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Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture with Sustainable Irrigated Agroecosystem Services
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Environment
Presented by IWMI's Ian W. Makin and Herath Manthrithilake at the INWEPF (The International Network for Water and Environment in the Paddy Field) Symposium 2015 Symposium held on November 3, 2015, in Negombo, Sri Lanka.
Web Master at International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
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Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture with Sustainable Irrigated Agroecosystem Services
- Photo:NicoSepe/IWMI Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture with Sustainable Irrigated Agroecosystem Services Ian W. Makin* and Herath Manthrithilake** Submitted to: International Network for Water and Ecosystems in Paddy Fields (INWEPF) Symposium 2015 Achieving the Goals of Food security in Sustainable Paddy Water Ecosystems November 3-5, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka *Theme Leader - Revitalized Irrigation Systems, International Water Management Institute (IWMI) **Head, Sri Lanka Development Initiative, International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
- This paper…presents a short discussion of: • The challenges awaiting … • Role & issues of irrigated agriculture, - LSIS • Synergy of INWEPF & WLE • What is ecosystem-inclusive management in LSIS • The way forward
- World has challenges … Feeding over 9 billion people in 2050 ! • increase food production by about 70% over the levels of 2005-2007 period (Boelee et al 2013; FAO, 2009) • mostly in low-income countries • ensure more equitable access to food
- • 2/3 of the world’s population will live in cities • Competition for water • different expectations on how rural land and water sources By 2050 • half of the people live in rural areas, and • > 40% of the active population depend directly on agriculture for their livelihoods (FAO, 2007) Today • 2/3 of the world’s population lived in rural areas • 60% of the economically active population worked in agriculture 1960’s
- Large Scale Irrigation Systems (LSIS) • LSIS production USD 280-290 billion - Global annual value (60-70% of that in Asia) (Langford, 2015) • In South Asia, - about 24.5 (mill ha) – (1/3 of the total area) These systems provide benefits in terms of food and energy security, employment, economic growth and ecosystem services
- Modernization of irrigation services, and its supporting infrastructure, institutions and management systems will be essential parts of efforts to achieve food and water security
- • Past attempts to rehabilitate irrigation have not delivered the expected: »water productivity, »equity of water distribution, »sustainable operations and »economic return on investment • Therefore, official development assistance for agriculture, irrigation and rural development is diminishing
- • generally been designed and operated for a single purpose (agricultural production) • in isolation from the landscape of the entire catchment • with Little or No consideration of broader ecosystem service values LSIS have:
- • Resulting in large societal & environmental costs: reduction or loss of freshwater and/or other aquatic resources, reduced water quality with impacts on drinking water and recreational uses downstream, and reduced river flows with impacts on aquatic ecosystems and wetlands • over 45 mil. ha (19.5%) of irrigated area have salinized soils (FAO, undated)
- • However, irrigation systems – create a diverse range of agroecosystems – provide a range of valuable provisioning, regulating and diverse habitat services (often unrecognized and undervalued) – provide a range of subsidiary services of substantial value to the communities that depend on them and society at large
- • Appropriate recognition of all services provided is essential • There is a need for active management of irrigation systems to maximize the value of such services
- INWEPF INWEPF recognizes that agricultural water not only provides substantial provisioning services, but also a wide range of services that add value to the community, culture and environment.
- WLE* & Ecosystems • The central objective is to promote the sustainable intensification of agriculture through evidence-based research and policy development. • Fundamental to the achievement of this goal is the application and uptake of an ecosystem services and resilience-based approach.
