Irrigation and poverty alleviation: review of the empirical evidence

Irrigated farming, Poverty, Conflict, Participatory management, Farmer participation, Environmental effects, Asia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Can a change in cropping patterns produce water savings and social gains: A case study from the Fergana Valley, Central Asia

Abstract The study examines possible water savings by replacing alfalfa with winter wheat in the Fergana Valley, located upstream of the Syrdarya River in Central Asia. Agricultural reforms since the 1990s have promoted this change in cropping patterns in the Central Asian states to enhance food security and social benefits. The water use of alfalfa, winter wheat/fallow, and winter wheat/green gram (double cropping) systems is compared for high-deficit, low-deficit, and full irrigation scenarios using hydrological modeling with the HYDRUS-1D software package. Modeling results indicate that replacing alfalfa with winter wheat in the Fergana Valley released significant water resources, mainly by reducing productive crop transpiration when abandoning alfalfa in favor of alternative cropping systems. However, the winter wheat/fallow cropping system caused high evaporation losses from fallow land after harvesting of winter wheat. Double cropping (i.e., the cultivation of green gram as a short duration summer crop after winter wheat harvesting) reduced evaporation losses, enhanced crop output and hence food security, while generating water savings that make more water available for other productive uses. Beyond water savings, this paper also discusses the economic and social gains that double cropping produces for the public within a broader developmental context

Financing resource recovery and reuse in developing and emerging economies: enabling environment, financing sources and cost recovery

Resource recovery and reuse (RRR) of domestic and agro-industrial waste has the potential to contribute to a number of financial, socioeconomic and environmental benefits. However, despite these benefits and an increasing political will, there remain significant barriers to build the required up-front capital which is discouraging private sector engagement. A systematic analysis and understanding of the enabling environment, public and private funding sources, risk-sharing mechanisms and pathways for cost recovery can help to identify opportunities to improve the viability of RRR solutions. This report looks at regulations and policies that remove disincentives for RRR, public and private funding sources for capital and operational costs, risk mitigation options through blending and structuring finance, and options for operational cost recovery

Total Value of Phosphorus Recovery

Phosphorus (P) is a critical, geographically concentrated, nonrenewable resource necessary to support global food production. In excess (e.g., due to runoff or wastewater discharges), P is also a primary cause of eutrophication. To reconcile the simultaneous shortage and overabundance of P, lost P flows must be recovered and reused, alongside improvements in P-use efficiency. While this motivation is increasingly being recognized, little P recovery is practiced today, as recovered P generally cannot compete with the relatively low cost of mined P. Therefore, P is often captured to prevent its release into the environment without beneficial recovery and reuse. However, additional incentives for P recovery emerge when accounting for the total value of P recovery. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the range of benefits of recovering P from waste streams, i.e., the total value of recovering P. This approach accounts for P products, as well as other assets that are associated with P and can be recovered in parallel, such as energy, nitrogen, metals and minerals, and water. Additionally, P recovery provides valuable services to society and the environment by protecting and improving environmental quality, enhancing efficiency of waste treatment facilities, and improving food security and social equity. The needs to make P recovery a reality are also discussed, including business models, bottlenecks, and policy and education strategies

Economic viability analysis of agro-economic management of saline drainage

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report presents findings and lessons on salinity management technology and research that shows promise in Australia and Pakistan. The aim of the project was to evaluate the economic viability of salinity management at selected sites in Australia and Pakistan, using Serial Biological Concentration (SBC) of salts. The specific objectives were: • To critically evaluate existing salinity management options in Australia and Pakistan. • To determine the technical and economic viability of SBC in Australia and Pakistan, later amended to irrigating from shallow skimming wells in Pakistan, to reclaim abandoned land. • To link the economic analysis with the polluter pays principle, by demonstrating salt management options for public-private investment policy. The analysis focused on Box Creek (Murray Irrigation Area) in the southern Murray Darling Basin of Australia and Nabishah Bala in Chaj Doab (the area between the Jhelum and Chenab Rivers) which is an intensively developed and significantly productive irrigated area of the Indus Basin of Pakistan. SBC in this report has been considered as a saline water management tool for implementation either at the level of individual farms or at a community level within an irrigation area. The results show that SBC offers potential for salinity management in both countries. Its wide adoption requires further analysis on its economic viability on-farm, across a range of biophysical and economic conditions. SBC can be economically viable but the pay back period may be up to 20 years. Salinity credits may reduce the pay back period to below 12 years. Thus, agro-economic management of drainage may become a viable option, given appropriate policy support for productive use of drainage water in saline environments. The polluter pays principle in terms of 'salinity credits' has been used in this economic study to tackle the water salinity issue. In terms of salinity management, it is the amount of money the polluter is willing to pay for treating salt to minimise third party impacts or the acceptable return for treating salt. The application of a polluter pays principle, in terms of a salinity credit for treating a tonne of salt, may encourage public-private investment in salinity management. The study recommends: • Further research is needed to establish the economic and financial viability of SBC on a commercial basis. The concepts and lessons learned, however, are applicable to the management of salinity issues in arid and semi-arid regions. • Market based instruments which can encourage the sharing of salinity management responsibilities among farmers and regulation bodies need to be researched and converted into institutional mechanisms to foster public-private investments in salinity management