Browsing by Author "Bizoza, Alfred"

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Supporting policy research to inform agricultural policy in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia - Irrigation and water use efficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa
(Gates Foundation, 2019) Kadigi, Reuben M.J.; Tesfay, Girmay; Bizoza, Alfred; Zinabou, Genet; Zilberman, David
Food production in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is almost entirely rain-fed with irrigation playing a minor role. This is unfortunate because wider use of the region’s ample water resources would give a substantial boost to production of food staples and high value export crops. Recognizing this, governments in SSA and donor agents have placed various levels of emphasis on irrigation development since the 1960s. Yet, there are many challenges that are already confronting irrigation development and that will become steadily more acute as population growth and climate change place added stresses on the available freshwater resources. These challenges include: the allocation of water across competing users and uses; the appropriate pricing of water resources; the efficient harvesting and utilization of water; along with a whole range of other management issues. To address these hurdles, some SSA governments have gone relatively far in decentralizing irrigation management, and encouraging the participation of private sector in new development and maintenance of irrigation systems. Other governments have continued to operate large and centrally managed command-and-control systems for water allocation. What has worked, what has not worked and why remains an important question to be answered, as it will help inform strategies for sustainable future management and utilization of water resources in SSA’s agricultural sector. This paper attempts to address this need by surveying past irrigation policy in the sub-continent, identifying the major challenges and hurdles encountered, and highlighting both successes and failures. An argument is made on the need to adopt more flexible and holistic approaches to governance of irrigation water, support farmer and private sector involvement in a move towards commercial agriculture, target irrigation investments where pay- offs are substantial and realistic, and contextualize irrigation as part of a larger policy package to improve agricultural productivity.