involves water-lifting. While water-lifting technology for medium or large-scale farmers is relatively well provided for, this Programme particularly concentrates on the needs of small-scale irrigators. In particular, resource-poor people in marginalized areas that wish to become irrigators, but are hampered by lack of access to appropriate water-lifting technology. Here the concept of appropriateness includes the provision of intermediate steps between the carrying of buckets and the use of modern pumps. Each step is technically, financially and culturally manageable for the users (objective (b) above).

This Programme includes a range of degrees of labour-intensity, from human-powered water-lifting devices, from treadle pumps to motorized devices, which release human labour for other tasks, especially water distribution. This enables irrigators to increase the cropped area per worker by manageable stages.^[14] Human labour, even where it is abundantly available, is not a cost-free resource. This Programme therefore places as much emphasis on the energy-efficiency of human-powered devices as on the fuel consumption of the motorized.

Accessibility of technologies will be addressed along with policy frameworks and incentives, especially relating to credit and subsidies, and the institutional and commercial framework (objectives, (c), (d) and (e) above), and includes knowledge management (f). The concluding paragraph of this chapter highlights the correspondence of particular Programme components to the above-mentioned objectives.

This chapter concerns the design of the proposed research and uptake Programme. Moreover, increased use of small-scale irrigation has evident potential as a route out of poverty for large numbers of poor families in West Africa and elsewhere. However, there are certain conditions that must be met for irrigated agriculture to perform this function for such families, notably:

• availability of affordable technology, which is appropriate to poor people's needs, robust (not wasting scarce resources with high repair or replacement costs) and energy-efficient (not wasting their scarce work-time or money);

• knowledge and understanding to enable users to choose the right technology;

• reliable, consistent and comprehensive information to guide choices;

• realistic pricing of different technologies;

• access to affordable and well-structured credit;

• access to fuel where needed, and to other agricultural inputs; and

• access to markets for surplus production.

As explained in Chapter 2, this study, and the Programme it seeks to define, is concerned with the first five of these conditions. The last two are outside its scope, though none the less important. To impact on poverty the first five conditions must all be explicitly addressed by the Programme, which should seek to serve the poor and a range of farm sizes and farm-family situations. This will increase market size and make technology provision sustainable. It must include specific mechanisms to ensure that the poorer members of the affected communities are not missing the benefits.

The second and third of the above conditions imply that the choice of appropriate technology, and the definition of appropriateness, will in large measure be delegated to the users, once they have been provided with the information and equipped to use it. This represents an enabling and empowering approach, which is in contrast to a paternalistic where experts tell the poor people what they need and then provide it, often with open or hidden subsidy.

The enabling approach is not necessarily popular with the poor, agencies, NGOs or commercial firms involved. As, both paternalism and dependency are sometimes comfortable states to live in. Moreover, the improvement in motivation of all actors, and hence in outcomes, should justify the transition to new attitudes and ways. The chance of efficient and appropriate technology reaching the users, including the poor, will be enhanced if makers and distributors of technology must serve customers having freedom of choice and the understanding and information to exercise it.

The matter of realistic prices again raises the question of subsidies. In many situations, some degree and form of subsidy will be needed, to prime the process and get people started on the road out of poverty and dependence. This may take the form of assistance or protection for equipment makers and dealers, who may not have been willing to take the risk, in providing the necessary productive and working capital. Alternatively, it may be credit or direct subsidy to the poorer users. Subsidy needs to be structured so that it does not result in new waves of dependency and choice-distorting false incentives.

