On-farm testing of wetting front detector as an irrigation scheduling tool in two communities in the upper east region of Ghana

United States Agency for International Developmen

Indicators of site-specific climate-smart agricultural practices employed in Ethiopia

Indicators of CSA practices/technologies are crucial to measure the performance of CSA practices/technologies and use as a guideline for data collection on the evaluation of CSA practices and technologies. Various indicators of CSA practices under the five categories including crop production, livestock production, integrated soil fertility management, erosion control, water management, and forestry/agroforestry management were identified using experts knowledge and literature review. The result showed that the number of indicators across the three pillars namely productivity and income, adaptation/resilience and mitigation (M,) and with additional indicators for gender equity and social responsiveness. The result also showed that higher numbers of indicators were found in integrated management, agroforestry systems, exclosure management, use of non-timber forest products, forage crop improvement, water harvesting, drip irrigation, river diversion, and promotion of low-carbon emitting animals. The study showed that CSA practices related to forestry and agroforestry management addressed the three pillars of CSA simultaneously. These indicators developed by experts and literature review can be used locally and globally since international system (SI) units are employed in their development. Although this study identified various indicators at practice/technology levels, further assessment is needed to identify result- and policy-level indicators of CSA practices/technologies in Ethiopia

Building climate resilience in rainfed landscapes needs more than good will

Rainfed smallholder farming is particularly vulnerable to climate change, which can greatly exacerbate existing poverty and livelihood challenges. Understanding the complexity of the systems that connect the environment, society and people can help us to reduce this vulnerability and increase the resilience of communities and households to climate perturbations. In recent years, resilience theory has proven a useful approach for exploring the complexity of development challenges. As a result, there has been an increase in the development of tools and frameworks for assessing resilience. Despite this increased focus, there is no consistent use of the resilience concept in development practice and little evidence as to the benefits of using the tools. This paper aims to bridge theory and practice by coupling research on resilience with its application in the international development field. The specific hypothesis we explore is if and how rural livelihoods build resilience toward increased climatic variability in already degraded agro-ecological landscapes? We present a resilience framework with indicators to assess the extent of community resilience to climate change through improved local agricultural production and natural resources management. Primary and secondary landscape and community data, together with development of participatory watershed action plans were used to populate 16 indicators in a resilience framework baseline for the two rainfed dominated watersheds in Ethiopia and Ghana respectively. Given community awareness of the challenges related to the watershed natural resources, local agriculture and extreme weather, the communities were very willing to develop action plans to improve their management of natural resources and build climate resilience. Nevertheless, our analysis of the watershed action plans revealed that strengthening resilience through local action alone, would likely not be sufficient to meet all climate -livelihood challenges identified. To address severity and recurrence of climate change related disturbances, such as droughts, floods and disease in poverty-affected rural communities, the capacity to improve resilience will depend on external factors, in addition to inherent action. New knowledge, infrastructure and social security mechanisms, including insurance and emergency assistance need to added to build resilience for poverty-affected communities in degraded watersheds. We conclude there are also challenges in the use of resilience framework for development and climate-action related to rural poverty affected and degraded livelihood systems. Populating complex social–environmental systems will also need further development, to understand progress in resilience building under changing climate. Special attention to systemic indicators that describe the coupling and interdependencies of social-ecosystem factors will be critical to take action

