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Field guide to improve crop water productivity in small-scale agriculture

The case of Burkina Faso, Morocco and Uganda

Year of publication 2020

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 93 p.

Author Salman, M., Pek, E., Fereres, E., Garcia-Vila, M.

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (stand-alone)

ISBN 978-92-5-132362-5

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) By 2050, the world’s population will reach 9.1 billion, which requires an increase of food production by 70 percent compared to 2005 (FAO,2018). Nearly all the increase will occur in developing countries, where agriculture plays a major role to provide employment, income and to improve food security. One of the major challenges of increasing food supply is the limited water resources. Agriculture, as the driver of freshwater exploitation has, therefore, to be transformed into more resource efficient production (FAO, 2003). The world’s limited freshwater resources are potentially threatened by the expansion of agriculture. Increasing the potential output per amount of water used is an appropriate practice to improve production efficiency while protecting water resources. Therefore, increasing the productivity of agricultural water use in a sustainable manner is essential to ultimately sustain the social and economic conditions of livelihoods. Crop water productivity has grown into one of the major approaches to cope with water scarcity and advance crop-water relation. The number of conceptual frameworks and implications is ample, but there is always a growing need to review the step-by-step approach beyond. In this Field guide, practical pathways are presented to provide a comprehensive approach for assessing and improving crop water productivity in small-scale agriculture. The Field guide draws lessons learned in three countries (Burkina Faso, Morocco and Uganda) within the framework of FAO project “Strengthening Agricultural Water Efficiency and Productivity at the African and Global Level” funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

Cite this content as:

​Salman, M., Pek, E., Fereres, E., Garcia-Vila, M. 2020. Field guide to improve crop water productivity in small-scale agriculture. Rome. FAO.

https://doi.org/10.4060/ca8443en

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Language English

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    The role of irrigation in gearing agriculture development towards a broader economic growth is undeniable. Accordingly, irrigation is growing into key operational strategy for governments and their agencies to increase agricultural productivity, thus combatting food insecurity and boosting overall growth. While agriculture absorbs rural workforce, generates income and increases food security, it has become the most important driver in freshwater exploitation. The rapid expansion of water demand leads to the generalized phenomena of imbalance between water supply and water demand. This increasing pressure on water resources urges enhancing Water Use Efficiency. Enhancing Water Use Efficiency requires actions at all levels, from agricultural practitioners to scheme managers, and up to the policy-makers. The objective of this Field Guide is to show practical measures to improve Water Use Efficiency in small-scale agriculture based on case studies from Burkina Faso, Morocco and Uganda. The Book not only presents applicable Water Use Efficiency measures, but also guide the readers through their real-term implementation. While the Guide provides complete set of instructions to improve Water Use Efficiency in order to reach optimal irrigation practices, the successful outcome still depends on the farmers’ willingness to embrace and adopt the recommended measures. The Guide holds in evidence that farmers are often constrained by available resources to improve their practices in terms of budget, inputs or labour. In order to take these issues into account, the recommendations are limited on practical measures, which can be followed by farmers without requiring additional resources.
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    This policy guide is drawn from the results of the FAO Project “Strengthening Agricultural Water Efficiency and Productivity at the African and Global Level” funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and cooperation (SDC). The long term vision of the project was that the in-country findings and processes which are of common nature can be synthesized and scaled up to other countries in a regional cooperation process and globally. This will eventually lead to the increase of investment in Agricultural Water Management (AWM) in the targeted countries – and beyond – that is socially equitable, profitable at the farm level, economically viable, environmentally neutral or positive, and sustainable. The Guide focuses on the specific component of Enhancing Water Use Efficiency at small scale irrigation as one of the major outputs of the project. While creating and implementing Water Use Efficiency (WUE) measures at field level, existing policy frameworks were mapped and analyzed, and recommendations were defined as scalable policy instruments with the aim to demonstrate case-specific experiences to the collectively agreed goal of using water resources efficiently.
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    Regional Training Workshop on Enhancing Water Use Efficiency in Small Scale Irrigation: the Application of FAO’s MASSCOTE Approach. GAP Workshop Report
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    The project “CP/INT/231/SWI: Strengthening Agricultural Water Efficiency and Productivity on the African and Global Level” aims at reducing hunger and poverty in three African countries (Burkina Faso, Morocco and Uganda) by focusing on the improvement of Agriculture Water Management (AWM) and mainstreaming AWM in national frameworks and processes. The objectives of this project are in line with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which provides a common framework for stimulating and guiding national, regional and continental initiatives for enhanced agriculture productivity in Africa. The ultimate beneficiaries of the project are the small-scale and family farmers, but the overall approach of the project is a combination of bottom up and top down activities and different levels (micro, meso and macro levels). For this reason, the project will be working with extension agents and farmers’ representatives (micro level), research institutes and regional gov ernance structures (meso level), and national governments (macro level). One of the main outputs of the project is to enhance capacity for increased water use efficiency in small-scale irrigation in Burkina Faso, Morocco and Uganda (Output 2). The workshop “Enhancing Water Use Efficiency in Small Scale Irrigation: The Application of FAO’s MASSCOTE Approach” was one of the activities of this output. The main objective of the workshop was to build capacities of water professionals from Burkina Fas o, Morocco and Uganda (as well as the host country as a step towards south- south cooperation) on increasing water use efficiency of irrigation systems by stimulating critical senses of agricultural water management in diagnosing and evaluating obstacles, constraints and opportunities, and in developing consistent modernization plans/ strategies.
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