PAST AND CURRENT RESEARCH AND UPTAKE EFFORTS

The proposed research and uptake Programme will not start in a vacuum. Much relevant research and testing have been done in several countries, and more is currently under way. One of the Programme's first tasks must be to search out all available information and collate it as a clear starting-point for its own work. This preparatory study has made a small start towards this end, some of the relevant documents having been cited in Annex H. Among the references at the end of this report, the following in particular contain relevant information:

• Abric et al. 2000
• Arby 2001 (concerning leasing)
• Arby & van't Hof 2000
• Bom 2001
• Bom et al. 2001
• EWW-ANPIP 2001
• EWBF 2001
• Fraenkel 1997 (and its updated version published in 2002)
• Gadelle 2001 (reproduced as Annex G to this report)
• Kedge 2001 a and b
• Keïta 2001 a and b
• van't Hof 2001a (reproduced as Annex I to this report)
• van't Hof 2001b

• van't Hof 2001c

The last-named paper describes recent training courses on the selection of motorized pumpsets in Burkina Faso and Niger (a related draft paper, October 2001, covers a course in Mali). These used the spreadsheet PUMPSELECT.xls, already mentioned in this report. The spreadsheet is a good example of how a database containing consistent information about various devices can be used to match them to particular applications. Its database (though limited by what is available from device manufacturers) contains data on about 100 pumps from less than 3 to more than 150 l/s, and about 40 engines from 3 to 24 kW. It allows users to make a shortlist of appropriate pumpsets and then compare their overall costs (initial and recurrent), taking account of different expected life spans. To provide this sort of comparison for other kinds of device, such as human-powered, is one of the most useful functions of the Programme. These training courses provide an example of how training can be brought to the people who need it.

Other relevant recent research and thinking is reported in other papers, not cited here, from the Journées de l'irrigation en Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre, 20 au 26 avril 2001, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (available on CD at IPTRID). Significant tests of equipment, aimed at African conditions, have been carried out in Kenya, Niger, South Africa and Zimbabwe among others, and in South Africa and Niger further work is currently in hand or planned.^[15]

An interesting precedent, though for different sorts of pump, is the UNDP/World Bank programme mounted in the 1980s for hand pumps suitable for domestic water supply. Some 2 000 pumps were tested in about 50 countries. The programme set up its own standards and test procedures and supply chains were investigated. The work of CORAF/WECARD may provide useful background for the proposed Programme, and it may be of interest to the Programme to collaborate.

There remains, as noted at the end of Chapter 3, an almost total lack of comparative information on technical characteristics, especially for fuel or energy consumption, of complete water-lifting devices. This is especially significant where resource-poor people are concerned, because the energy input (fuel or muscle-work) is often a scarce resource.

INTERVENTIONS RECOMMENDED FOR THIS PROGRAMME

The formulation of the Programme's specific objectives can be seen as the formulation of an objective tree that mirrors the problem tree of Figure 5.1. The overall goal, corresponding to the problem at the top of the problem tree, is to improve livelihoods, especially for resource-poor people, by addressing some of the issues and mitigating some of the problems highlighted in that figure and discussed in Chapter 5.

Figure 6.1 presents a diagram of the proposed Programme's main outputs and activities, in the form of a summary flow chart. It has two parts, corresponding to the two aspects of the declared aim as defined in Chapter 1: ‘an applied research and technology uptake programme'. The research part, here called knowledge management, begins with the ‘demand and supply' framework introduced in Chapter 2. Location-specific demand is represented by situations and water-lifting applications in different parts of West Africa, while supply is represented by the available technologies from anywhere in the world. Information from these two sides is then brought together to find out what gaps, if any, need to be filled to offer the people of West Africa a comprehensive range of appropriate technologies. These three elements form the basis of a knowledge management system, which will need to be made accessible to users in the form of technology choice guides, and will be maintained into the future with occasional updating.

On its right-hand side, the flow chart shows the possible development of new or improved technology. This would not necessarily be part of the IFAD-supported package; regardless its extent would depend on the outcomes of the earlier work. One aim of starting by collating information on existing technology is to avoid ‘reinventing the wheel', which would expend effort on developing new technology for an application already well served by existing technology.

The Programme is concerned with technology uptake, and begins with studies of ways to introduce new technology at the policy level and methods of making water-lifting devices available to users at a practical and technical level, through the supply chain. These aspects will lead into the promotion of uptake, which is the ultimate goal. Information will be drawn from the knowledge management part of the Programme, and training and capacity building will be required for various groups of actors.

Figure 6.1 provides the framework for the proposed Programme. Its content is further discussed in the rest of this chapter, while timing and programme management are the subjects of Chapter 7.