Exploring the potential of co-investments in land management in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Like in any other part of the country, land degradation resulting from water erosion and nutrient depletion is one of the most challenging problems for farmers in the Central Rift Valley (CRV) of Ethiopia. Nevertheless, investments in land management to reduce land degradation and increase agricultural production by smallholder farmers have been limited. In addition, public and private sector organizations have never collaborated to stimulate (investments in) land improvement. This study focuses on coinvestments, which are conceived as the collaboration of different stakeholders in land management in the form of material, labour, finance, technology, knowledge and governance. The overall aim of this study was to explore the potential of co-investments to foster land management and increase land productivity in the CRV of Ethiopia. Chapter 2 presents farmers’ perceptions of crop productivity and their strategies to cope with perceived changes in the CRV of |Ethiopia. It reveals that farmers perceive a decrease in crop productivity and food production over the last decades and that they blame a decline in rainfall for this. As a consequence, farmers apply different strategies to cope with, and adapt to perceived rainfall shortages and related expected yield losses. However, an analysis of rainfall data in the CRV shows that rainfall characteristics have not changed over the last three decades. Moreover, according to analysis of official data, crop productivity per hectare in the CRV even shows a slight increase over the last decade. Therefore, farmers’ perception of a decline in crop productivity and rainfall can be explained by i) the increased demand to grow more crops to feed the rapidly growing population, and ii) the lower moisture availability for plant growth as a consequence of more intensive farming (often on less suitable fields) and land degradation. The root causes of frequent food shortages are thus not only related to rainfall, but also to soil fertility decline, soil erosion and lack of rainwater storage in the soil. Current farmers’ strategies are, therefore, not adequate to cope with the increased food demand. There is an urgent need to invest in sustainable land management (SLM) practices that enhance local food production. Chapter 3 focuses on the farmers’ perception of land degradation (especially soil erosion and nutrient depletion) and their investments in land management. If farmers perceive land degradation as a problem, the chance that they invest in land management measures will be enhanced. Results reveal that land degradation in the form of water erosion and fertility depletion is a problem and has increased over the last decade in the CRV. Farmers are aware of it and consider it as a problem. Nevertheless, farmers’ investments to control water erosion and soil fertility depletion are very limited. Results also show that farmers’ awareness of both water erosion and soil fertility decline as a problem is not significantly associated with their investments in land management. Hence, even farmers who perceive land degradation on their fields and are concerned about its increase over the last decade, do not significantly invest more in water erosion and soil fertility control measures than farmers who do not perceive these phenomena. Chapter 4 is devoted to exploring the determents of farmers’ decisions how much and where to invest in land management. The study identified five major factors that influence farmers’ decisions how much to invest in land management. These include households’ resource endowments, farming experience and knowledge, access to information, social capital and availability of family labour. This result implies that extension strategies aiming at sustainable land management should try to enhance households’ resources endowments, improve their access to information and stimulate collective action in land management. Similarly, the study revealed the decisions of farmers’ where to invest in land management is influenced by the vulnerability, accessibility and fertility condition of their plots. Farmers were more willing to invest in plots that are vulnerable to water erosion, have better soil fertility and are larger. However, the influence of all these factors on farmers’ investments in land management was highly variable across the different study sites within the CRV. Hence, the diversity in social, economic, cultural and biophysical conditions must be taken into account by rural extension programmes. This calls for site-specific land management strategies that can be planned and implemented at micro-level with active participation of farmers. Chapter 5 deals with co-investments in land management. Lack of collaboration is a growing concern for the success of SLM in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, not only farmers but also public institutions and private sectors are hesitant to collaborate and invest in SLM. This study identified several major bottlenecks and requirements for co-investments by public institutions and private sectors. Nevertheless, the results varied across the administrative levels. As a result, macro level institutions did not acknowledge most of the bottlenecks and requirements reported by meso and micro level institutions. Therefore, a micro-mesomacro consensus is required to improve co-investments. Furthermore, most bottlenecks and requirements for public institutions were related to governance issues. This suggests the need to establish good governance at all levels in Ethiopia in order to improve co-investments in SLM. In addition to public institutions, private sectors identified major bottlenecks and requirements which are mostly related to economic issues. However, given the current socio-economic and political situation in Ethiopia, it is a long way to fulfilling the requirements proposed by public institutions and private sectors. This indicates that requirements should be fulfilled gradually and systematically for successful co-investments in SLM. Chapter 6 explores the potential of co-investments in land management for bringing change at the grassroot level in Ethiopia. First, this study explores the most important co-investment activities that trigger farmers to invest in land management based on a co-investment initiative in the Galessa watershed. Second, it assesses the impact of these co-investment activities on farmers’ investments in land management by comparing experimental (participant) and control (non-participant) groups of farmers using survey data. The case study revealed that the most important co-investment activities that triggered farmers to invest in land management include co-investments in awareness creation, water provision, technology and governance. Of these activities, co-investing in water provision is the most successful activity, because it directly solves one of the basic needs of farmers in the watershed. Results reveal that the experimental group of farmers invested more in land management practices, such as soil bunds, compost and tree planting, than the control group of farmers. The article concludes that multiple level coinvestment activities are crucial to trigger farmers to invest in land management in Ethiopia. Chapter 7 is a synthesis of previous chapters. It briefly summarizes answers to the research questions, describes the added value of the thesis in terms of knowledge generation and provides suggestions for further research and policy making. The synthesis indicates that although farmers are well aware of the land degradation problem, their investments in land management are not sufficient to reverse the situation. It also reveals that farmers’ investments are affected by highly diverse socio-economic and biophysical constraints. Moreover, public and private sectors are constrained by financial and governance factors and require several preconditions before actually investing in land management. Despite these constraints at micro, meso and macro institutional levels, this thesis shows that there is potential for coinvestments in SLM in Ethiopia. Exploiting this potential principally requires commitment of all stakeholders to co-invest in land management. </p

