The irrigated perimeter of MBE2 / BOUAKE in Côte d’Ivoire, one of the IFAD-funded PROPACOM project sites, has been run downstream of a reservoir for some thirty years by farmers of the area. They have always cultivated rice both in the plateaus and in the inland valley bottoms.

The rice produced on highlands of inland valley bottoms and on the plateaus is considered as a very good quality rice with an exceptional taste.

However, over the past few years, due to the decline in rainfall in the region as a result of increased climate variability, farmers are facing an increasing shortage of water for agricultural and domestic uses. Arable lands are decreasing since highlands in the plateaus are no longer irrigable and, as a result, only rice cultivation in the inland valley bottoms is possible.

Moreover, as a consequence of the increase of drought periods, farmers can only rely on one crop cycle per year, compared to two in the past, which reduces the rice production in the area and in particular in the irrigated perimeter.

The loss of the second crop cycle in the lowlands, the impossibility to achieve a complete cycle on the highlands and on the plateaus and the general decline in yields have dramatically increased rural poverty in the area.

To cope with this situation, farmers created the Socoorib cooperative in 2015, which has 305 farmers including one third of women.

Socoorib farmers know it is time to "rethink" agriculture. Some examples of this would be to adopt short-cycle rice varieties, diversify crops, adjust the crop calendar taking into account the impact of climate change on seasons, adapt irrigation systems to the new climate variability, create sustainable infrastructure able to cope with climate change. These are some of the topics that will be assessed in the framework of the project “Adapting small-scale irrigation to climate change”.