Scaling-up water management interventions for rainfed agriculture in the Ethiopian Highlands: status, issues, and opportunities

Getnet, M and Anantha, K H and Garg, K K and Barron, J and Amede, T (2023) Scaling-up water management interventions for rainfed agriculture in the Ethiopian Highlands: status, issues, and opportunities. In: Rainfed systems intensification and scaling of water and soil management: four case studies of development in family farming. Department of Soil and Environment, SLU, Uppsala, pp. 79-98. ISBN 978-91-8046-893-0

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Abstract

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa with more than 110 million people. The capacity to feed its rapidly growing population largely depends on rainfed agricultural production systems, in a range of agro climatic regions from arid and semiarid lowlands to temperate highlands. Agriculture is undermined by both severe land degradation and high inter- and intra-seasonal rainfall variability. As a result, the current average productivity of rainfed farming remains low (1.7 t ha-1 for pulses and 2.7 t ha-1 for cereals). This is despite a slow yield increase (e.g. about 1.5 t ha-1 for cereals and 1 t ha-1 for pulses) due to the introduction of new crop cultivars, fertilizers and management practices. Recognising the large yield gap in rainfed systems, the Ethiopian government has, since 1970, initiated a number of public welfare programs. These have involved various natural resource management programs with a special focus on agricultural water management (AWM) in Sustainable Land Management Projects (SLMP). SLMPs, centered around rainfed production systems, have been implemented to address land degradation, enhance crop and livestock productivity, and improve household incomes. Integrated resource management approaches have helped local communities obtain tangible benefits from AWM, and strengthened a number of ecosystem services, when compared to a sectoral approach. In the last 15 years, through SLMP 1 and 2, more than 2% of agricultural fields, and communal rainfed land, in Ethiopia, has been subject to AWM and sustainable land management. This has benefitted around 1.4 million households and supported environmental sustainability. Over 430,000 people have also benefited from related income generating activities. However, systematic data on various aspects of AWM is required to obtain a clear understanding of the overall impact of these interventions. This study proposes following a landscape approach, in order to realize the full potential of diverse AWM interventions, and a consortium approach to capacity building to achieve large scale, system level outcomes.

Item Type:	Book Section
Divisions:	Global Research Program - Resilient Farm and Food Systems
CRP:	UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Adoption soil, Climate resilience, Farming systems, Landscape, Rainfed agriculture, Scaling agricultural development, Soil and water management, Sustainable intensification, Water management, Water scarcity
Subjects:	Others > Rainfed Agriculture Others > Soil Others > Farming Systems Others > Climate Resilient Technologies
Depositing User:	Mr Nagaraju T
Date Deposited:	24 Nov 2023 05:56
Last Modified:	24 Nov 2023 05:56
URI:	http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/12311
Acknowledgement:	All five co-authors have followed developments in Paraná III for many years (e.g. see Photos 1, 2 and 3) and two of the co-authors (Ivo Mello and Glaucio Roloff) participated in the agricultural extension process to improve CA systems in the watershed within the Cultivando Agua Boa (CAB) strategy implemented by the IB authorities. During that period, Ivo Mello was the chairman of the Confederation of American Associations for the Production of Sustainable Agriculture (CAPAAS) and general secretary of the Brazilian No-Till Federation, or Federação Brasileira de Plantio Direto na Palha (FEBRAPDP), with Herbert Bartz as its President. Glaucio Roloff was professor at the University for Latin American Integration at Iguassu Falls, a government supported project initiated in 2007. The university doesn't aim to offer traditional careers, but instead new, integrative curricula with crosscutting issues related to environmental, economic and social development. Both he and Ivo Mello were physically co-located at the IB complex during the time when the strategy for land use improvement was being formulated and tested within the CAB program, and Amir Kassam (based at FAO, Rome, at that time), Francois Laurent (based at Le Mans University in France), and Emilio Gonzalez-Sanchez (based at Cordoba University) were visiting collaborators.
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