FIGURE 6.1 Summary flow chart for the proposed Programme

The work for the more detailed planning of the Programme will be divided into a number of distinct tasks. These will not necessarily be implemented through separate contracts; indeed, it may be advantageous to combine two or more tasks in the hands of the same team. They have been kept separate here to leave options open in this regard, and to facilitate planning, costing and implementation. Figure 6.2 shows how the basic structure of Figure 6.1 will be put into practice in terms of tasks and their linkages. The diagram does not show all linkages between tasks, but shows the main ones.

FIGURE 6.2 Component tasks of the proposed Programme

The tasks in this figure can be described as follows, with reference to how they depend on each other and how they address the problems identified in the problem tree (Figure 5.1) in Chapter 5:

Part K: Knowledge management:

Part U: Technology uptake

The core of this part is Task U3, with its important prerequisites U1 and U2:

The uptake promotion is supported by the following capacity building and training activities. In each case, the development of training materials should include preparation of guidelines on the setting-up of training courses and programmes:

This completes the list of suggested tasks for the proposed IFAD-supported Programme of applied research and technology uptake. Many are inter-dependent, as indicated above, where one task is a prerequisite of another.

Details of timing and phasing will be discussed in the next chapter. It is important to point out that there are conflicting objectives involved, and a balance must be struck between them. On the one hand, it is desirable to promote increased uptake of small water-lifting devices in West Africa immediately. On the other, it is desirable to avoid the promotion of inappropriate devices.

The first objective would be best served by letting the uptake efforts start without waiting for outputs from Part K, or at least by using early and partial versions of Task K3's and Task K4's outputs, prepared without waiting for K5 and K6 to produce a complete set of device descriptions in K2's database. The second objective would be best served by waiting and only promoting the uptake of devices after K5 and K6 have enabled K4, via K2, to produce technology choice guides based on adequate information.

If the uptake efforts wait for the information, opportunities for poverty reduction will be lost in the meantime. If they do not wait, inappropriate technology may be promoted. As a result, whole classes of water-lifting device may get undeserved bad reputations, which will in turn hamper poverty reduction. There is some evidence that this has already happened in some regions, where all treadle pumps are regarded as unreliable or inefficient, because the wrong sort was promoted in the past. Alternatively, in other places, users have unfounded preferences between two-stroke and four-stroke engines, or between Japanese and Indian pumps.

People have long memories for bad experiences: bad reputations, whether deserved or not, can take a long time to overcome. These tendencies are documented in the country reports.^[19]) There is no clear-cut solution to this dilemma, and the Programme must seek the best compromise. On balance, it is proposed to aim for early promotion of technology uptake, accepting the risk of promoting inappropriate technology in the early stages and making conscious efforts to mitigate it. This is discussed further in Chapter 7.

As discussed in previous chapters, one of the Programme's main goals will be to match the technology to applications and situations in a manner that is affordable, efficient (in terms of resource use), productive and sustainable for small-scale irrigation farmers. The Programme is ambitious in its objectives and processes, as it aims to address constraints at policy levels and in all sections of the supply chain, from identification of needs through manufacturing, selection, supply and installation to after-sales support and maintenance.

In Figure 6.2, the importance of the uptake promotion task, U3, is apparent. It may be seen that all information paths ultimately lead to it. This task is therefore described here in more detail. The task will begin by studying the existing uptake pathways for similar technologies to establish:

• who is involved (the ‘actors' - organizations and individuals);
• current (best) working practices;
• weaknesses in the existing uptake pathways, and their causes; and

• areas requiring strengthening, and requirements for strengthening.

So that knowledge can be gained, retained and used, the findings will be written up in the form of an uptake manual, which will detail the various actors, processes and procedures that should be followed to provide a viable uptake pathway. This manual will be based on existing material that is tailored to be relevant to uptake of water-lifting technology in West Africa. In addition, based on the manual, training material will be prepared that will be used by those carrying out the training under Task U4a. This training will thus incorporate material from Tasks K1, K2, K3, K4, U1, U2, and U3.

