Flexibility as a strategy to cope with uncertain water supply in spate irrigation*

Fadul, E.; Fraiture, Charlotte de; Masih, Ilyas

doi:10.1002/ird.2608

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…For example, Fadul et al (2019) argued that the lack of resources determined farmers' adaptation strategies downstream in a spate-irrigated system in Sudan. On the other hand, as reported by Fadul, de Fraiture, and Masih (2021), SI continues to face a high level of uncertainty owing to its use of such an unpredictable water source as flash floods in ephemeral rivers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inventory and drivers of the adoption of flood‐based farming systems in South‐Eastern Africa: Insights from Malawi*

Msume

Mwale

Castelli

2022

Irrigation and Drainage

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Rainfed agriculture, which is dominant in sub-Saharan Africa, remains vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In this framework, flood-based farming systems (FBFS) enable the use of floodwater as an opportunity for crop production. FBFS have received much attention recently; however, there is limited guidance on how they can be promoted effectively in rural areas. To do so and to support the adoption of appropriate systems, it is important to understand the current practice of FBFS. This study focuses on the Balaka District (Malawi) and the types of FBFS in use, the extent of practice, and the factors behind their adoption. A sample size of 398 farmers was considered, using questionnaires, observations, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews to collect primary data. The results showed flood recession agriculture (FRA), depression agriculture, spate irrigation, and inundation canals and dugouts among the FBFS used and that FRA was the dominantly adopted method (54%). Lack of capital investment and level of farmer awareness were the factors most associated with FBFS adoption with p = .00003 and p = .004, respectively. Capital investment and actions to increase farmers' awareness should therefore be considered to realize the full benefits of FBFS. K E Y W O R D S climate change, flood, flood recession agriculture, water harvesting Résumé L'agriculture pluviale, qui domine en Afrique subsaharienne, reste vulnérable aux impacts du changement climatique. Dans ce cadre, les systèmes de culture basés sur les inondations (FBFS) permettent d'utiliser l'eau de crue comme une opportunité pour la production des cultures. Les FBFSs ont récemment fait l'objet d'une grande attention, cependant, il y a peu d'indications sur la manière de les promouvoir efficacement dans les zones rurales. Pour ce faire, il est important de comprendre la pratique actuelle des FBFSs pour soutenir * Inventaire et moteurs d'adoption des systèmes agricoles basés sur la collecte des eaux de crue en Afrique du Sud-Est: le cas du MalawiThis paper is dedicated to the memory of Arab Pendame Msume, who died suddenly while working on this manuscript during his doctoral studies. His presence, academic activities and scientific contribution will not be forgotten by his colleagues who held him in great esteem. Giulio Castelli and Faidess Mwale.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inventory and drivers of the adoption of flood‐based farming systems in South‐Eastern Africa: Insights from Malawi*

Msume

Mwale

Castelli

2022

Irrigation and Drainage

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“…However, there are a diversity of different institutional and technical responses to other opportunities and problems for agricultural water control, such as small reservoirs (ponds, tanks) with multiple uses (Sengupta, 1991;Mosse, 2006;M. Shah, 2004;Venot, 2014), irregular (flashy) spate flows in arid environments (Fadul et al, 2021;Mehari et al, 2011;Varisco, 1983), groundwater pumping (Llamas & Martínez-Santos, 2005;T. Shah, 2009), flood recession agriculture, and socioecological niches in wetland agriculture based on retaining, blocking, or draining floods along rivers and in deltas (O'Connor, 1995).…”

