Disentangling Challenges to Scaling Alternate Wetting and Drying Technology for Rice Cultivation: Distilling Lessons From 20 Years of Experience in the Philippines

Abstract

Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) is a low-cost innovation that enables farmers to adapt to increasingly water scarcity conditions (such as drought), increase overall farm production efficiency, and mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is seen as a pathway for transforming agri-food systems into more resilient, productive, biologically diverse, and equitable forms, ensuring our commitments to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper uses scaling up and innovation uncertainty frameworks to review the success and challenges of AWD's 20-year scaling trajectory in the Philippines and explain the key factors that have influenced its outcomes. The framework adapted for this study is also used to examine the fitness between the scaling context and requirements, organizational mission, and corresponding capabilities. Findings show the innovation platform that vertically integrated key actors and locally adapted AWD has helped foster essential breakthroughs in creating an enabling environment that took AWD to national policy adoption in the Philippines. However, the dominant focus on technology transfer, product focus, and preference for controlled environments in the scaling practice has neglected many important contextual factors, allowing mismatches in enabling policy incentives, institutions, and scale to diminish the impacts of AWD in gravity-based systems. Our findings suggest that rethinking and re-envisioning the ways in which the impact can be scaled in irrigation rice systems using AWD is critical to sustaining food security and making the agriculture sector more resilient to climate change.

Unpacking the Processes that Catalyzed the Adoption of Best Management Practices for Lowland Irrigated Rice in the Mekong Delta

“…Previous studies on scaling indicate that this convergence can shape frameworks and everyday practices, integrating the innovation [23,48]. Furthermore, the economic mechanisms and contextual factors underlying specific policies can make or break the momentum and lead to eventual success in scaling sustainable technologies [49,50]. In the Mekong River Delta, there were economic benefits to the farmers who adopted 1M5R, which maintained the momentum for the outreach of best practices for sustainable rice production.…”

Effects of Water-Saving Irrigation on Direct-Seeding Rice Yield and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in North China

“…In recent times, the sustainability of irrigated rice systems are under threat, owing to agricultural intensification, depleting water reserves and limited water availability across the globe [4]. Rice cultivation, accounting for 40% of the agricultural freshwater usage, worsening climatic conditions, rising population and competing water uses constraints farmers access to adequate and timely supply of water [5]. Therefore, for sustainable rice cultivation, it is essential that water is managed appropriately.…”

“…Although globally, the production of rice contributes only 1.5% of the overall anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG), this portion is considerably greater in rice-producing nations [11]. A substantial quantity of greenhouse gas (GHG) is released into the environment with current practices of rice production that consume vast amounts of water [5]. Therefore, target to limit global warming to 1.5 °C will be compromised due to insufficient agricultural emission reductions [12].…”

Dimensioning of Wide-Area Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) System for IoT-Based Automation

“…Large-scale multiple cropping can further limit water usage [29] using the automated irrigation framework proposed in this article. Despite the inherent advantages of the AWD, both small-and large-scale implementations are yet to achieve the expected success for lack of proper adaptation of technologies, namely IoT and WSN [30]. Moreover, the large-scale implementation of an irrigation system, such as AWD, involves multiple stakeholders and different technologies.…”