Bjornlund, H and Parry, K and Rooyen, A V and Pittock, J (2025) Institutional and technological innovations for sustained change in smallholder irrigation schemes in southern and Eastern Africa. Agricultural Water Management (TSI), 309. pp. 1-13. ISSN 0378-3774
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Abstract
Water management systems must become more adaptable to alleviate projected shortfalls. Integrated socio-institutional and technological interventions are required to generate sustained change in irrigation water management and the profitability for smallholders and their schemes. We illustrate this by conducting an ex-post analysis of the ‘Transforming Irrigation in Southern Africa’ (TISA) project, which was implemented in two phases from 2013 to 17 and 2017–2023. The project introduced institutional and technological innovations to smallholder irrigation schemes in Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe: Agricultural Innovation Platforms as a participatory approach to engage farmers and stakeholders; and soil moisture monitoring tools to support farmer learning. We hypothesised that these innovations, despite differing socioeconomic and biophysical conditions in the three countries, would work synergistically to improve farmers’ adaptive capacity and generate sustained change. In this paper, we test our hypotheses through a synthesis of peer-reviewed TISA literature, focussing on four smallholder irrigation schemes and five factors identified in the literature as critical for increasing farmers’ adaptive capacity. Drawing predominantly on household surveys administered at the beginning, middle and end of the TISA project, we analyse a set of relevant indicators linked to the five factors. In addition to many changes, we found changes in irrigation management, including a reduction in total water use to less than half pre-TISA levels. Further, the changes were sustained when the schemes transitioned from an intensive research-for-development phase into a more operational phase. This research also shows that when governments listen to farming communities and revise institutional arrangements, such as water scheduling and scheme constitutions, this fosters more sustainable irrigated agriculture. We conclude that when initiating development projects for sustained change within smallholder irrigation schemes policy makers and donors must commit sufficient project time and funding for both a development phase and a transition to an operational phase. Programs must take a participatory approach and support multiple interventions including both socio-institutional and technological interventions.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Divisions: | Research Program : East & Southern Africa |
| CRP: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Smallholder irrigation, Southern Africa, Transitions, Participatory approaches, Complementary interventions |
| Subjects: | Others > Innovation Others > Smallholder Agriculture Others > Irrigation Others > Southern Africa |
| Depositing User: | Mr Nagaraju T |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Feb 2025 07:53 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Feb 2025 07:53 |
| URI: | http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/12982 |
| Official URL: | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/... |
| Projects: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Funders: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Acknowledgement: | This project was funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research through grants FSC/2013/006 and LWR/2016/ 137. We acknowledge the work done by the TISA team in data collection, analysis and paper writing, making this contribution possible. We are also thankful to four reviewers, especially the very detailed and thought-provoking comments that were provided. The revision process has significantly improved the clarity of the argument in the paper. |
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