- WLE ecosystem services and resilience (ESR) framework
- Ecosystem Services
- Potential trade-offs of ecosystem services in irrigated agroecosystems (source: Pittock, 2015)
- INWEPF & WLE • The aims of WLE to improve irrigation services is central to the INWEPF program [Multi-functionality Concepts] • Such multiple functional ag. water use must be adequately recognized and evaluated in order to ensure the sustainability of such services. LSIS needs aligned with concepts of ecosystem-inclusive management
- HOW DO ECOSYSTEM SERVICES RELATE TO IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE? Historically, the drive for increased productivity and yields has often resulted in degraded environments, reduced biodiversity and reductions in ecosystem services, affected the poor
- Ecosystem-inclusive approaches … • Unlock the currently unrecognized, and therefore untapped, opportunities and values associated with irrigated agroecosystems to the society • Unlocking these values will contribute to: increasing the resilience of agricultural production systems, and enable sustainable intensification of agriculture
- ECOSYSTEM SERVICE-INCLUSIVE MANAGEMENT OF LSIS • This means new approaches to management /development, modernization, operation & maintenance of irrigation services will be required • • To achieve higher levels of performance and to sustainably reduce the negative impacts on ecosystems
- Irrigated agriculture Levels of decision making that impact the ecosystem of the irrigated area Multi-lateral/ international National policymakers Canal system managers and operators Individual farmers
- Irrigation agencies should graduate … • Move ahead from original mandate to meet new economic and environmental constraints/ demands. • This may require reforms: Reorganizing structure Develop new capacities/ skills
- The long-term objective A better-performing and sustainable systems that efficiently and equitably provide a range of water-food-energy- urban-ecosystem ‘goods’ and services.
- CONCLUSIONS • INWEPF (formed in 2004) addresses multiple services and values provided to communities by the paddy ecosystem • WLE research addresses the same objectives which guide future research on ecosystem inclusive management of irrigated agriculture, and • INWEPF & WLE – can jointly play key roles to guide and lead the widespread recognition of the values of paddy ecosystems created by LSIS
- Photo:NicoSepe/IWMI Thank you h.manthrithilake@cgiar.org
Editor's Notes
- Sensitivity: In developing countries, poor people spend 50-80% of their income on food. the surge in food prices in 2008 is estimated to have driven 110 million people into poverty and added 44 million more to the list of undernourished. This was a serious setback to the efforts to eradicate poverty, and 925 million people went hungry because they could not afford to pay for food. UNDESA (2014)
- Notwithstanding the importance of LSIS in terms of rural employment, utilization of land and water resources, and contribution to food security, irrigated agriculture continues to suffer from ongoing deficiencies in management and governance leading to underperformance of these important investments. These deficiencies are being evidenced in six ways: (i) investment in irrigation by governments and development partners have commonly been repeating cycles of ‘build-neglect-rebuild’; (ii) financial performance of LSIS is, in general, poor and cost-recovery from users is dismal; (iii) water, land and labor productivity in LSIS are all sub-optimal; (iv) large volumes of water diversion, combined with variable but generally poor irrigation services, have adverse impacts on the governance of water in river basins and limits allocation of water for other uses; (v) investments in capacity building for irrigation professionals has declined; and (vi) investments in irrigation research is substantially less than the significance of the sector warrants. The Government of India has invested about USD 60 billion in major and medium irrigation systems during the years from 1960 to 2007, in order to develop and maintain a canal-irrigated command area of approximately 17 Mha (Shah 2010).
- *The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
- Ecosystems: “Dynamic complex of plant, animal and microorganism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit.” Source: CBD (1992) CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) works to ensure that agricultural intensification benefits the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, is sustainable and makes use of the services provided by ecosystems. https://wle.cgiar.org/ (accessed in October 2015).
- valuation of alternative scenarios, (for example, as illustrated in Figure 3,) to estimate the cost and benefit of transforming an ecosystem from an over-exploited condition (State B) to a more sustainable and beneficial condition (State A). Well-defined and transparent methods to establish ecosystem values are required to assist resource and system managers to deal with the effects of market failures*, by measuring the cost to society of foregone economic benefits resulting from a particular set of activities in the landscape. Considerable literature is available on methods for valuation of ecosystem services (see MEA, 2003, chapter 6, and http://www.ecosystemvaluation.org/links.htm). *Market failure - inability of markets to reflect the full social costs or benefits of a good, service or state of the world. As a result, markets will not result in the most efficient or beneficial allocation of resources. Source: http://www.ecosystemvaluation.org/1-02_def3.htm (accessed on June 21, 2015).
- thereby increasing food and water security, improving rural livelihoods and contributing to poverty reduction
- original mandate (develop irrigation systems, construct, supply-driven management), to meet new economic and environmental constraints/ demand Downsizing, reassigning its staff or employing new cadres for monitoring and evaluation of: new forms of public-private partnership (PPP) for construction, maintenance or even full operation of irrigation systems, ensure that the interests of all the stakeholders are observed (Table 3)