Strengthening the capacities of key stakeholders in the participating countries to design and implement integrated watershed co-management projects on arid and semi-arid lands to enhance poverty alleviation, improve Food and Nutrition Security (FNS), reduce desertification and promote good environmental governance.

The Agricultural Water Solutions Project aims to unlock the potential of smallholder farming by identifying, evaluating and recommending a variety of agricultural water management solutions. This is being achieved through a series of interlinked activities in seven project sites in Africa and in India .

 A Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) project, supported by the Government of Canada, has addressed poor management and inefficient use of water resources by repairing damaged sections of irrigation systems. This has improved access to clean water for irrigation and put an end to social conflicts over water usage.

The project strengthened the coordination and integration of environmental issues into the national development agenda, with an emphasis on reducing vulnerability of the poorest and most affected sectors because of environmental degradation and climate change.

The publication presents the main findings of climate change projections in the short-term (until 2030), identifies the key impacts on livelihoods and food security in major agro-ecological zones and outlines the experience and lessons learned on adaptation priorities with an overall aim of enhancing food security.

This report was prepared as part of the efforts to assess the potential for Agriculture Water Management solutions at the national level. The livelihood zones analysis divides the country in a series of areas where rural people share relatively homogeneous living conditions on the basis of a combination of biophysical and socio-economic determinants.

The time that land is left in natural fallow has steadily declined as more land for crop production is required. Therefore, there is an opportunity for using live barriers and leguminous cover crops to control erosion and improve soil fertility, increasing productivity and thereby reducing poverty