Whilst researching the uptake pathways technology promotion agents will be identified. These may be organizations or individuals, and will probably include NGOs, agricultural extension service organizations and staff, pump manufacturers, pump vendors, small consulting companies, etc. These technology promotion agents will be invited to attend training carried out under U4a, so that they are made aware of, and are provided with, the relevant skills for the following:

• technology and its application;

• evaluation procedures to assess the suitability of a particular technology to given situations and applications;

• principles of uptake, and identification of uptake pathways; and

• components of the supply chain and how it can best function.

Following this training of agents, the U3 Task contractor will implement the technology uptake programme, which will be promoted through the technology promotion agents. It is important to note that in this context the U3 Task contractor will be a facilitator. Promotion of the technology will be carried out by individuals working with other organizations (NGOs, government, private companies, etc.). The U3 Task contractor will monitor, and where feasible support the uptake programme. In addition, the Programme Management Team will be closely monitoring this process.

Towards the end of Phase 1 the U3a Task contractor will evaluate the uptake programme and revise the uptake manual and, in collaboration with the U4a, U5a and U6a contractors, the training material. The revised uptake manual and training material will be printed so that it may be disseminated and used by interested parties beyond the Programme and after the end of Phase 1. To this end the U3a Task contractor will, during the process of the contract, have identified and contacted relevant organizations where the uptake manual and training material will be of value in promoting water-lifting technology. These organizations may include colleges of further education, technical colleges, agricultural colleges, government agencies and their training colleges, private companies and their training departments. At the end of the first phase of the uptake promotion campaign, these organizations will be contacted with a view to their purchasing and using the uptake manual and training material in their own training programmes.

All the proposed tasks are described systematically and in more detail in Annex A, in the form of a logical framework (logframe) for each of them. The indicators, verification and assumptions columns of the logframes are only partly filled in, with the intention that they can be completed during the course of the Programme. This would be done partly by the Programme Managers and partly by the Research Contract Bidders, to give the latter a stake in the planning of their work. Where assumptions have been mentioned, they are generally expected to be fulfilled if the whole Programme is implemented.

The logframe for the whole Programme is presented here as Table 6.1. It represents the next higher level in the hierarchy of logframes, so its goal is related to the overall purposes of IFAD. Its purpose is the goal of the task logframes in Annex A, and its outputs and activities relate explicitly to the tasks.

Wherever possible, it would be fruitful to attach research tasks to development projects. This is sometimes called action research. It is beneficial both to the researchers, who are provided with a firm link to practical development problems, and to the development project staff who can gain by being in contact with people who are trained and experienced in innovation and the rigorous testing of innovations. The extent to which this can be done will depend on what development initiatives happen to be underway when the research is initiated; furthermore, opportunities should be actively sought and taken advantage.

TABLE 6.1 Tentative logical framework for the Programme

Among the issues of inclusion or exclusion of certain elements of the Programme, one is the inclusion or exclusion of the actual development of water-lifting devices. Tasks K7 and K8, as formulated above, can include development of new or improved devices, but only in a gap-filling role. Most of the Programme aims merely to make information available and build capacity to enable others to identify gaps and develop technology. The Programme is formulated in this way in the belief that innovation happens best in a well-informed environment but without heavy-handed institutional backing, so that the role of an IFAD-supported Programme is generally to facilitate innovation and provide some of its prerequisites, but not to undertake innovation directly. The phasing of the Programme, discussed in the next chapter, takes this into account.

The tasks have been formulated, here and in Annex A, in such a way that they could each be implemented as a separate research contract, but they could be combined or grouped into a smaller number of contracts. There may be some advantage to leaving this to research contract bidders to suggest such grouping, and the implementation arrangements suggested in the next chapter provide for this.

This chapter began with six of the main strategic objectives of IFAD's grant programmes. It can be seen that the tasks formulated address them all. The more technical tasks in Part K mainly relate to IFAD's objectives (b) and (c), while the more institutional and policy-oriented Part U deals with incentives and the collaborative engagement of public and private sectors, relating to objectives (d) and (e). Knowledge management (f) is of course addressed by Part K, especially the databases of Tasks K1 and K2.