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b cIraD-umr G-eau/research unit on Water management, actors and uses, montpellier, france; c school of commerce, university of south australia, adelaide, australia ABSTRACTCrop diversification is one way of improving the profitability of smallscale irrigation schemes. The 25 de Setembro scheme is an ideal site to analyze diversification, as it is influenced by the markets in Maputo and South Africa. This study uses information gathered from observations, discussions with irrigators and an irrigator survey. Results identified seven irrigator types with different crop diversification strategies predominantly influenced by resource constraints. Most irrigators produce traditional crops, although there are opportunities for growing crops that are more profitable. Improved extension services, to identify cropping strategies that better align with market demand, would improve profitability.

Boosting the productivity of smallholder farming systems continues to be a major need in Africa. Challenges relating to how to improve irrigation are multi‐factor and multisectoral, and they involve a broad range of actors who must interact to reach decisions collectively. We provide a systematic reflection on findings from the research project EAU4Food, which adopted a transdisciplinary approach to irrigation for food security research in five case studies in Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, South Africa and Tunisia. The EAU4Food experiences emphasize that actual innovation at irrigated smallholder farm level remains limited without sufficient improvement of the enabling environment and taking note of the wider political economy environment. Most project partners felt at the end of the project that the transdisciplinary approach has indeed enriched the research process by providing different and multiple insights from actors outside the academic field. Local capacity to facilitate transdisciplinary research and engagement with practitioners was developed and could support the continuation and scaling up of the approach. Future projects may benefit from a longer time frame to allow for deeper exchange of lessons learned among different stakeholders and a dedicated effort to analyse possible improvements of the enabling environment from the beginning of the research process. © 2020 The Authors. Irrigation and Drainage published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Commission for Irrigation and Drainage

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Large‐scale irrigation schemes, which are often developed in flood plains, overvalue technical expertise and the control of natural hazards and are particularly vulnerable to flooding, but there has been limited study on the impact of floods on irrigation functioning. Using a transdisciplinary approach developed in the Chokwe Irrigation Scheme during the 2013 post‐flood recovery period, we analysed the impact of flooding on the scheme with a focus on maintenance. We argue that the flood crisis provided windows of opportunity to reconsider maintenance procedures by rethinking the relations and responsibilities between actors in this large‐scale irrigation scheme; but the robustness of the system can only be increased if the changes strengthen the collective action capacity. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Participatory approaches are now increasingly recognized and used as an essential element of policies and programs, especially in regards to natural resource management (NRM). Most practitioners, decision-makers and researchers having adopted participatory approaches also acknowledge the need to monitor and evaluate such approaches in order to audit their effectiveness, support decision-making or improve learning. Many manuals and frameworks exist on how to carry out monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for participatory processes. However, few provide guidelines on the selection and implementation of M&E methods, an aspect which is also often obscure in published studies, at the expense of the transparency, reliability and validity of the study. In this paper, we argue that the selection and implementation of M&E methods are particularly strategic when monitoring and evaluating a participatory process. We demonstrate that evaluators of participatory processes have to tackle a quadruple challenge when selecting and implementing methods: using mixed-methods, both qualitative and quantitative; assessing the participatory process, its outcomes, and its context; taking into account both the theory and participants' views; and being both rigorous and adaptive. The M&E of a participatory planning process in the Rwenzori Region, Uganda, is used as an example to show how these challenges unfold on the ground and how they can be tackled. Based on this example, we conclude by providing tools and strategies that can be used by evaluators to ensure that they make utile, feasible, coherent, transparent and adaptive methodological choices when monitoring and evaluating participatory processes for NRM.

Summary Africa has managed to conserve an exceptional mammal diversity but is also facing an increasing demand for agricultural land to address a booming human population. Conserving natural resources while producing food in natural landscapes is a challenge that requires ecosystem health and social-ecological systems thinking. A logo of the company Pro SuLi. The logo has several curved arrows. A logo of the European Union. A logo of the Research platform; Production and conservation in partnership. The logo has a circle with three spiral divisions.