AgWater Solutions Project

The result of the project will be a set of science-backed tools and recommendations that can be used by:

• Policymakers to develop policies and institutions that will encourage strategic public and private investments in small-scale agriculture to reduce poverty, hunger, and vulnerability to climate change.
• Donors to better target support; government agencies and NGOs working in agriculture, water and rural development to more effectively and sustainably design and implement programs; and
• Rural communities and small-scale farmers, women as well as men, to select and adopt the most suitable agricultural water management technologies and practices.

Project team

The project team is comprised of research, policy and implementation organizations—namely, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI, project lead), the International FoodPolicy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Development Enterprises (IDE), and CH2M HILL Inc. —supported by a project Steering Committee.

Project activities

The project is organized around four broad activities aimed at:

• Learning from literature (farm/community/watershed level).
• Learning from field experiences (at farm/community level).
• Learning through ex-post evaluation of interventions and ex-ante scenario development (at watershed level).
• Outscaling and strategizing (country & regional level).
• Synthesizing, disseminating and reaching out (generic findings).

Project outputs

The project will provide:

• Governments and donors with investment briefs to guide agricultural water management (AWM) interventions and increase the likelihood of effective implementation.
• Planners and implementers with tools to evaluate the economic, social and environmental impacts of AWM interventions.
• NGOs, communities and small-scale farmers with methods for selecting and applying appropriate AWM technologies.

Expected impacts

Within 5 years of its completion, the program will have helped 1 million smallholder farmers to increase their incomes and food security.

Within 15 years, the program’s findings will have benefited 65 million smallholder farmers.

Focal countries:
Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, and India.
Duration: 3 years, January 2009 – December 2011.