In Brief

Evidence from the ground shows that when strong rural organizations such as producer groups and cooperatives provide a full range of services to small producers, they are able to play a greater role in meeting a growing food demand on local, national and international markets. Indeed, a myriad of such institutional innovations from around the world are documented in this FAO case-study-based publication.

Nevertheless, to be able to provide a broad array of services to their members, organizations have to develop a dense network of relationships among small producers, between small-producer organizations and with markets actors and policy-makers.

The Syrian Arab Republic, like other countries of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, is a dry country that is prone to drought, with large areas of desert or semi-desert that are too fragile to be cultivated but will support grazing for a restricted number of livestock. These areas of ecological fragility, if overgrazed and poorly managed, can quickly become degraded and desertified and, in the worst case scenario, can eventually become biologically sterile. Good management of these resources is therefore critical to maintaining healthy ecosystems and the livelihoods that depend on them.

This report is the fruit of that endeavour and builds on efforts by IWMI, IFAD and many others to document and understand the impacts of PIM. 

Through the systematic review of 24 IFAD-funded PIM interventions and field observations from 5 project sites in the Asian region this study sheds new light on what works, where and why. 

Our study examines WUAs that have been created by IFAD projects and those which pre-date it’s interventions but are the main focus of capacity building or restructuring. 

L’accès qu’ont les agriculteurs aux ressources hydriques est déterminé par de nombreux facteurs. Le cadre politique national et les stratégies adoptées par le gouvernement ont, entre autres, un impact important sur l’accès à l’eau, et sur les projets et programmes qui travaillent dans ce domaine. Au fur et à mesure qu’évolue le contexte politique, il est donc nécessaire de revoir la mise en oeuvre de ces projets, en particulier ceux qui ont trait à la construction d’ouvrages hydrauliques, afin de s’assurer que l’environnement politique et stratégique reste adapté aux besoins locaux et permette la mise en place d’une gestion locale, durable et efficace de l’eau agricole.

The objective of this report is to identify, characterize, and evaluate best practices in smallholder private irrigation in West Africa. The report presents a comparative assessment of the smallholder private irrigation initiatives in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria. 

Issues discussed include: the potential and impacts of new technologies; the successes and challenges of different approaches to develop smallholder private irrigation (promotion of technologies, institutional arrangements, advisory and financial services, and environmental impact mitigation); and the lessons learned.