ClimDev-Africa
Agricultural Water Management
in the Context of Climate Change
Tilahun Amede, Seleshi B. Awlachew, Bancy Matti,
Seydou Traore, Muluneh Yitayew
First Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-I) Conference
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 17-19 October 2011
1

CC IMPACTS: RAINFED AGRICULTURE
 Climate variability will erode the resources base, and affect
ecosystem services : Recurrent droughts & severe floods;
 Droughts will decrease yields / productivity
 Floods may damage crops and infrastructure (irrigation, road)
 Complicate farm operations abd services;
 Fluctuations in farmers’ income: poor farmers may lack
means to buffer extreme years
 Impact on national economy, with 90% probability
2

IMPACTS: IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE
 Glacier melt of water towers: temporary increase
/ decrease in water reserves;
 Changes in groundwater recharge ;
 Changes in timing and magnitude of river flows
(irrigation schemes tapping directly from
river, and storage requirements);
 Temperature effects on water productivity:
unproductive evaporation;
 CO2 fertilization and irrigation productivity: 3

“Over the past Gada, we have lost two
months of rain. Now the rain is not
coming at the right time: it is starting
later and finishing before long. My
daughter is now five years old and she
has not seen a good harvest yet.”
4
Lars Naess, 2009

Annual water balance (A) and water
withdrawal (B) of Africa and implications CC
(UNEP, 2010) (UNEP, 2005)

Make Choices : Scenarios to 2050
Today
Without productivity
improvements
CA Scenario
Policies for productivity gains, upgrading rainfed,
revitalized irrigation, trade
6
Based on WaterSim analysis for the CA

Upgrade rainfed agriculture
Dependence on green and blue water 2000
7

Climate-smart Rainwater management
systems (RWM)
• Integrated strategy that enables actors to
systematically map, capture, store and efficiently use
Green and Blue water in a landscape for productive
and domestic purposes and ecosystem services.
• Decrease unproductive water losses;
• Improve the water productivity (increase returns per
unit of water investment)
• Capitalizes on harvesting principles, water productivity
at various scales;
• Combining water management with land and
vegetation management. 8

Investing in Irrigation
Investing in Irrigation
2.5 320
World Bank lending for
irrigation 280
2.0
Irrigated Area
240
200
1.5
160
1.0
Food price index 120
80
0.5
40
0 0
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 Dependency effect?
2005
9

Reduce water loss for climate
change adaptation
Average % loss
Loss % loss/
Canal type N flow rate per
(l/s/100m) 100m/30l/s
(l/s) 100m*
Main canal 121 43.21a 2.58a 6.46a 4.49b
Secondary canal 57 33.03b 1.59b 4.40b 4.00b
Field canal 49 2.88c 0.39c 2.49c 25.94a

Increased Storage Capacity for CC
adaptation; even without external support
Comparision of Per capita Storage Capacity
7000 6150
6000
4729
5000
Per CapitaStorage(m^3)
4000 3255
3000 2486
2000 1287 1406
746
1000
4 43
0
Kenya E opia
thi South T land
hai Laos China Brazil Australia North
Africa America
Countries
11

Micro dose 8
0
7
0
6
0
5
0
4
0
Fm
a C
r
3
0
4
Tuberyield(t/ha)
3
2
1
0
2
4
2
1
1
8 Fm
a B
r
1
5
1
2
4
Tuberyield(t/ha)
3
2
Zai
1
8
0
0
7
0
6
0 Fm
a A
r
5
0
4
0
Tuberyield(t/ha)
1
2
8
4
0
12
30 N
30 N
30 N
60N
N
60N
N
60N
N
0
0
0
C to
o rl
n Wo Z
ih t a
t u i W Z
ih a
t i

Improve Livestock Systems for CC adaptation
 Improve feed quality; reduce
methane emissions
 Integrate livestock into the wider
development agenda (e.g.
irrigation; watershed
management);
 Developing watering points in
closer distances (> 35% milk
yield);
 Limit conversion of range to annual
croplands;
 Improve animal management
(health, feed quality, productivity);
 Interventions to maximize
transpiration at the expense of
evaporation (feed);
 Incentives for adaptation (Value
addition/ market opportunities) of

Convert unproductive water to productive use for
CC adaptation
High unproductive water losses = Low system productivity;
Kuhar Michael - all cropland Lenche Dima - all cropland
1800 3000
1600
2500
1400
flows per HH (m3)
flows per HH (m3)
1200 2000
1000 livestock livestock
1500
800 crops crops
600 1000
400
500
200
0 0
percolation
evaporation
transpiration
evaporation
transpiration
percolation
runoff
runoff
deep
deep
14

Building Adaptive capacity on local experiences
..
• Building on byelaws/ religious
organizations/ Water User
Associations
• Facilitate information flow /
technologies using local
channels
• Local institutions for collective
action: Upstream-downstream
• Commitment from local
authorities and policy makers
• Home gardens; women 15

Box 1: Majaluba for Rice Box 2. Small scale irrigation in
Production in Shinyanga, Tanzania Ethiopia
 In Tanzania, farmers excavated SSI in four administrative regions of
bunded basins, locally known as Ethiopia,
‘majaluba’ which hold rainwater for
supplemental irrigation of crops in  Crop yield under irrigation was
ASAL regions; higher by at least 35% compared to
non-irrigated farms;
 About 35% of the rice in TZ is
produced this way under smallholder  Benefits higher in farms where
farming Shinyanga, Dodoma, Tabora external inputs (fertilizer, improved
and the Lake Regions; seeds and pesticides) were used;
 Majaluba utilize direct rainfall and  Farmers replaced low yielding
runoff harvesting from external varieties by high yielding maize
catchments; cultivars;
 Generally, rice yields are  Shifted towards diverse
higher, attaining 3.43 t ha-1 with the cropping, up to 10 new marketable
use of harvested water for irrigation as crops;
compared to 2.17 t ha-1 ;
 The real challenge: improving
 These systems have increased
irrigation efficiency, creating local
household incomes by 67%.;
capacity and collective action with
 Augment by other storage local communities; 16
infrastructures

Key messages for CC adaptation:
1. Investing in water storage at landscape and higher
scales (reservoirs, strategic dams, ground water etc..);
2. Policy geared towards climate-sensitive systems
(Agriculture / wetlands / water towers) and vulnerable
communities;
3. Cross-boundary hydrological planning /management;
drought and flood monitoring and information system;
coping strategies;
4. Improving rainwater management systems, from
capturing to efficient utilization and resilience;
17
5. Responsive research system along with resources for

Tilahun Amede
CPWF Nile Basin Leader
t.amede@cgiar.org
A CGIAR Challenge Programme Water for Food (CPWF)
aims to increase water productivity and resilience of
social and ecological systems
Thank you !