Innovations in water
management for
agriculture:
New pathways, future
challenges
Alan Nicol,
Sustainable Growth Program Lead,
IWMI Addis Ababa

The wider challenge: stresses, pressures &
opportunities – Looking back…
We need to produce 60% more food by 2050.
In 2007 the challenge was well-stated in the
Comprehensive Assessment (Molden, et al):
“The lack of water is thus a constraint to
producing food for hundreds of millions of
people. Agriculture is central in meeting this
challenge because the production of food and
other agricultural products takes 70% of the
freshwater withdrawals from rivers and
groundwater. Greater competition raises
questions: Who will get the water, and how will
allocations be decided? Conflict will grow
between pastoralists and herders, between
farms and cities, between those upstream and
those downstream.”

Smallholder farming: Managing agricultural
water availability, access and use is key to success
Smallholder farmers are increasingly initiating and financing small-scale land and
water management technologies themselves, but there are barriers:
• In India > 50% of the irrigated area watered by smallholder pumps.
• In much of Africa, smallholder AWM reaches more farmers than public irrigation.
• Lack of available investment opportunities, rising uncertainty and risk (climate,
trade-offs amid competing demands)
• How to manage the ‘publicness vs. privateness’ of risk?
Farmers’ reliance
on different
types of
irrigation in
Ghana

What does this mean in practice? New pathways
Source: Adapted from
Giordano et al. 2012
Blending key
technical
innovations and
developments…
…with investments in
gender equity and wider
social inclusion
Photo credit: One Acre Fund

The context
• India has 130,000 GW of installed
pumping capacity in the form of
electric and diesel tube wells
• States subsidize solar pumps as
“green solution”
Solution: Solar Pump Irrigation Cooperative
• Sustainable solar irrigation pumps with
feed-in tariff for selling excess electricity
to the grid
• Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
• Sustainable use of groundwater
• Higher incomes for farmers
Improving productivity and livelihoods
through smart solar irrigation
The challenge
• Solar pump subsidies could
incentivize over-pumping
Pathway 1: Solar energy to strengthen access to
water for agriculture: India
Before energy sales After energy sales

Improving productivity and livelihoods
through smart solar irrigation
Pathway 1: Solar energy to strengthen access to
water for agriculture: Ethiopia
The context and opportunity
• Mostly rainfed, smallholder farming
• 14% of population connected to the electricity
grid
• Significant potential for solar pumps (~7 M ha)
to offer climate smart, supplemental irrigation
• Demand is high; traction with public and donor
supported programs.
• Potential business scenarios for positive returns
on investment
The challenges
• Regulatory: difficult to access information/incentives
• Value chain: underdeveloped for irrigation/solar
energy
• Rural financing: low capacity, limited access
• Capacity: limited on technology installation and
repairs

Pathway 2: Increasing water availability: rainwater
harvesting (Dewas District, Madhya Pradesh)
The context and opportunity
• Rapid expansion in irrigation area (from
1970s)
• Large dependency on groundwater
The challenges
• Natural rate of groundwater recharge
low
• Significant declines in groundwater
levels
Solution: Individual RWH Structures
• Wet and dry season farming now possible.
• Cropping intensity increased (122% to
198%)
• Increased incomes (>70%)
• Multiple use options
• Reduction in groundwater and electricity
use
• Payback period: 3 years
• Financial B/C ratio: 1.5-1.9

Pathway 3: Improving usage – Wetting Front
indicators in Ethiopia
The Challenges
• Furrow irrigation and water intervals leading to
under and over irrigation
• Low water productivity, leaching, soil structure
damage, etc
• Conflict over water access
The opportunities
• LIVES project support for irrigation scheduling
improvements through ‘wetting front’ technology
in Koga, West Gojjam
• Opportunity developed in Australia to support
better judgment on water provision to crops
during critical growing periods

Pathway 4: Understanding scale: Food security
monitoring and hazard risk mapping
• IWMI’s South Asia Drought Monitor provides analysts, governments, and aid organizations with insight on
agricultural lands, cultivated areas, crop health, and crop diversity.
• Accurate maps and ongoing, actionable information help realize increasing levels of food production and ensure
those foods are diverse and nutritious.
• Timely, reliable information will help aid agencies, governments, and the private sector collaborate on solutions
to ensure food and nutrition security.
http://dms.iwmi.org

IBFI Concept
http://ibfi.iwmi.org/
• Index insurance can affordably protect
small farmers against losses from climate
Shocks
• Index insurance complements proactive
risk management activities (such as
water storage) to maximize farmers’
resilience.
• IWMI is partnering with the private sector,
universities, and local organizations to
pilot innovative index insurance that has
helped hundreds of farmers and
pastoralists cope with extreme weather
SNAPSHOT
• India’s first index based flood insurance successfully
implemented covering 200household in Muzaffarpur
district, Bihar
• Implementation of post flood management plan using flood
parameters (depth and duration) derived from satellite data
for agriculture development in India;
• As climate change makes weather shocks such as
droughts more frequent and more intense, index insurance
can help smallholder farmers and herders reduce their
vulnerability and protect their assets.
4.1 Going beyond risk transfer through Index-Based
Flood Insurance (IBFI)

Opportunities
• Combining ‘big data’ and local
interventions
• Improved water management can
improve quality, increase yield, increase
profits
• Women perceive tools as a way to
improve labor use – buidling gender
inclusivity and empowerment at all levels
enhances value and supports
sustainability
• Establishing new systematic thinking on
water for smallholder farmers; selling a
‘packaged idea’ akin to WASH
• Building a global movement…
Challenges
• Creating the momentum for change
• Enhancing investments and establishing
benefits
• Melding public information, policy
dialogue with practicel support measures
Ways forward – Blending ‘water-smart’ and climate-
smart agriculture…
Managing water to
avoid risk, reduce
variability and
enhance opportunities
Establishing greater
resilience to shocks,
building more robust
production systems
Blending rain-fed and irrigated farming
approaches according to agro-ecologies,
market opportunities and conditions for
social and institutional sustainability