Field level activities
The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has been undertaking capacity development activities in four countries, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Mali and Egypt, to ensure sustainable implementation of local solutions to improve agricultural water productivity in two contexts: large, smallholder irrigation schemes and smaller irrigated farming systems. These activities aim to identify possible solutions to improve water productivity, and to generate best practices lessons and learning materials that can be replicated and up-scaled in other areas and countries.
This is being achieved through three sets of activities:
- Identifying the relevant stakeholders and undertaking a stakeholder needs assessment.
- Identifying current ICT activities and other possible solutions in agricultural water management and undertaking capacity building with identified partners.
- Developing, designing, piloting and evaluating potential solutions to increase water productivity in a sustainable manner.
In Ethiopia, IWMI used its expertise in novel technologies to identify ways to improve crop yields through improved management of water and soil nutrients. A stakeholder mapping and needs assessment was carried out in 2018 in the Koga reservoir and irrigation scheme, in combined rainfed and irrigated systems. Following the recommendations made in this assessment, a set of activities were designed and implemented with the aim of improving water productivity in the irrigation scheme through two entry points:
- the reduction of water irrigated to the crop during the cropping season and
- the improved yield due to more efficient fertilizer use as a result of reduced nutrient and fertilizer leaching.
In order to build capacity to achieve these, innovative training tools were used to enhance skills across stakeholder groups and spatial scales. They have demonstrated the potential to improve water productivity, through better use of water and inputs in the dry season as delineated in the follow-up report on the implementation of on-farm water management solutions to increase water productivity in Ethiopia.
Watch the Webinar "More crop per drop: Farmer-learning and the promise of improved water use in agriculture" in which IWMI shared experiences and learnings of this two-year field programme under the WaPOR project related to irrigation development in Koga, Ethiopia, where farmers and irrigation managers were provided with tools that allow them to “look beyond the soil” and assess whether the land should be irrigated or had been irrigated too much.
Further information on the tools used and solutions developed can be found here.
In Lebanon, capacity building activities focused on increasing water productivity and yields in the Bekaa Valley through improved timing of water application in irrigation schemes, and better planning of cropping cycles in rainfed areas. With scarce water resources and drought during the summer growing season, irrigation is a necessity for agricultural production in most parts of Lebanon. In rainfed areas productivity is low, and irrigation is considered to be the major factor enabling production intensification in agriculture. However, with river flows expected to dramatically decrease due to climate change during periods of high demand for irrigation water, increasing agricultural production in a sustainable manner is a challenge. As a result, one of the objectives of the 2015 National Water Sector Strategy is to increase water availability and improve water usage in irrigation. Capacity building and technology transfer are therefore needed to optimize water productivity and improve irrigation systems.
Read the "Stakeholder mapping and needs assessment in Lebanon".
Watch the virtual workshop on "The use of ICT tools in agriculture and water management in Lebanon” organized by IWMI and LARI on 28 and 29 April 2020 for the use of ICT in Lebanon, as well as the upgrade of LARI APP, a solution aiming at improving on-farm irrigation and water productivity using WaPOR Dataset. See also the presentations.
Download the LARI Mobile App here.
A similar approach was followed in Mali, where a user needs assessment was undertaken in the Office Du Niger with national stakeholders to identify existing ICT solutions and current capacity gaps, in order to enable the use of the available data by farmers, irrigation scheme managers and water use associations.
In Egypt, capacity building activities are focusing on increasing water productivity and yields in three governorates (Kafer-ElShiekh, Dakahlia, Beheira) for five key crops (rice, cotton, soybean, maize and potatoes) through improved timing of water application in irrigation schemes, using ICT (phone application) and crop health evolution and predicted yield. With scarce water resources and drought during the summer growing season, irrigation is a necessity for agricultural production in most parts of Egypt. Local ET stations are very limited with only 4-5 stations, which recently installed in the country, resulting in a lack of historical data. This lack of data has traditionally been considered a hindering factor in the development of ICT based applications targeted at improving agricultural productivity. IWMI has been working with the WaPOR database in combination with online accessible weather data to address it. As water availability is expected to dramatically decrease due to climate change during periods of high demand for irrigation water, increasing agricultural production in a sustainable manner is a challenge. As a result, one of the objectives of the 2017 National Water Resource plan (NWRA 2037) is to increase water availability and improve water usage in irrigation. Capacity building and technology transfer are therefore needed to optimize water productivity and improve irrigation systems.
IWMI's Office in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region led the development of IRWI phone app in partnership with SWERI (Soil, Water and Environmental institute –Agricultural Research Centre) and Modern Science and Art University. This project offered a co-design and co-create opportunity to the farmers and public institutions on the farm level to design and develop ”IRWI App”. The IRWI-IRrigation Water Information Application is in the process of field trials with smallholders farmers with great feedbacks and uptake by farmers in these three governorates. IRWI App, providing farmers with information customized to their plots, weather conditions and crop types and integrate geo-specific weather data, extract crop evapotranspiration values and net primary productivity from WaPOR (for main crops in the Delta), and translate that technical data into readable irrigation schedules and crop health. The app is specifying the amount of water required based on crop type, irrigation system, farm size, time of planting, water pump types and source of power and soil type.
For more information on the IRWI App in Arabic, watch the video here.
Download the IRWI Mobile App in Arabic here, the IRWI Web App in Arabic here and the IRWI App User Manual Arabic here.