Section: IIImentioning

confidence: 99%

Water User Associations and Collective Action in Irrigation and Drainage

Bruns¹

2023

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science

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If there is too little or too much water, farmers may be able to work together to control water and grow more food. Even before the rise of cities and states, people living in ancient settlements cooperated to create better growing conditions for useful plants and animals by diverting, retaining, or draining water. Local collective action by farmers continued to play a major role in managing water for agriculture, including in later times and places when rulers sometimes also organized construction of dams, dikes, and canals. Comparative research on long-lasting irrigation communities and local governance of natural resources has found immense diversity in management rules tailored to the variety of local conditions. Within this diversity, Elinor Ostrom identified shared principles of institutional design: clear social and physical boundaries; fit between rules and local conditions, including proportionality in sharing costs and benefits; user participation in modifying rules; monitoring by users or those accountable to them; graduated sanctions to enforce rules; low-cost conflict resolution; government tolerance or support for self-governance; and nested organizations. During the 19th and 20th centuries, centralized bureaucracies constructed many large irrigation schemes. Farmers were typically expected to handle local operation and maintenance and comply with centralized management. Postcolonial international development finance for irrigation and drainage systems usually flowed through national bureaucracies, strengthening top-down control of infrastructure and water management. Pilot projects in the 1970s in the Philippines and Sri Lanka inspired internationally funded efforts to promote participatory irrigation management in many countries. More ambitious reforms for transfer of irrigation management to water user associations (WUAs) drew on examples in Colombia, Mexico, Turkey, and elsewhere. These reforms have shown the feasibility in some cases of changing policies and practices to involve irrigators more closely in decisions about design, construction, and some aspects of operation and maintenance, including cooperation in scheme-level co-management. However, WUAs and associated institutional reforms are clearly not panaceas and have diverse results depending on context and on contingencies of implementation. Areas of mixed or limited impact and for potential improvement include performance in delivering water; maintaining infrastructure; mobilizing local resources; sustaining organizations after project interventions; and enhancing social inclusion and equity in terms of multiple uses of water, gender, age, ethnicity, poverty, land tenure, and other social differences. Cooperation in managing water for agriculture can contribute to coping with present and future challenges, including growing more food to meet rising demand; competition for water between agriculture, industry, cities, and the environment; increasing drought, flood, and temperatures due to climate change; social and economic shifts in rural areas, including outmigration and diversification of livelihoods; and the pursuit of environmental sustainability.

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“…In the process of distributing the water volume in the irrigation system comprised of the sub-zones, including their channel-based canals, the canal-based water supplies are determined according to the corresponding planned water demands and the capacity of the water gages in terms of the maximum delivered water (i.e., water intake). Since the above planned water demand changes with the type of crop and corresponding growth seasons, it is highly likely to be uncertain; additionally, the maximum delivered water at the water gates is generally determined based on the operating rules and strategies [17]; thus, the corresponding variations might be induced by the uncertainties on the operation of intakes and offtakes [25]. By doing so, the variations regarding the maximum delivered water of the gates may affect the reliability of the irrigation water allocation.…”

Section: Identification Of Uncertainty Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Probabilistic-Based Reliability Analysis for Irrigation Water Supply Due to Uncertainties in Hydrological and Irrigation Factors

Mai

Lin

et al. 2022

Sustainability

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This study aims to model a probabilistic-based reliability analysis, named the RA_IWS_Canal model, for calculating the probability of the irrigation water supply exceeding the water demand (i.e., reliability) within a multi-canal irrigation zone due to variations in hydrological and irrigation uncertainty factors. The proposed RA_IWS_Canal model is developed by coupling uncertainty and risk analysis with a logistic regression equation. The Zhudong irrigation zone, located within the Touqian River watershed in northern Taiwan, was selected as the study area, with the inflow from Shanping Weir, water supplies at 15 irrigation canals, and water intakes of two reservoirs (Baoshan and Baoshan II) and a water treatment plant (Yuandon); 1000 simulations of 10-day irrigation water allocations and resulting exceedance probabilities of the water supplies at the 15 canals were achieved using the multivariate Monte Carlo simulation and the uncertainty with the water allocation model (RIBASIM), and employed in the development of the proposed RA_IWS_Canal model. The model development and application results indicate that the uncertainty factors and the inflow from Shanping Weir markedly and positively influence the exceedance probability of the canal-based irrigation water supply to boost the corresponding reliability (about 0.8). The water intake of the Baoshan Reservoir has a lower relationship (by 0.19) than the Yuandon water treatment plant with the reliabilities of the irrigation water supplies at its downstream canals. As a result, the proposed RA_IWS_Canal model can evaluate the effect of not only the canal-based uncertainty factors, but also the regional features on the irrigation water supply reliability. In addition, using the proposed RA_IWS_Canal model, the planned irrigation water demands at various canals within a multi-canal irrigation zone could be accordingly formulated based on acceptable reliability.

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Flexibility as a strategy to cope with uncertain water supply in spate irrigation*

Cited by 4 publications

References 45 publications

Inventory and drivers of the adoption of flood‐based farming systems in South‐Eastern Africa: Insights from Malawi*

Inventory and drivers of the adoption of flood‐based farming systems in South‐Eastern Africa: Insights from Malawi*

Water User Associations and Collective Action in Irrigation and Drainage

Modeling Probabilistic-Based Reliability Analysis for Irrigation Water Supply Due to Uncertainties in Hydrological and Irrigation Factors

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