Presented by Dr. Jennie Barron of WLE on April 12, 2018 during the opening plenary for the International Forum on Solar Technologies for Small-scale Agriculture and Water Management at FAO headquarters in Rome. To learn more about the forum, read this Thrive blog piece: https://wle.cgiar.org/thrive/2018/04/23/here-comes-sun-solar-technology-agriculture
Three Points on why Solar Powered Irrigation can Happen for Smallholder Farmers
1. Three points on why solar-powered irrigation
can happen for smallholder farmers
Jennie BARRON ,
Professor Agricultural Water Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
LWS Flagship leader, CGIAR Research Program ‘Water, Land and Ecosystems’ (WLE)
2. WLE is global research-
for-development
program connecting
partners for agriculture
solutions that protect
people and our natural
resources
Land, soil &
ecosystems
Risks, tradeoffs
& ecosystems
Inclusivity
Connected thinking,
compelling solutions
Water &
ecosystems
3. CGIAR Research Program Water, Land and Ecosystems
(WLE) and solar powered irrigation for smallholders
Research for development in sustainable agricultural
intensification and poverty alleviation in Africa and Asia
WLE works in partnership with public and private sectors,
as well as practitioners from global to local scale
Solar powered irrigation for 5+ years, smallholder
irrigation development in 10+ years
On the ground experience in Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali ,
MENA) and Asia (India in Gujarat and Bihar)
Develop knowledge base for investment, policy and
practise, collaborate in piloting for learning
4. We don’t have a lot of ‘silver bullet’ solutions for
sustainable intensification and climate resilience…
Water management, incl.
irrigation, critical for
sustainable intensification
Water management
fundamental for smallholder
farmer income generation
and food security
Water management in
agriculture essential to
meet ecosystems targets
and climate resilience
5. Solar powered irrigation is a nexus opportunity for
smallholder farmers…if technologies work and are available
6. Are partnerships for piloting and development mobilising?
Systems approach for solutions demands multiple
actors and disciplines:
Human, institutional capacity to analyse and develop
Innovations, data and technology
Levelled market and policy arena
Wise (=best informed) investments by public, private
investors and IFIs
7. Thank you!
If you wish to take part in this conversation, please join us at https://wle.cgiar.org/
8. List of WLE material and contributions
Closas, A.;, Rap. E. 2017. Solar-based groundwater pumping for irrigation:
Sustainability, policies, and limitations. Energy Policy,104:33-37
Schmitter, P., Kibret, KS., Lefore, N.,Barron, J. 2018. Suitability mapping framework
for solar photovoltaic pumps for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa Applied
Geography, (online)
Otoo, M., Lefore, N., Schmitter, P., Barron, J., Gebregziabher, G. 2018. Business
model scenarios and suitability: smallholder solar pump-based irrigation in Ethiopia.
Agricultural Water Management Making a Business Case for
Smallholders. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
67p. (IWMI Research Report 172)
ITP work: http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/iwmi-tata/PDFs/iwmi-
tata_water_policy_research_highlight-issue_10_2016.pdf
ICIMOD work: https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/91410/retrieve
Hinweis der Redaktion
WLE’s offer
Important to make the point about commodity centres and value chains and links through to the private sect
Leverage CGIAR network across 71 countries
DO WE HAVE COST BENEFIT FOR THE THRE STAGES ?? Could add below image !!
We know that for many smallholder farming systems rainfall variability today and projected future is highly variable, undermining production , willingness to invets in additional production enhancing practises such as fertilisers, improved seed , mechanisation… Rainfed systems have limited options for improved intensification (area, labour input). Irrigation
Here these days to share experience and knowledge and hopefully advance existing and new partnerships for piloting scaling in development … needs knwodlege and adaptive approaches , and hence the new knowledge in learning will be essential to save time and effort
For example
Enabling scaling of soular technologies require well informed business- investments options : we will learn of this … data ..
Achieving equitable opportunities for also women youth and less wellsituated 8male ) farmers
- considering the environmental actual and potential impacts
tracjking co benefits in development ….
Sharing information and knwodlege for levelled market and policy arenas….
Sourcing funding …