The effect of soil bunds on run-off, soil loss, soil moisture dynamics and crop yield in the Jawe-gumbura watershed, Ethiopia

United States Agency for International Developmen

Farmers' investments in land management practices in the CRV of Ethiopia

ABSTRACT In order to combat land degradation in the form of water erosion and fertility depletion in the Central Rift Valley (CRV) of Ethiopia farmers are of crucial importance. If they perceive land degradation as a problem they will be more willing to invest in land management measures. This study presents farmers’ perceptions of land degradation, respective investments, and factors influencing their investments in land. In this study, water erosion and fertility depletion are taken as main indicators of land degradation. Results show that farmers perceive water erosion and soil fertility depletion as problems that have intensified over the last decade. However, despite awareness of these problems, farmers’ investments to control soil erosion and soil fertility depletion are very limited. This study shows that the major factors that positively influence farmers’ investments in land management practices are households’ resource endowments, access to information, social capital and availability of family labor. For sustainable land management strategies this implies that these should (i) be integrated within a comprehensive rural development strategy that generates improvements of farmers’ livelihoods and their financial capacity, (ii) trigger social capital and create enabling conditions for farmers to participate in different groups, cross site visits and farmer-to-farmer experience sharing, and (iii) stimulate collective action within the villages in order to enhance access to labor which is crucial for carrying out land management practices. Key words: Land degradation, farmers’ investments, sustainable land management, socioeconomic factors, factor analysi

Economic and food security effects of small-scale irrigation technologies in Northern Ghana

Small-scale irrigation (SSI) technologies can be useful not only to increase crop productivity and income but also as a viable adaptation practice to climate variability. A farm simulation model (FARMSIM) and data from selected SSI technologies piloted in northern Ghana under the ‘Feed the Future-Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation’ (ILSSI) project were used to assess the economic feasibility of the SSI technologies and their potential to improve income and nutrition of smallholder farm households. Three dry season irrigated crops (onion, corchorus, amaranthus) grown under three agricultural water management regimes were analysed. Results show that adoption of the SSI technologies could increase the net farm profit by 154%–608% against the baseline depending on the ‘crop type - SSI technology’ combination. Nutrition levels also improved significantly as a result of the improvements in crop yields due to irrigation and use of complementary inputs. However, the results further reveal that the options that utilize capital-intensive SSI technologies such as solar-powered water pumps to grow high value cash crops are constrained by the high investment cost. Currently, farmers tend to choose low-cost SSI technologies such as a traditional watering-cans, which generate low economic returns. Improving access to credit or alternative financing schemes could mitigate the capital constraints and enable smallholders to gain more benefits from participating in market-oriented high-value irrigated productio