Since the first farmer-led irrigation event at the Water for Food International Forum in 2017, several countries and institutions have mainstreamed the farmer-led irrigation development approach into their Agricultural Water Management portfolio. Farmer-led irrigation holds the potential to build resilience of smallholder farming systems while supporting governments to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) in a changing climate.
Farmer-led irrigation development is a process in which farmers drive the establishment, improvement and expansion of irrigated agriculture, often in interaction with other actors. This concept shows a lower burden and a quicker return on public finance as the irrigation investment cost per hectare is generally lower since irrigation solutions related to the access and distribution of water are often less costly and smaller in scale, serving single or smaller groups of farmers. Furthermore, farmers use their own money to (re)invest into irrigation solutions, agricultural inputs and irrigation services and therefore co-finance irrigation development. The development of farmer-led irrigation can also reach a wider diversity of farming, empower women and respond to natural disasters like droughts or pandemics, making it an attractive solution for governments as part of national climate adaptation plans.
Farmer-led irrigation development has gained popularity in African policy circles, and as more development, research and implementing organizations get behind it, the question arises of what we have learned since 2017 and what it should look like in the future.
This session brings together development experts in research, policy and implementation to discuss how they envision farmer-led irrigation development in the future in order to effectively contribute to global food and nutritional goals by 2030.
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