Nile Basin Development Challenge: Rainwater Management Systems Tilahun Amede, CPWF Nile Basin Coordinator Nile Basin Development Challenge Launch Workshop, Addis Ababa, 29 September 2010

The Blue Nile Basin

Rain Water Management Options

Baskets of Interventions for Rainwater Management SWC WH Pond Micro dam Diversion Pits Hand dug wells

Blue Nile basin harbors considerable untapped potential for irrigation but inefficient schemes.

Soil Erosion and land degradation costing the country about USD 7 billion in the last 10 years; ‘Took away history & pride’. (Yihenew etal, 2008) Treatments OM (%) Control (no conservation) 1.5 6-yrs soil bund + lucerne 2.4 9-yrs soil bund + lucerne 5.0 9-yrs soil bund + vetiver 3.3 9-yrs soil bund 5.5 CV (%) 12.8 SE X 0.23 Nitrogen (%) 0.12 0.17 0.28 0.22 0.28 14.17 0.03 Grain Kg/ha 561.3 1284.3 1878.7 1187.5 1712.5 8.1 53.89

Micro dose Zai

February 2004 October 2005 19 May 2003 October 2005 Photo: Gete Zeleke

Large number of institutions (government, NGOs, CGIAR centres, bilateral and multilateral donor) working on NRM in the basin; institutional mandates than aligning bigger national agenda.

Nile 2 . RMS for Landscape scale (Technologies, policies and institutions; innovations)

Linkages Sub-regional Landscape Farm level Impact Learning Communication Nile 5. Coordination, platforms Nile 4. Consequences, impact, tradeoffs Nile 2. Innovations, technologies , practices Nile 3. Mapping, targeting. Up-scaling Nile 1. Inventory and synthesis Linkages Linkages

Rainwater management is a function of interaction across scales Level 3… … ……National/regional scales Creating linkages, capacity building, facilitating learning, up scaling good practices, communication, sharing evidence for policy, cross-boundary linkages Level 2… … …… Landscape scales Integrating landscape components, minimizing land and water degradation, capacitating local actors, identifying niches and integrating good practices Level 1… … …… Field plots Producing evidence, quantifying effects, characterizing impact and facilitating learning part-of part-of Objects

Well come to NBDC!