More than 67,000 poor farming families in the Sudan are being supported to develop the individual and institutional capacities they need to manage a traditional large-scale spate irrigation scheme. Spate irrigation diverts water to fields from rivers during peak floods. The water is silt-laden and fertilizes the soil while wetting the root zone.

Established in the 1920s for cotton production, the irrigation scheme declined in the 1970s. The management was fragmented and clientelist, there was a shift to subsistence crops, and recovery rates of water fees decreased. The traditional approach to rehabilitating such schemes focuses on infrastructure, but the new IFAD-supported Gash Sustainable Livelihoods Regeneration Project puts household livelihoods first.

Capacity development and institutional reforms ensure that all stakeholders are involved in decision-making. This is seen as key to the success of the project. Land and water reforms to help people gain more secure rights to land and water are developed based on existing local organizations. At the same time, these land and water users’ associations are strengthened to counter the strong tradition of supply-driven irrigation management. This is a major challenge to ensuring that farmers have land and water rights, and take responsibility for their own livelihoods.

Source: IFAD