The purpose of this study is to clarify the linkages between irrigation and poverty by offering an objective review of recent research on the subject. The key questions addressed herein are: (1) what is the role of irrigation development and management in poverty alleviation? (2) what are the linkages and pathways through which irrigation contributes to poverty alleviation? (3) what is the magnitude of anti-poverty impacts of irrigation? and (4) what are key determinants of anti-poverty impacts of irrigation? Our review focuses on topical empirical research studies in Asia.The extensive review suggests that there are strong linkages between irrigation and poverty. These linkages are both direct and indirect. Direct linkages operate via localized and household-level effects, and indirect linkages operate via aggregate or subnational and national level impacts. Irrigation benefits the poor though higher production, higher yields, lower risk of crop failure, and higher and year-round farm and nonfarm employment. Irrigation enables smallholders to adopt more diversified cropping patterns, and to switch from low-value subsistence production to high-value market-oriented production. Increased production makes food available and affordable for the poor.The indirect linkages operate via regional, national, and economy-wide effects. Irrigation investments act as production and supply shifters, and have a strong positive effect on growth, benefiting the poor in the long run. Further, irrigation benefits also accrue to the poor and landless in the long run, although in the short run relative benefits to the landless and land-poor may be small, as the allocation of water often tends to be land-based. Despite that, the poor and landless benefit, in both absolute and relative terms, from irrigation investments. Recent advances in irrigation technologies, such as micro-irrigation systems, have strong anti-poverty potential.Ongoing studies in Asian countries document strong evidence that irrigation helps to alleviate both permanent and temporary poverty. Further, it helps to alleviate poverty in its worst forms, namely chronic poverty. In general, irrigation is productivity enhancing, growth promoting, and poverty reducing. Instances of negative externality effects associated with large and medium-scale irrigation systems point to management issues, and therefore call for more comprehensive response mechanisms from the planning and the political community alike. The antipoverty impacts of irrigation can be intensified by creating conditions or enabling environments that could achieve functional inclusion of the poor. These include: (1) equitable access to land; (2) integrated water resource management; (3) access to and adequacy of good quality surface and groundwater; (4) modern production technology, (5) shift to high-value market-oriented production; and (6) opportunities for the sale of farm outputs at low transaction costs.
This paper addresses four key questions. What are the irrigation–poverty inequality linkages? Does access to irrigation water matter for rural poverty alleviation? Under what conditions does irrigation have the greatest impact on poverty? What are the pro-poor interventions that can enhance the antipoverty impact of irrigation? Findings from IWMI-led studies and other empirical studies show that: (1) irrigation enables households to improve crop productivity, grow high-valued crops, generate higher incomes and employment, earn a higher implicit wage rate for family labor and, more importantly, benefits the poor and landless through the enhanced availability of food, lower food prices, higher employment and income and other indirect effects; (2) access to irrigation water reduces the incidence and severity of poverty; (3) irrigation's impact on poverty is highest where landholdings are equitably distributed; (4) effective rural poverty alleviation requires that irrigation development be targeted to poor communities; and (5) unequal land distribution is associated with inequitable distribution of agricultural water benefits. We argue that the antipoverty impact of irrigation water can, therefore, be intensified through triggering a set of board and targeted interventions, simultaneously.
Irrigation is an essential part of the package of technologies, institutions and policies that underpins increased agricultural output in Asia. Past experience shows that this package, although broadly beneficial to societies, has not yet fully succeeded in banishing poverty. So in the context of the UN millennium development goal of halving world poverty by the year 2015, are there ways of making the package more pro-poor in the future? In 2001-2002, the author, at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and in collaboration with national partners in Asia, launched a major multi-country study that set out to answer this question. The study explored the links between irrigation and poverty alleviation in six Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam and Indonesia) with the aim of determining realistic options for increasing returns to poor farmers in low-productivity irrigated areas within the context of improving the overall performance and sustainability of the established irrigation systems. This unique mega study is based on primary data collected from over 5400 rural households covering 26 irrigation systems, supplemented with reliable secondary data and a review of global topical literature on the subject. It develops a framework for pro-poor interventions in irrigated agriculture and offers a model for designing future pro-poor projects in irrigated agriculture. This paper provides a succinct summary of the synthesized results, conclusions and lessons learnt from this major multi-country study. The summary of the lessons, pro-poor options and the guidelines presented in this paper could be useful for government policymakers and planners, donors, NGOs, researchers and other stakeholders involved in irrigation and rural poverty alleviation efforts in developing Asia and elsewhere. Copyright moins productifs, améliorant ainsi les performances et la durabilité globale des systèmes d'irrigation existants. Cette ambitieuse étude est basée sur des données brutes collectées auprès de plus de 5400 foyers ruraux sur 26 systèmes d'irrigation, complétées par des données existantes fiables et la littérature mondiale sur le sujet. Elle propose un cadre pour des interventions en faveur des plus pauvres dans l'agriculture irriguée et offre un modèle pour concevoir de futurs projets dans cet esprit. Cet article fournit un résumé succinct des résultats, conclusions et leçons tirés de l'étude, résumé qui devrait être utile aux responsables des politiques, planificateurs, donateurs, ONG, chercheurs et autres acteurs impliqués dans l'irrigation et la lutte contre la pauvreté en Asie et ailleurs dans le monde.
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