African farmer-led irrigation development: re-framing agricultural policy and investment?

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed an intensifying focus on the development of irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa. It follows a 20-year hiatus in the wake of disappointing irrigation performance during the 1970s and 1980s. Persistent low productivity in African agriculture and vulnerability of African food supplies to increasing instability in international commodity markets are driving pan-African agricultural investment initiatives, such as the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), that identify as a priority the improvement in reliability of water control for agriculture. The paper argues that, for such initiatives to be effective, there needs to be a re-appraisal of current dynamics of irrigation development in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly with respect to the role of small-scale producers' initiatives in expanding irrigation. The paper reviews the principal forms such initiatives take and argues that official narratives and statistics on African irrigation often underestimate the extent of such activities. The paper identifies five key characteristics which, it argues, contradict widely held assumptions that inform irrigation policy in Africa. The paper concludes by offering a definition of 'farmer-led irrigation' that embraces a range of interaction between producers and commercial, government and nongovernment agencies, and identifies priority areas for research on the growth potential and impact of such interactions and strategies for their future development.

Water user associations: a review of approaches and alternative management options for Sub-Saharan Africa

“…Private investments have increased through both foreign investment in farmlands and on-farm irrigation schemes for commercial farming (Cotula 2011), as well as private smallholder investments in irrigation technologies (Woodhouse et al 2017). The majority of farms, both emerging private small-and large-scale commercial production, are not within conventional schemes and not required by public institutions to establish WUAs to manage water or related infrastructure.…”

“…Recently, public institutions and donor agencies have increased their interest in irrigation development (Woodhouse et al 2017). The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) consolidated national ambitions and provides policy directives for African states to increase investments in the agriculture sector, including expansion of the area under irrigation (Brüntrup 2011).…”

Successful small-scale irrigation or environmental destruction? The political ecology of competing claims on water in the Uluguru Mountains,Tanzania

“…Informal and farmer-led irrigation is often rendered invisible to policy makers and planners (Woodhouse et al 2017). However, attempts to formalize and regulate this type of irrigation are not straightforward.…”

“…It builds on practices of furrow irrigation that also exist elsewhere in mountainous areas of East and Southern Africa, in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique (Woodhouse et al 2017). Tanzania itself has a long history of small-scale 'informal' irrigation.…”

Enabling sustainable, productive smallholder farming systems through improved land and water management

“…In both rural and urban areas, smallholder farmers themselves are increasingly initiating and financing small-scale ALWM technologies and practices (Woodhouse et al 2017;de Fraiture and Giordano 2014). Surveys carried out in Ghana, Ethiopia and Zambia, for example, found that more than 80% of all owners of small-scale irrigation equipment used their own or their family's savings for the investment, and in many countries small private irrigation is already more important than public irrigation schemes in terms of land area, number of people served and income ( Fig.…”